|05-NOV-2015| Got to bed at 2:30am but couldn’t sleep past 9am. We kicked around the apartment for a while listening to the rain and noshing hot ham and cheese breakfast toast. Since the weather couldn’t make up its mind, we decided to head out – it’s Iceland, we’ve seen this movie before.  Not 10 steps out the door the rain lightened up for a while and the wind kicked in.  Bring it.

Our “agenda” was to visit the Wall Poetry 2015 street art locations, but first coffee. Takeaway lattes in hand, the rain and wind in our faces, we set off.

Took a break for lunch and were treated to a beautiful rainbow over the harbor. This crazy weather does have its upside.

Between lunch and dinner we caught some of the showcase by Lady Boy Records, split for dinner (Noodle Station) then went back to see russian.girls.

We posted up at NASA again because it was a solid line-up of bands we know or wanted to see including the legendary Bubbi Morthens and HAM. Awesome night – this is our 32nd night of Airwaves shows and we all concluded that this was the best night of bands, top to bottom, that we’ve ever seen. Wow.  The guys love HAM, but we also all agreed that the night went to Bubbi who absolutely blew us away with his aggressive, active and extremely tight 30 minute set.

Wrapped up the night with hot dogs – line was tolerable and no rain. Thursday is the last night it’s reasonable; Friday and Saturday, and to some extent even Sunday, the line is a train wreck of drunks anytime after 11pm.

Where do you go to get takeaway coffee when you’re starting out on a rainy art walk? Why Dunkin’ Donuts, of course.

Now before you groan about “eat local”, may I remind you that we don’t have this iconic American chain on the west coast, so it is novelty.

Latte? Check.

Ready to tackle the art walk.

Reykjavik is no stranger to elaborate urban artwork. Some incredible designs used to grace the perimeter facades of the skate park, but alas the skate park was demolished for another hotel.  However, there is no lack of artwork here and it’s one of my favorite things to photograph in any city we visit.

Wall Poetry 2015 is a collaboration of international urban artists carefully paired with Airwaves musicians who provided a general “theme” for the artists’ work through a song, lyrics or poetry. To up the ante, the collaboration and subsequent execution of the art took place over just 14 days. The results can be seen around the city and we enjoyed them (weather aside) on our art walk today.

Since one mural is in the Old Harbor we stopped in at Slippbarinn for lunch. Now, I know you’re thinking “you were just there yesterday”, and yes, that is true but we didn’t eat. The lunch menu here is excellent and we selected several plates to share.  The guys had Slippbarinn’s ‘Airtail 2015’ cocktail – a crazy concoction with the local schnapps Brennivin.  Tasty, but weird. Slippbarinn is home of “world famous in Iceland” cocktails and this was no exception.

Despite its relative location to the Arctic Circle, Icelanders love ice cream. When we walked by this little gem in the Old Harbor, I had to check it out. I selected pistachio in a waffle cone, but the mango (with actual mango chunks) was very, very tempting. It wasn’t raining at the moment, but it was pretty windy. Somehow I managed to keep my hair out of the ice cream … the Universe likes me today.

Popped down the street to catch some of the Lady Boy Records showcase at Mengi, a stripped down gallery that was the perfect setting for their ambient and experimental electronic sounds.

Our mission was to catch russian.girls which is actually an Icelandic dude – half of the one of the first bands we ever saw at Airwaves, Captain Fufanu, and plays the guitar for the current incarnation, Fufanu.

russian.girls is a solo project and it’s excellent. Not exciting to watch, be the music is good. 🙂

Cafe Babalu never disappoints – cappuccinos, chocolate cake and apple crumble.

Let’s not discuss today’s caloric intake ….

Bubbi Morthens is the OG for the Icelandic punk scene. When we saw him on the schedule with Dimma we knew we had to catch their set at NASA.  Turns out it was the musicians from Dimma, the vocals were all Bubbi. And he killed it. KILLED IT. Dude rocked. The band rocked. The crowd rocked. Definitely a Top-5 Airwaves performance for us.

Operators seemed like an odd pick to sandwich between Bubbi and Ham but I was keen to see them. This is the latest project of Dan Boeckner  – Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits. It’s tough to describe – aggressive, electronic rock? Heavy beats, lots of synth. Good stuff! They had the crowd rocking and dancing in no time.

HAM had some tough acts to follow – Bubbi and Operators were SOLID. But, we are HAM.  Dude there in the fresh, beige 70’s pant suit … yeah, he’s a current  member of the Icelandic parliament.  That’s how they roll here.

HAM rocked hard. The crowd was pretty wound up, but the mosh didn’t break out until the final song.  Hair was whipped, horns were pumped in the air ….

We are HAM!

2:33am – signing off from day 2 of the Festival.