|04-NOV-2015|  I baked a pumpkin spice cake this morning and delivered it to our friends at Lucky Records. Roamed town for a while before meeting up with the guys at the apartment for a lunch plan. Hit BurgerJoint in the Old Harbor then beers at Slippbarinn – in other words, the “usual”. 🙂

Kicked around the apartment before heading to Bar 11 to see Elin Helena, a punkish band. Waited around outside up to the 3pm start only to be told we needed to go in the back entrance and head downstairs.  Guh – the downstairs of Bar 11 is nasty: it’s where the physical incarnation of body odor lives. The band playing was *not* punk and, as it turns out, was also not Elin Helena but Vara. Love those last minute, unofficial changes. Anyway, they weren’t bad, just not what we went to see.

After dinner we went to nearby 12 Tonar, a small record shop (though a big label in Iceland) to see President Bongo. We arrived just as the previous band wrapped up and the crowd coming out was like a clown car – I have no idea how they packed so many people in such a small space. We were worried about getting inside for President Bongo, but that was not a problem.

We posted up at NASA tonight for on-venue.  NASA is the venue where we saw our first Airwaves show at in 2009, and many more through 2011. Until Harpa opened, NASA was the largest venue on the Airwaves schedule, hosting the hottest bands. The property was purchased by a real estate developer in 2012 for a new hotel (like Reykjavik needs another hotel) and has sat dormant since then. We were very excited to hear that the Airwaves crew had secured it for the festival this year. It underwent some quick renovations in preparation for tonight’s opening – so much so that the smell of fresh paint still hung in the air. But it looked fantastic – sooooo good to be back at NASA. Every performer tonight commented on it too – the venue means so much to the music scene here.

Pleepleus is sharing some of Seattle’s favorite fall flavors with our friends in Iceland: Pumpkin Spice Cake with cream cheese frosting. I brought the ingredients from home then baked it in what is basically a toaster oven. Pumpkin is a novelty here and it pairs well with the never-ending river of coffee being served at Lucky Records. 🙂

The apartment smells soooo good now!

When I say “DJ set” you probably don’t envision electronics set up on a hard case, chair and piano bench. This is the legendary President Bongo (of GusGus) playing some tracks from his new release “Serengeti”.

When he finished the set, he looked up from the equipment and just grinned and nodded at the 20 or so people who’d come to 12 Tonar to watch.

Then his phone rang …

Royal, the electro-pop collaboration of multi-instrumentalist Borko and electronics guru Futuregrapher.  It was fantastic! We saw Futuregraher last year at the bookstore doing a very low-key un-DJ-like set but he’s legit – winding the crowd up and down, then giving them the big break … between his awkward dance moves, and cheese grins to the crowd, he had everyone anxiously awaiting his next beat. Looking forward to the album from these guys next year.

 Halleluwah.  We’ve seen them once before and they are a treat.  Very loungy, film noir.  The singer, Rakel, is stunning and captivating to watch.  Solvi, a producer and hip-hop artist himself, pens the perfect songs for her and everything just works. She mentioned how thrilled they were to be playing the opening night of Nasa, shared some memories, and that nostalgia for the venure really showed n her performance.

Gisli Palmi and the Glacier Mafia. Hip-hop in a very stereotypical kind of way. Gisli is obviously a showman though; he didn’t stop moving the entire set. One of the Glacier Mafia, once finally engaged in the show was also quite good, the other two were obviously drunk. In fact, one never touched a mic, but I did count three cans of beer.

Gisli’s current international claim-to-fame is for punching out Bam Margera (of Jackass) earlier this year at a festival here in Iceland.Hey, a media impression is a media impression, no?

Which brings us to party band, Retro Stefson. We saw them early on in our Airwaves adventures, 2010, and several times in years since. After a slow start tonight they pulled it together and got the audience worked up in no time. They’ve added electronics genius Hermigervill to the mix, adding beats that really only a DJ can produce even though they do already have two keyboards in the mix.

Dance contest, crowd-surfing …

All in a night’s work for Retro Stefson!