Midsummer

Midsummer happened at this year’s Copenhell-festival. I can tell you exactly when, but to honor the beginning, it was already a fine day, Saturday the 20th of June. I got up, the sun was shining, I was with some good friends whom I see far too rarely, and we were going to have a party. Furthermore, when we got to Refshaleøen [an island in the harbor of Copenhagen] in the middle of the afternoon, it was tidy and this even though it was the last day of the festival. The toilets were clean and there were rows of them, the food you could buy was both plenty and tasty. There was even freshly pressed orange juice with vodka (which I drank) and vegetarian dishes (which I ate). In general, a place with a very nice atmosphere and the people there, laidback and having a good time, the music was great. I too was laidback and interested.

Then Gojira. The sound hit my consciousness from the very first aggressive beats, in the same way my body hits water and cold on the first swim of the year, as a gasp that fills the lungs with air and in a nanosecond let the consciousness slip from being entertained to being wide awake. I believe I half turned to my friend Fiske under the first song and gave her a ‘wow-you were-right-when-you-said-we-should-listen-to-them’ smile. Otherwise I was caught by the sound-images, half floating away on some strain of thought, but at the same time held back by the NOW HERE of the music. The wind took the words from the songs, but even if their content became obscure, the energy roared through the wind barrier from the voice of the lead singer, from drums, bass and guitars. It resonated through the ground though my feet, through vibrations in the podium I leaned against, my friends, the others-audience, in the air, and in my blood so every cell was assured that I-we stood in the stream of a furious wild energy, and this is when it rather seemed as if the gates to midsummer evaporated. The summerland reopened.

It was an amazing musical experience from the beginning to the end. I mean magical. The music stood its ground. I believe this kind of wild music is meant to be played in the middle of the year, the summer demands the roaring, shouting, howling life, when the light reach Zenith, it demands more. And to those, who might think that the written is perhaps a little to metaphysical, and that I technically speaking is a couple of days earlier than the official celebrations in Scandinavia, I need only to add, that there was a fire that night! (And rainbow(s)!)

[Endgame: Even though my instantaneous love for the music was disengaged from the meaning of the lyrics, I of course could not leave it at that, so I went to a music store the following Monday. I discovered that the first song I listened to was “Ocean Planet”. It is from the album “From Mars to Sirius – 2005”. Then there is also ”L’enfant sauvage” from the album with the same name (2012) and lots, lots of others. Nice.]

[No excuses: But I had never heard Gojira beforehand] [And no misdirections:  1) I am music stupid and do not listen to music that often. 2) I love music, but it makes noise, when I am not listening to it!]

[Snapshots was taken with a HTC One X. Thanks to Prinsib for the pictures!]

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