Markus Larsson: Hard to imagine that Bruce Dickinson would make an entrance in an armored vehicle
The concert summer has begun.
It contains quite a lot.
But without Way Out West, it would have been on a respirator.
The Swedish concert summer is a tale of two festivals.
One, Sweden Rock, starts the season at the beginning of June. The other, Way Out West, is, as usual, the obvious finale in August.
The festivals in question are so different that they can most simply be described as each other’s opposites.
Sweden Rock is nostalgia, hard rock, camping, countryside, the Swedish national anthem, military aircraft and meat. Way Out West is here and now, an urban Stockholm week in Gothenburg, hotel breakfast, a more varied multiculturalism, a fresher genre mix and vegetarian food.
At Way Out West, it’s hard to imagine that Bruce Dickinson would make an entrance in an armored vehicle. It’s as unlikely as Sweden Rock would ban wild boar kebabs or sound Ezra Collective start the party with a secret gig. Incidentally, the party in Sölvesborg is beginning to resemble an advertisement for the armed forces. In social media, people are rejoicing that the Jas Gripen is flying over the area. And that, in case anyone was wondering, is as far from rock’s basic idea as you can get.
Sweden Rock and Way Out West give a very clear picture of the old and the new Sweden. But at least both have some kind of soul.
There should be room for other festivals between the two extremes, something that can be started at the grassroots level and slowly grow. Sure, there are alternatives. But old city festivals mostly present artists that you can basically see all year round elsewhere, and the Rosendal Garden Party in Stockholm is a nice local revue for aging DN subscribers. Other initiatives often become small, one-dimensional and predictable. Aimed at people who don’t give a damn about taste or what the music says about one’s personality.
Way Out West doesn’t just have a lavishly rich program this year. No other festival in Sweden offers its audience the chance to discover something new, unknown and obscure to such a high extent.
The last is more important than ever considering that Spotify has become a nostalgia machine where old music parks the walker and chases away new ones. At the time of writing is for example Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” the second most streamed song globally. It was released in 1982.
Festivals are a fresh commodity. Both Sweden Rock and Way Out West have different problems.
How is it, for example, with the regrowth of big and classic hard rock bands? Should they be replaced by Yodel with Siv and, um, Magnus Owl?
In order to finance its schedule, Way Out West in turn must sell more tickets and squeeze more people into an area that cannot grow. The reports from last year were mostly about massive congestion and long queues.
It will be crowded again this year. Don’t be surprised if Slottsskogen makes the Danish giant Roskilde feel like a breezy picnic in the park.
Larsson’s top three
1. “You Only See the Light in Me” (song, Terra)
It pays to listen clearly to the group’s new album “Musik för alla”. At the very end, a truly brilliant and rumbling anthem unfolds. There is nothing to add after “You only see the light in me”. It might be their best song yet.
2. “Våldsvågen” (song, Civil Police)
There are rumors that Civil Police have been asked to write an unofficial World Cup song. If that had happened, it would of course have turned Tomas Stenström, the company, Brandsta City Släckers and new versions of “When we dig gold in the USA” yellow and blue.
3. “Middle of nowhere” (album, Kacey Musgraves)
There is delicious country. The present is just wrongly angled. It highlights names that are streamed the most. In nine cases out of ten, they are as interesting and alive as AI-generated football songs. However, Kacey Musgrave’s latest album deserves three special episodes in “P4 country”.
