Tivoli’s Friday Rock concerts have marked the opening of the famous amusement park for seventeen years, and this year, for the second time, they also opened their gates for their Friday Rock Festival last week. The day offered music across six stages from 14:30 to midnight, consisting entirely of upcoming bands. To host even more concerts, the inventive team behind the festival thought outside the box and turned the bumper cars and even the fun house Skærsilden into stages. Props for the creativity.
With only upcoming bands performing, I feared that it would be a bit boring as I didn’t know any lyrics or tunes, but it turned out to be a really fun day with lots of promising bands. I especially saw a future in the Danish band Odd Collection, who were indeed an odd collection of three young guys. It seemed like they couldn’t quite agree on their genre or they all just wrote their own music and put it together. The singer – who I must add had a mesmerising voice – seemed to pep up the band with his clear vocals and affectionate lyrics, while the DJ sounded like someone playing at a rave party. But somehow, it worked.
Another odd band was The White Album, a group of death-metal-looking men with beards that could make Harry Potter’s Hagrid jealous. I was quite surprised when they started singing soft rock, and at one point told the audience to picture them as elves in leotards and tulle skirts, playing flutes in the forest. Oh dear, you should have been in my head then! (It was very disturbing.)
They were very weird indeed, but not as strange as Norwegian band Death by Unga Bunga, which reminded me of the peculiar Kaizers Orchestra from the same country. They went completely mental on and off the stage as the lead singer got on the floor and disappeared in the crowd for some time. He was shirtless, and rocked a bowl cut similar to that of Spock from Star Trek. It was suitable for a small stage at the Roskilde Festival, which I imagine they would take by storm. I had just eaten a big portion of the Danish stew skipperlabskovs (which you must enjoy at Tivoli’s restaurant Grøften – it’s tradition) before the concert, but I definitely danced off the calories at this crazy concert.
Other artists likely to make it onto people’s iPods are the Danish rappers Benjamin Kissi and TopGunn. The latter sounded a lot, however, like something Klumben and Raske Penge have already done. But considering how popular they are, there must be a demand for fun and frivolous songs.
Overall Tivoli planned a really fun day with plenty of upcoming bands, such as Stoffer & Maskinen, So-So Echo, Beastie Respond and Kostcirkeln, some of which I am sure we will see more of in the near future. Who knows, maybe some of them will even step onto the great Orange Stage at the Roskilde Festival some day.
