The festival Way Out West in Göteborg is a festival that always give me mixed emotions. Some years it is the greatest festival in the world and some years it's only confusing.

2012 was not one of the great years for me. The early bookings was very promising with bands like Refused and Florence and the Machine. But much of the later bookings was either not my cup of tea or proved to be a bit disapointing.

One of the acts I had hopes for was oldschool rappers De la Soul. Sadly they seemed very old and tired. They had almost turned into a parody and could have shared the stage with Markoolio that day.

Bands like First Aid Kit and Laleh delivered great performances, but lacks any kind of edge and prescence to make it interesting.

The two main stages has faults when the most popular bands performs. It's hard to see anything from the back and the construction for the mixing space is very obstructing.

But there was also some highlights during the 2012 edition of WOW.

Refused did a really energetic and cool performance. They really seemed to enjoy themselfs and I finally had a chance to see them perform. Enjoyed every minute of it.

Florence and the Machine also did good and delivered a nice show. And what a voice she has...

I also had a very good time at Annedalskyrkan (a church) on thursday with Purity Ring and Mazzy Star. Purity Ring was a new acquaintance. They played a nice set with lots of cool lightning. Always fun to find new bands to check out further.

Mazzy Star was very dreamy and ambient. There music was very fitting in the church and they choose to perform with almost no lighting. It was very nice just to close the eyes and really listen to beautiful music.

2012 headliners was Kraftwerk. I will probably upset all my friends and peers now by saying that I thought they where really boring. Their music is magical and they sound great, but their performance is crap. I know that part of the idea of Kraftwerk is anti-rock; but if a part of rock is about having fun and beeing entertaining; then anti-rock becomes just boring.

For me any performance is a meeting between performer and audience and an exchange of energy. If the performing part refuses to take part in this exchange it kind of dies. Sure the minimalistic stageing, the lighting and projections is very nicely done... but it also gets very repetative and dull after a couple of songs.

And 3D effects??? Kiss tried this back in 1998 during the Psycho Circus tour. If Kiss have tried something and later thought it a bad idea, it's probably a good idea to not go there. I never wanna have to wear 3D goggles at a concert again!

To sum it up, 2012 was not a great year for Way Out West. Adding a third day could have been a good idea if they had booked more interesting bands, this year it only made the program feel watered.

Alice played in Göteborg in august at Liseberg. Liseberg is an amusement park and the perfect setting for Alice's show.

The show was a classic Alice Cooper show with focus on the many classic songs from the 70's and early 80's.

What once was on the edge and shocking is today only entertaining. The make-up, leather, blood, snake and guillotine only make you smile. Looking at the audience, noticing the mix in ages raging from early teens to senior citizens, you really get the feeling that Alice 2012 is wholesome family entertainment.

The only time I have an reaction other then smiles and joy is during the song Cold Ethyl, where Alice gets abusive with a female doll. Although I know that the song is a very toung-in-cheek song about necrophilia and keeping a lover in the fridge, it's hard to not read in violence against women in the act. But at the same time, I am happy that I still can get something that feels a bit provocative from the show.

The band is almost identical from the last tour a few years back. They are really tight, and the young musicians brings alot of good energy to the music. I havent heard Alice sounding this good since the trash-tour in 1989. The band even nailed the hard to sing harmonics in Poison.

My favorite songs is as allways the old classics like 18, Is it my body, Under my wheels and Muscle of love. It's also really cool that they do Feed my Frankenstein, with a really large Alice-monster stomping on stage.

Even if Alice Cooper is pretty harmless and more of a Las Vegas halloween show these days, it's really entertaining and the music is some of the best rock songs ever written. I only wish that the show felt less safe and less coreographed. Alice's every move seems as a pose, but maybee a whole life playing rock'n'roll does that to you. And what I really love about Alice is that she really gives the audience what they wish for.

There are a couple of things that make this festival very special, and hopefully trendsetting for festivals in the future. After a couple of years with debates on precentage of women performing on festivlas (most agreeing that the number is to low) and some festivals trying to quota women (without succeeding), festival generals saying that there are not enough interesting women preformers to choose from and a few festivals that don't give a fuck.

Then it's very nice to have a festival that don't talk but do. Women performers on more then 70% of the spots. But not only is the festival largly represented by women, they are also older women like Patti Smith, Marianne Faithful, Emmylou Harris and Buffy Sainte-Marie; all with careers starting in the 70's. And it worked like a charm, with three sold out days at Skeppsholmen in Stockholm.

Sadly I missed about half the festival. I arrived late on the first day, and skipped saturday due to the Pride festival, and the fact that I had a chance to catch the most interesting performers from saturday at the Way Out West-festival the following weekend.

I am happy to have seen Patti Smith perform. I'm not a huge fan of her music, but I am aware of her importance in rock history. She's a very cool lady and a very good performer. Highlights were Because the night and a really vibrant take on Van Morrison's Gloria.

Then came Antony (and the Johnsons) with Sveriges Radios Symphony Orchestra. An amazing voice and performance that gave the night a perfect and magic ending. It was beautiful and Antony was in a good mood and seemed to enjoy to end his summer tour in Stockholm. Loved to hear Cripple and the starfish and his version of Beyoncés Crazy in love.

More about Stockholm music and Arts in Part 2.

I'm really starting to like Liseberg as a venue. The big stage worked very well for a artist like Lenny Kravitz, and now I am really looking forward to see Alice Cooper on the same stage later this summer.

I had no expectations other then to hearAre you gonna go my way this evening. After releasing a new album, Black and white America as late as last year, I thought he would mostly play songs from that album and maybee a handful of his earlier hits.

Boy was I wrong. I think Lenny played every hit he have had during his 20+ year career. And I was impressed with how many excellent song he have written since the debut with Let love rule back in 1989.

The hits just came blazing of the stage, delivered by a very tight and super competent band; Always on the run, Mr Cab driver, American woman, It ain't over 'til it's over, Fields of joy, Stand by my woman... to name a few.

There was a couple of songs from the new album, Rock star city light and the title track Black and white America that worked really well in the set.

And at the end we got a kick ass version of Are you gonna go my way and a spectacular encore with Let love rule with a pretty funky jam in the middle lasting a good 15+ minutes.

Lenny Kravitz live at Liseberg in Göteborg, Sweden.
2012-06-13


Video by MCruee 73

It was nostalgia that brought me to Liseberg (amusement park in Göteborg) to see Sator again. For me Sator is all about memories from the Hultsfredfestivalen in the early 90's. They always played that festival then, and I especially remember the concert from 1991 when they shared the stage with Thåström.

I had rather low expectations heading to Liseberg. The venue was at a small outdoor stage called Taubescenen where you have to be seated on wooden benches. Early evening with the sun still shining, cold winds and a sitting audience is not the ultimate conditions for rock'n'roll. But these conditions did'nt seeem to bother the band at all.

Sator entered the stage and owned it from the first distorted chord. They were very generous mostly playing their older and most popular songs. The music is really straight forward punk with pop meoldies in the same tradition as The Ramones. They don't make any secret of their influences and even played their Ramones-tribute Goodbye Joey.

They played a few of their new songs and one that stuck in my memory was When you lie down with dogs. My favorites are their early stuff and songs like Gammma gamma hey and Pigvalley beach was really nice to hear again. But also the songs from their most succesful album Headquake worked really well, like Rather drink then talk and Slug it out. The song I wanna go home got the best reactions from the audience.

Really loved the fact that the band still were really good on stage. It did'nt feel at all as nostalgia. This is still a band that love their music and seems to have a really good time together. Kent and Chips are excellent frontmen and basist Heikki Kiviaho is really doing his best to entartain this evening. Thanx for a really good show.

Garbage is back with a new album after a six year hiatus. The album Not your kind of people is 15 new tracks of guitar oriented pop/rock mixed with alot of electronic noises and the cool voice of Shirley Manson. Alot of papers in sweden has been rather mellow in their reviews of this labum due to the fact that it has a 90's sound and lacks relevance in 2012. Rather strange thinking to me.

For us who like Garbage (the first album is one of my all time favorites) it would be strange if they came back and sounded like something else. I love the fact that the new album still sounds like Garbage.

More importantly is that many of the new songs are really good, and even if there might not be a new Only happy when it rains or Stupid girl on the album I rate this as their second best album as a whole.

My favorite tracks are Automatic systematic habit, I hate love, Battle in me and Man on a wire. Verry happy 'bout that one of my favorite bands from the 90's making a comeback with a album that seems to be about a little bit more than just rekindle the memory of their older stuff.