“If you gonna sing a song about drinkin’ wine you might as well drink some wine”, 73-year old Seasick Steve says, gulping from the bottle and grinning his bearded wry smile. He takes a stroll down to the crowd, shaking hands with the front row people. Then, the blues starts rolling in and man it’s down low heavy, dirty, groovy! It’s time to shake, shiver and roll. Man, he is good! Together with a crazy drummer from Åmål, Sweden, and his self-made guitars, the feet stompin’ show owns the afternoon. He invites a girl upon stage for Walkin Man – beautiful and warm. Self Sufficient Man is hip as a snake tail in Desert City. Let’s keep on keepin’ on!
Annika Norlin
5/7
”The sound of a hug”
Photo: Annika Berglund
Annika Norlin aka Hello Saferide aka Säkert! got the tent of Linné all by herself on Saturday night. Well, not all by herself cause the circus room was totally packed with people who wanted to share her blue magic. Norlin has written some of the sadest songs I ever heard, and her presence both on record and on stage is plain beautiful to witness. Too bad the sound is scrubby and very low tuned, but the warm feeling takes over. It’s the sound of a hug. Thanks for the lyrics on the big screen on stage, I loved it, and too invite the audience to sit with her on stage – brilliant!
Robyn & Röyksopp
7/7
”A real star!”
Photo: Olle Kirchmeier
This is as good as it gets. Robyn has gone from great to the greatest. In my book, Robyn could be the only real superstar in Sweden right now. The way she performs, takes the stage, owns the audience. It is perfection in its core. The mix between swedish greatness and norwegian awesomeness, with Röyksopp and the outstanding Susanne Sundfør, just melts into a boiling pot of joy! We, the amazed audience, had no other way out than to dance this last act out, way out west.
The ragged, smelly Stay Out West-crowd entered the Opera house of Gothenburg and the rest is history. Kurt Vile made it a night for the ages. The Pennsylvania longhaired slacker dude slammed his guitar into bits and pieces, an absolute epic display that bubbled into cosmos and back. Divine, heartwarming, bone-chilling. The crisp and pitch perfect sound of the opera chamber made the Vile night almighty justice.
Conor Oberst
5/7
”Up for the fight”
Photo: Olle Kirchmeier
All the way from Omaha Nebraska…Mr Oberst in his wide-brimmed hat. Behind him, folk-rocker band Dawes, and the front man is up for the fight. The combo Dawes+Conor is a perfect match and I sure hope they stay together. Oberst sits down at the keyboard, he spins and turns with his acoustic guitar, and beautiful Americana songs as Zigzagging Towards the Light and Artifact #1 gets under our skin.
I Break Horses
6/7
”dark and powerful”
When Maria Lindén enters the dark stage @ GBG Filmstudios, the anticipation is super high. Wearing a veil she delivers just what everyone came for. A dark and powerful night of sounds and vocals that seem to be close to perfection. Only some technical errors seems to bother the singer. No one else hears any errors, just magic. I will keep this night close to me for a long time.
Lemmy Kilmister has had a rough ride. You can tell by looking at the man. He gets upon stage with local boy Mikkey Dee on drums and guitar-man Phil Campbell in a BK Häcken-shirt (give the guy a GAIS-shirt for crying out loud!) and the gig is on. We get Killed By Death and Ace Of Spades and Lemmy sings his weary tunes and raffles the bass guitar. The trio knows what to do, they have been on this highway forever, and deliver the goods. No more, no less.
The National
4/7
”Very lukewarm”
Photo: Annika Berglund
The National never takes off this night in Slottsskogen. They got stuck at the mellow point and can´t crack us down. It´s all very lukewarm. Singer Matt Berninger got his deep beautiful voice but the band isn’t delivering headliner-goods. Songs I Need My Girl and Fake Empire hits us hard, but we want more. More emotions! I want a night to remember, but The National wont give. When Berninger gets into the crowd in the end with the world longest cord it’s absolutely lovely, but too little and too late.
Queens of the Stone Age
7/7
”Pure dynamite”
Photo: Olle Kirchmeier
QOTSA are amazingly powerful tonite. What a bumper tornado ride! Josh Homme is a monster on stage; one second a rock’n’roll god and the other a disco queen. They start of with hits as No One Knows and follows up with Go With The Flow and If I Had A Tail and Monsters In The Parasol and I Sat By The Ocean and The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret and I can go on and on and on. Jack White, Deer Tick, Foo Fighters and other great bands take their dig at classic rock. This night is all of the above, pure dynamite!
Tomorrow hell breaks loose in our home town of Gothenburg, Sweden.
• We sure look forward hanging out with the fine young men of Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires:
• Or with the legend-AAAARY dude Seasick Steve:
• Or the airy sweetness of Kurt Vile:
Wonderful stuff as Conor Oberst, Motörhead, Queens of the Stone Age, Bo Ningen, Neko Case, Bill Callahan and Broken Twin are ahead. Giddyup, Way Out West.
• Joel Borg is the ear on every street. He´s the talk of the town, the shit of the fan, the mojo of hobos. He’s also on of the whizz kids behind Way Out West and we got a minute of his time.
1. Thursday is close. What’u doing up til then?
– I’m in Stockholm today. We’re having Neil Young, GOAT, Magic Numbers, Seun Kuti and more today at Stockholm Music & Arts. Will be super. The sun is shining and the beer is cold, says Joel Borg.
2. Any personal favorite bookings this year?
– Mac DeMarco, The Growlers, Mos Def and Darkside, Elliphant, The Horrors, Holograms, Hurula, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Kurt Vile, Les Big Byrd, Södra Sverige, MÖ, OutKast and like 100 others. Also, the film programme is fucking ace.
3. We are really looking forward to Friday night, Broken Twin and Kurt Vile tearing down the opera house of Gothenburg. Thoughts on the operetto gigs?
– Yes. Me too. We love challenging peoples thoughts. And we love having artists in forums/venues they might not play in everyday. But maybe mostly, having people over at places they never been to before. The Opera House is right in the center of the City but I can almost promise you most of the Way Out West audience that will be at Kurt Vile next week have probably never seen anything there before.
—
• Thanks to brother Joel – and check out one of his fav WOW-bands this year below. The Growlers is a Cali-band with that funky cool garage/psych-vibe we adore. Try the song Humdrum Blues and go see them Friday nite at 23.45 @ Stay Out West.
One of our favorite bands of all times are letting some of their magic hit the streets tomorrow, june 6th. Great Western Valkyrie, the new album is very much longed for.
Rival Sons just played in Stockholm a few nights ago, supporting Aerosmith… But will return in august to play @ Storsjöyran… Will they magically appear in Slottskogen also?
Wanna hear this masterpiece today? Just press that little beautiful triangle… And enjoy!
This summer, the town of Gothenburg is once again blessed with the greatest festival we have ever seen. Way Out West will make this city glow in august.
One of the great acts that will give the festival its golden shimmer is Nicole Sabouné, who with her debut album ”Must Exist” has Kentuckyseven on our knees. The music sounds like it is meant to be played on stage in front of screaming music lovers. We will certainly be there.
Listen to this marvelous piece and close your eyes and picture yourself in front of the stage… at Stay Out West, in August.
Today, Way Out West released their first couple of artist for the August event in Slottsskogen. Kentuckyseven are happy to see the oldie-goldies of Neutral Milk Hotel in the headlines. Let´s celebrate this Friday with their beautiful song Oh Sister. Love to you all.
It´s all over, baby blue. Way out West deliveres year after year, it´s like an old shoe that fits better for every step we take. Thank you for the music!
On the last day Phosphorescent (check the vid below – love this guy), Iris DeMent (country-gospel-school-church-dirt-boots, perfect tent stuff) Goat (what a smoking rocknroll show) swept us of our feet. The ending with Alicia Keys was as powerful as a holy mighty powerballad back in the days. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
