While I was gone having a ball in Gothenburg this weekend the rest of the blogosphere was busy replying to all in a massmail. Do I need to comment on the stupidity that is filling my inbox or can you help yourself to some witty remarks about the matter?

My first Way Out West, my second music festival ever and the BEST music festival ever. WOW’s combination of classic, euphoric festival feeling in the beautiful park of Slottsskogen and heartthrobbing sensations in the nighttime clubcity of Gothenburg is simply fantastic. Go to WOW’s site to see which acts were booked and read on to see what I saw!

Despite having a new system for the year where only visitors of WOW have access to gigs at clubs, those clubgigs got filled up pretty quickly. Before the festival I thought I was gonna be able to cruise around the city like a drunken angel just sliding into this clubgig here and that clubgig there. But nope. I missed Hajen, Loney Dear and El Perro Del Mar at the beautiful Annedalskyrkan Thursday night. Humph.

I didn’t get in at Pustervik either, where Sonjagon, Deportees (yay!) and Blitzen Trapper were playing. I counted the people in line outside the club, people thought I worked there (I played along, hehe) and counted up to 365. Not bad for Sweden’s second biggest town I’d say. So instead I just moved on to Världskulturmuséet (World Culture Museum) and got caught up in the fiery electro set of Crookers.

Crookers? Ooohhh. That was dope. Heavy stuff. But after a while even their insanely high level gets monotonous. Two hours of build-up, release, middle part, build-up, release, middle part, build-up, release, middle part was a bit too much and the grinding floated way above the heads of the audience the last half hour. Day ‘N’ Nite won back a few people who were about to leave, of course, but in the end I think a DJ duo of Crookers’ calibre should have the taste to vary their style a little bit. Good gig anyway, and Crookers prove that they deserve to be the ones hyped in the fidget-electro/whatevs niche movement they’ve been headlining the last two years.

Vivian Girls?
Sparkling girlypunk glitter 13:00? Hmmm. On the other hand, who fits in at 13:00? Not many. And with that perspective Vivian Girls did a cool little gig to start the festival off nicely. They’re worth seeing just for the redtop cuteypie anyway. Gotta love her bang.

Timo Räisänen?
The son of Gothenburg and uncrowned prince of Swedish indie poprock did as good as he could but the crowd wasn’t warmed up yet and “the feeling” that usually surrounds Timo kinda got lost. Reduced to another perfect warm-up.

Bon Iver?
5/5! 9/10! The guy is humble enough to play any time of the day. 24/7. And the music is as emotionally evoking as it sounds through the ipod headphones. Or more! We’re talking freakin Bon Iver live here. It was glorious. I got tears in my eyes from the amazing ovations he received. The crowd response was one of the best of the festival. It was under the Linné stage’s tent roof but I’ll be damned if all of Slottsskogen wasn’t clapping.

Beirut? Grizzly Bear?

What did I do here? I think it was lunch or hangin out with friends. I know I heard most of Beirut’s gig (it was good but itwasn’t much to actually LOOK at, as you might understand) but I completely forgot about Grizzly Bear. They had a short gig and probably couldn’t top Bon Iver as the next band @ the Linné stage. But still a darn shame. They’re music is complex enough for me to play all their records on the train down to Gothenburg just for the sake to get into the music. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to catch them when they come to Debaser Medis this Autumn.

Band Of Horses?
Splendid! Bridwell’s voice sounded great over the sunny park. In the setting with the perfect weather and the crowd’s excitement, Band Of Horses couldn’t help surpassing the dark and gloomier sides you can hear on their albums to instead deliver life-affirming indie rock that few bands can brag about. Props to the band for learning some key Swedish phrases. My sister especially enjoyed Bridwell’s “fy fan”.

Robyn?
Exquisite! She’s been guesting a lot of artists the last years since her 2005 comeback and 2007 international comeback. On that Friday afternoon she was the unquestionable star. She dropped all of her hits from her latest album backed up by the furiously popping Kleerup and Klas Åhlund. It didn’t even have to be dark. The daytime disco was on! And for once, she was the one who brough out guests. Mapei and Dr. Alban (!) where both fun choices. A little bit unexpectedly Röyksopp guested HER too and played The Girl And The Robot to everyone’s big content. I just got a little worried that Röyksopp would skip TGATR during their gig later that night… My fear’s didn’t come true! But it wasn’t one of those guests or her own hits that struck me hardest.

She left for a minute or so. Then two figures concealed by black, semi-transparent veils came out. One was Robyn, you could easily guess that. But who was the other one. They start singing I Want To Break Free. That sweet melody by those two sweet sweet sweet Swedish voices. Have you guessed yet which other notable Swedish artist joined Robyn on stage? OK. Well, if you ask me, Robyn’s and Lykke Li’s touching ballad reinterpretation of the Queen classic was one of the most memorable moments of WOW 2009. JUst fantastic.

Florence And The Machine?
Nope. Missed. But I’m sure the gig was great.

Wilco?
Nope. Missed this one too.

Laakso?
Yes indeed. I had to catch them because after Laakso, who performed a nice gig (I’ve seen them two times now, my infatuation with everything that has to do with Krunegård remains strong) I had to make sure I got right up against the fence as Röyksopp was the next band to play @ the Linné stage.

Antony And The Johnsons with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra?
Sorry my beloved Antony. Sometimes you need to make sacrifices to reach those fantastic moments. And that’s why I painfully had to miss you. I’m sure the collaboration with GSO took your music to new heights. But I had my priorities straight and those were Röyksopp and Fever Ray.

Glasvegas?
Same here. Painful sacrifice.

Röyksopp?
Yes. Of course. Best show of the whole festival. My favourite band didn’t disappoint and the show was electrifying. Robyn did guest and we got to hear The Girl And The Robot AGAIN. Twice on the same festival. WOW visitors got lucky. Karin Dreijer Andersson guested on What Else Is There? and This Must Be It in a brilliant horrific unreal creature suit. But where was Tricky Tricky? I know it wasn’t exactly my favourite track off Junior but still! Anneli Drecker didn’t exactly look dressed for the occasion but she delivered spotless, beautiful vocals to You Don’t Have A Clue, Only This Moment and Happy Up Here. But where was the energetic version of Sparks we could hear on Röyksopp’s Night Out? And where was the equally fine ballad on which she also guested on Junior: Vision One? And wouldn’t it have been interesting to here a juicy, live version of Across The Graveyard?

And where was Lykke Li? Why wasn’t she brought up for Miss It So Much or, dare I say, Were You Ever Wanted? I mean, as long as she was at WOW…

It’s not complaining, because there was nothing to complain about. All the sufficient and most known and loved tracks were dropped with an impressive energy and skill. I couldn’t possibly ask for more tracks, especially not non-single tracks. One of the highlights for me was hearing the normal version of Poor Leno instead of the Istanbul Forever Take remix version they’ve been playing live in the past (as heard on RNO).
5/5! 10/10!

Fever Ray?
Genius. Absolutely genius. Most interesting, creepy, hypnotic and mind-thrilling show of the whole festival. Fever Ray is a must-see live. Perhaps even better than The Knife live (haven’t seen them myself, though).

Erol Alkan?
Nope. Got stuck in a window with a couple of friendly Cape Town dudes and two nice German girls travelling all over the place. I don’t know if Alkan could’ve topped that

Jenny Wilson? I heard her over a beer in the restricted alcohol area. But I did see that she had an even more eye-catching outfit than Fever Ray. A bright blue dress, it was an abomination. And that’s just one of the reasons to love Wilson - the uncrowned, completely original and unique princess of Swedish indie pop innovation.

[ingenting]?
Nothing. I can’t say nothing. They played, I enjoy their music very much. So the gig was good.

Calexico?
Heard them while grabbing good places in front of the Vampire Weekend stage. Sounded great but heard elsewhere that they’re quite boring to watch, especially in rain…

Vampire Weekend?
They pushed away the rain by popping one hit after another and the indie cindy crowd bounced like rubber balls. The gig was standard but great. We got to hear a few new songs from their upcoming second album. And guys… get ready for another insane but exaggerated hype when it drops… Their ability to push away the rain from hundreds of people’s minds tells me that they have pushed through into mainstream lands where they could get even bigger.

Dead Prez? Nas?
Nope. Outdoors hip hop gigs was not on my priority list even though I totally respect most of said acts’ works.

Florence Valentin?
Absolutely! No Swedish festival is complete without Florence Valentin lead singer and frontman Love Antell bashing at society and standing up for the little man. Saw them last year at Popaganda, saw they at WOW and now they’re coming back to Popaganda again this year. Spring Ricco is one of my favourite albums so far this year so it should be even better this time around.

Wolfmother?
I love Wolfmother but I needed to secure a place for myself in front of Basemet Jaxx. Sorry guys.

Basement Jaxx?
Holy shit! The best of their back catalogue was presented in the festival’s undoubtedly wildest gig! Colourful and strong songstresses, bingo here, bango there… Was it a hurricane? Was it a tropical storm?

My Bloody Valentine? Lily Allen? Teddybears STHLM?
Nope. No matter how bad I wanted to see these three acts I just could give up my hopes of seeing…

Ladyhawke?
Yes! I got in. I was there sooo early for the club gig. Nervous as hell, asking everyone questions. Couldn’t believe I was going to see Ladyhawke IN PERSON. There are few artists I get nervous about but I feels so humble and full of respect when it comes to Pip Brown. I stood like one feet away from her. Had to help her hold the mic stand while the guy at the club was trying to fasten it to keep it from falling backwards knocking her teeth out, haha. It worked out eventually and the gig was great. The intimacy, the love, the alchohol I had drunk… It was a dream come true. The more I think about it, the better the gig gets. I’m sooo glad that I sacrificed Gang Gang Dance and Deerhunter for her. I missed Crazy World and Morning Dreams and perhaps Manipulating Woman but I can’t complain. I’m usually quite reluctant to catching drumsticks and such. But she gave me her plectrum. Thank you Oh what the hell. It was my favourite gig of WOW, haha. Check out my top 10 below!

The Lemur’s Way Out West Top 10

1. Ladyhawke <3
2. Röyksopp
3. Bon Iver
4. Fever Ray
5. Robyn
6. Basement Jaxx
7. Florence Valentin
8. Band Of Horses
9. Vampire Weekend
10. [ingenting]

Fever Ray - Seven

P.S.

Skriet and David Sandström Overdrive performed before Ladyhawke. I liked Skriet but have a hard time seeing who would want to buy their music and DSO was some really really nice rock music.