Thursday, May 21, 2009

Fever Ray

Last night I had the chance to see Fever Ray. Fever Ray is the solo project of Karin Dreijer Andersson, one half of the Swedish electro brother-sister duo The Knife. I have a long history with the Knife, originally falling in love with them nearly a decade ago but I never had the chance to see them perform live. They refused to preform live until a couple of years ago, so seeing Fever Ray sort of filled that void for me. That's not to say that Fever Ray isn't great on its own. Fever Ray released their first album this past March and it's fantastic from start to finish. You can watch the videos for the first two singles here:

If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.


Anyway, last night. It was the opening night of the annual Electronic Beats festival in Graz and the opening concert was held in the old prison of an old fortress called Schlossberg that even Napoleon failed to capture. The prison still has the original walls intact, and the cavernous nature of the structure made for some incredible sound. Here's a pic of the venue so you have an idea:










Here's how you get to the venue and the view from the top:













So the location was pretty majestic in and of itself, and Fever Ray was stunning, like watching a painting -- a very dark and captivating painting. Photos can't really do it justice, but here are a couple from the show:
















The rest of the set, including a couple of video clips, is on my flickr account.

I wish i could go back and do it all over again. It sort of seems like I might have dreamed the entire thing.... I think I might be making that road-trip to Chicago this fall to see them after-all.

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