The Opening Night of this year’s SPOT festival began with a reminder of what it’s all about: Experiencing the potential of young, undiscovered talents. The 18 year-old twin sisters Kirsten & Marie entered the stage bare-feet and backed by four boys on guitar, drums, bass and percussion.

Two songs of simple, melodious folk later – one of them a cover of the Danish band The Rumour Said Fire – SPOT Festival leader Gunnar K. Madsen Walked on stage to the sounds of the musical theme from The Alamo.

- I’ve always dreamed of entering the stage to that song, he admitted, and went on to explain that the theme song was meant as a greeting to the festival’s international guests, particularly the delegation from Texas, US.

We have to stand united
Welcoming the almost full theatre hall before him as well as SPOT’s Danish and international artists, visitors, partners and associates from record labels, booking agencies and media, Gunnar K. Madsen addressed the question of why roughly 1/3 of this year’s bands have played SPOT Festival before.

- The breakthrough is never accomplished overnight. It is a long, tough process, and we’re happy to support and back up the bands during this period, he said.

Gunnar K. Madsen also introduced the brand new mini festival InterSPOT, where more than 20 international acts played just after the official opening night.

- InterSPOT is not a sign that we’re becoming completely international – it’s an experiment; a way of mutually promoting and exchanging good music between Denmark and other countries, he said.

Gunnar K. Madsen also emphasized the fact that Denmark is “not the centre of the world”.

- We have to figure out how to best make use of our resources. The years ahead will not be easy for Denmark, especially not in the competition of the international market. In light of this challenge, we have to cooperate, and we have to stand united, said Madsen.

Amanda Jenssen in her own 'Happyland'. Photo: Thorsten Overgaard

Swing jazz noir and Arabian percussion
Next on stage was the Swedish pop singer Amanda Jenssen. With the look of a 1930s night club singer – including pill-box hat and dramatic dark eye make-up – she took the audience on a tour through her own unique universe of swing jazz, noir, cabaret and soul. Her own designation ‘gangster jazz’ gives the picture. Her rather dark, elegant and sometimes husky voice also fit surprisingly well to the few melancholy, country-like ballads. The concert ended in the swinging classic “Minnie the Moocher”, where the audience was asked to sing along.

During the break before the last two acts, SPOT Live met David Fricke from Rolling Stone Magazine in the company of Danish journalist Jan Sneum and Árni Matthiasson from the Icelandic daily Morgunbladir.

- We liked Gunnars speech!, was their immediate reaction.
- Quite long…
- A little rambling…
- Very Gunnar-like!
- I liked the first act [Kirsten & Marie], added Fricke. - It was very modest, but you could hear the qualities in it. I liked their vocal harmonies. It had an almost Brazilian, ‘tropicalia’ feel to it.

After the break it was time for a performance by Simona Abdallah, who is the only female percussionist with Palestinian background in Scandinavia. Alone on the stage with her drum she played a single, but very expressive piece that reminded this reporter of how drumming can be a form of storytelling. It seemed to capture the audience, who spontaneously began to clap along.

And united they stood!
The final act of the Opening Night was the musical mutant of Slaraffenklang: Six members of Efterklang (in seemingly home-dyed shirts) and five members of Slaraffenland (in matching    skeleton t-shits) united on stage.

- We’ve practiced, said Efterklang’s Casper Clausen from the stage, and we believed them.

The eleven musicians joined together in various, constantly changing constellations: One song was a mash-up of two songs (one from each band); one song was begun by one group and finished by the other; the bands took turns playing covers of each other’s songs… etc.

A remarkably egoless performance, it could almost be seen as an illustration of Gunnar K. Madsen’s call for cooperation and unity. During the concert, the futuristic blue-purple stage decorations changed colours and seemed to turn into a warm and mysterious jungle in red, green, yellow and lime – a perfect background for the quirkily alluring soundscapes.


After the concert, SPOT Live caught a few audience members for a chat about the show.

- I have one word to say: Overwhelming, said Ditte, 17.
- They’re so clever. It totally captures you, said her friend Josefine, 18.

Kurt, 54 liked the whole program, including Slaraffenklang, which he described as “Pink Floyd meets the lion king”. But his favourite was Amanda Jenssen.

- She was really something. She had an amazing voice and smittening energy, he said.

On this final note, SPOT Live left for the next part of SPOT Festival 2010: The InterSPOT concerts.