Day Three at the Distortion Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark

[Day One, Day Two]

Friday, June 5th

Friday morning of the Distortion Festival was a shake off followed by a roundabout ride through the city center on rented bikes from Christiana, complete with front buggy for friends and fam. If you’re not on a bike in Copenhagen, you’re a pedestrian (obeying the traffic signals, nonetheless). If you’re not a pedestrian, you’re probably in an electric car. The forward thinking throttles full-on in this environmental capital of Europe.

More daytime block parties and BBQs throughout the Vesterbro neighborhood turned into nighttime Club Clash-ing at “The Disco Trance” party featuring hard / art rock disco and minimal techno split among various areas of the Enghavevej skatepark. After finishing a bottle of Black Label and blasting “Once In a Lifetime” to walking heads from a friend’s third story flat, we showed up in time to have missed Vinnie Who and catch the end of Montreal’s Desire, a recent addition to the Italians Do It Better label and another cosmic channel for producer Jonny Jewel.

Vinnie Who

Desire

Following Desire, Glass Candy, Jonny’s flagship band with Ida No, took the stage through a mess of smoke and lasers. The duo’s disco decadence warbled through a wonky sound system and warmed the main floor crowd up for WhoMadeWho. Wearing textbook Danish garb, the trio (including drummer TomBoy, a festival co-organizer) galloped through licks straight outta Josh Homme’s guitar tab books and pounded through heavy disco beats for an elated hometown crowd. The set culminated in a cover of Benny Benassi’s early 00s anthem “Satisfaction”.

E-xcellent.

Glass Candy

WhoMadeWho

After catching a bit of Ellen Allien’s set as part of the Fabric party crew Wet Yourself’s festival party, strains of effected guitar lead the crew back to the mostly abandoned main floor. Those that made it to 4 AM and still had the attention span for “live” music were treated to Paris Suit Yourself, a New York / Berlin / Paris trio supported tonight by guitarist Victor Tricard and vocalist Luvinsky Atche supported by crutches. Sounds-craping through Shields-sick riffs and a forest of melodic Robert Smith moans, Paris Suit Yourself made a richly dark home in the eerie canal sanctum of the festival. Excellent and recommended to anyone around for their New York shows later this month.

Copenhagen