DESERTFEST OSLO – Day 2
- Posted on 13-05-2025
Full photo gallery by Jonathan Mazin
Text by Andrea C
The same work related issues that had me leave early the other day, delayed me a bit on Saturday, thus missing the chance at the very early concert with Feral Nature at Revolved Background. And it’s sad since everyone I heard was super enthusiast about it. Same with Agriculture at John Dee. But I was lucky to catch the Norwegians in Wolfnaut with their heavy show at Revolver basement. That was a good way to go back to the world of deep slow tunes of stoner rock but well combine with harder elements. They could have surely worked on a bigger stage.
Back to main stage for the performance of the French act SLIFT. They pre-started the show with some nice 3D sphere projected on the huge backdrop and then, when the music actually started, those visuals went wild. So wild. Just like the music. It was certainly taking you place, in any of the spaces that your mind enjoys the most. The trio has done extensive touring lately and their stage presence, even if they’re only a trio, is surely grand enough for the main stage and they opened the day quite in a bombastic style. As I ended up watching the show with some friends and we all got pinged by our bellies that it’s dinner time, we skipped the last part of the show though and went to get some food at the nearby Food court.
Another rock trio followed at John Dee – Oregon’s Hippie Death Cult. As far as I understand, they have undergone quite some lineup changes lately and bass player Laura Phillips took over the vocal duty. I will check out their previous work now that they have my attention with their live performance, but I really loved her beautiful singing. Somehow a bit overwhelming, but still very pleasant, the guitar sound was the most ‘metallic’ of the weekend, certainly taken from the old days of the pinkfloydian era, sprinkled with some Funkadelic blues, but getting meaner and harder at times. There was something very dreamy and eerie about this show. Glad to have witnessed it.
It’s been a while since I saw the Finns Oranssi Pazuzu and what seems to be called psychedelic black metal. With drone, synth, krautrock and more.I think any label is both right and wrong, given the amount of things happening in each song and on the stage at any given time. I heard at least three people saying some sort of ‘wtf’ after their show. And I myself was jokingly wondering if they al play the same song at the same time, given that you don’t always know which one of them to follow when you want to headbang along. The music is rough and ‘ugly’ and builds up to some levels of insanity that are impossible to put into words. While the headbanging wasn’t always satisfactory, I was easily distracted but how they went wild on stage so forgot to even breathe at times I think. I’m really glad to see them growing to this level of live performances as they surely know how to deliver insanity. Their releases are not the easiest to digest but they sure make for the perfect soundtrack when your days are unexpectedly mad. It feels like the music is on your side, while breaking most rules that other bands would try to follow.
I can’t tell you what a nice think it was to have Eagle Twin scheduled next at John Dee. Not that the intensity was nay lower, but it allowed my brain some space to take it easier. When guitarist Gentry Densley started to sing, his deep voice with Tom Waits touches was so very soothing and beautiful. I closed my eyes and enjoyed that. But then I had to open them and be amazed at the powerful display of drumming by his bandmate, Tyler Smith. These two people made more noise than 3 full bands at John Dee at once. I remember reading a while ago when I first saw them that they build a lot of their instruments or amps and, while I’m not the expert, I could surely tell some of the stuff sounds different. And it was perfect for what they were trying to express through their beautiful but heavy riffs. They don’t stay within the boundaries of the general classification of doom or stoner metal and there’s plenty of progressive, bluesy or jazzy playfulness. Whoever was in charge of the day schedule really placed them at the right moment.
As a parenthesis regarding the organizers and the way the festival went: flawless. I am sure some people might have had an issue here or there. But I think I saw more than half of the performers and NONE of them was late. Everyone started really on time – if not few seconds in advance. And that rarely happens at festivals. So kudos to those responsible for the changeover, the crew, the soundguys doing their job in time and probably to most of the bands leaving any stupid demands or not having any to begin with and respecting everyone else’s time. It’s really rewarding for us in the audience to see this happening.
Back to the shows: Chat Pile up next at Rockefeller. My tired feet demanded a little rest so I sat down by the stairs and watched a bit of their soundcheck. Which was fun in itself. When the band returned a few minutes later, I didn’t know what to make of them. It kinda looked like some of them just got out of bed. And who had tons of fun, making the show super cool to watch. Starting with some comments about the name of the festival being misleading and their expectations of finding desert not being met, then a lot of jokes about movies and references to Norwegian movie history – sadly, I didn’t really get them, but they surely entertained the crowd who cheered at the witty comments. All of this mixed with their aggressive delivery of raw music that is surely meant to bother some listeners through its messages. They’re really well connected on stage and the vocalist “Raygun Busch” gives some Napalm Death’s Barney vibes as he can’t stand still for one second. But he moves at a slower pace. After watching them, I understand why they were chosen as headliners for this year’s Roadburn as they sure have the right attitude and experience for that. As a side note, it turns out they wrote the soundtrack for a movie in which their singer actually played the a role. Their second album only came out last year and one can only hope there’s more left in store from these crazy dudes.
But nothing could have beaten the level of crazy that escalated during Whores.‘ show at John Dee next. I can’t remember if it was Roadburn or somewhere else where I previously watched them and I had a vague recollection of them going wild. But seeing tons of crowdsurfers at John Dee and a constant mosh pit in the middle was completely unexpected. The sweat was often seen bursting in the air from any of the band members at any given time, as they really made no compromise in delivering a heavy and neck breaking set. They asked the crowd to go as far as they can, since that’s what they were doing. I had no doubts about that. The bass player was a force of nature. So was the drummer. And the guitarist/vocalist. So, the whole band was really fierce and I even wondered if the building would stand still by the end of the concert. Especially when they announced their ‘dance tune’. One thing I also remember being intrigued about is how the bass player lifts or holds his bass by the strings at certain times, making a cool sound and yet not having to constantly tune it after that. Guess the bass knew the lesson by then.
I am a bit sad to have missed the visual adventure arranged in the nearby church where Villjuvet – the work of Ruben Willem. I also missed Barren Womb before that, but watching the previous acts was a good enough reward for not finding the energy and motivation to go back to Revolver. Please don’t make the festival any bigger, it’s already a small challenge as it is and I personally find it more and more discouraging to attend events where even the toilet breaks have to be planned because of the number of stages and overlapping acts.
Desertfest Oslo was nicely wrapped up by another American act, the psychedelic soundscape masters Elder. As they celebrate ten years since the release of “Lore”, they decided to showscape their riff wizardry by performing it in full across Europe and this festival was just a natural stop for them. A side note, while watching them, I realized that most bands which I’ve watched at this festival – and had more than 3 members – mainly chose to place the bass player in the middle, unlike a lot of other music genres where bass players have one side of the stage or one side of the drumkit. Anyway, back to Elder. It was many levels lower in intensity than Whores.’ show, but it certainly built up to a more epic kind of intensity, combined with a very fitting lightshow that quickly set the atmosphere for what they wanted to deliver. It was powerful and peaceful at the same time and I sadly had to leave before the end due the same work related items. But I hope to catch them again and explore more of their live epicness. And I also hope to come back to Desertfest, mainly Oslo, but I am sure the experience of this festival must be similarly awesome in other cities that organize it. Grateful for having had the chance to attend this edition though and hope everyone in the audience had at least as good of a time as I did.