Spread the Social Love:
The Peace And Love Festival has now grown to be the biggest event in Sweden, with its premises right in the middle of the urban area of the city of Borlänge, taking advantage of some local theaters, conference rooms, hotels, and of course soccer fields where the main stages were built on. The camping area was detached (located a couple of streets away from all the action) and during peak hours the sea of people moved anxiously through the main arteries of what seemed to be a ghost town, colonized by music enthusiasts.
The 2011 edition of Peace & Love started for us one day late, after a frantic six-hours-and-a-half drive from Gothenburg to the inland city of Borlänge where the festival is held. What did we miss? Kings Of Leon? OK, we're good then!
First stop of Thursday afternoon was 30 Seconds To Mars. In between a brief tropical rain storm and gigantic red beach balls, frontman Jared Leto (whose credibility is near zero) managed to raise some pretty effusive cheers after appearing from backstage with a huge Swedish flag around his neck (well it looked more like a cape than a scarf).
Photographers were invited onstage for a taste of her view during "Bucky Done Gun", while she posed sarcastically almost mocking of the press in her usual controversial-ish fashion. Right away M.I.A. took position behind a conference-looking mic-stand in the middle of the stage, picked up a pint of beer from underneath and took a sip.
Maya went backstage briefly while requesting the sound engineer to "Turn my shit uuup!!" and returned for an encore with "Paper Planes" (I will never understand why this is the most famous M.I.A. song) and "XR2".
The crowd collapsed in a deep applause, apparently people are crazy about this band and Ola knew it, bragging of his looks and doing awkward dance moves. They however, put on a more than a decent show which even involved a costume change (sparky leather was traded for feather wings... of course).
I can’t think of a way to describe how tired we were at the beginning of day two (imagine walking around with an anvil on each eyelid) but our first scheduled act of Friday afternoon was promising enough to carry on.
One girl that has more power than most guys: Miss Maja Ivarsson and The Sounds set the bar so high that I almost felt embarrassed for the band that had to perform afterwards. Black leather shorts and jacket, high heels and an "I’m about to eat you all in a sandwich" attitude. I have to admit that even I felt helplessly attracted to her.
Also another specialty was the rest of his newly acquired band members: CJ and Mats from Mando Diao that along with drummer Nik helped shape up Noren's songs for a proper live presentation. I have to be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from this project but the tracks sounded actually pretty amazing, catchy but not too cheesy, pop but with some proper strings, a nice addition to any summer soundtrack.
The common denominator of their set was the grinning looks that they gave to each other, as evidence of their playful sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. Jules kept talking to the crowd constantly in between songs, mentioning very important (not) things such as "I don’t understand why the stage is so fucking far away from the crowd man, really", or "Well... uhm, I forgot what I was gonna say..." I think he was drunk to his bones, my friend says he was just being entertaining with a nice "flow".
We entered the last minutes of the set, during the solo of "Juicebox" Casablancas went to the side of the stage, came back, and slapped Albert on his behind, then a partial acoustic version of "Under Control" with just a quiet guitar and Julian's voice until the second verse. Two gems were saved for the big finale: "Last Night" + "Take It Or Leave It". There was only one thing missing from The Strokes set: an encore!!
The first thing we saw on Saturday was the overwhelming set of Mando Diao which was part of their "acoustic" tour (well not really acoustic but alternative versions of the songs with more strings). This performance was so strikingly incredible.
The songs were still there, the band was very tight but with a noticeable lack of passion, on the other hand Mr Dylan managed to keep a shy grin from beneath his black hat while doing some impressive bar mitzvah friendly dance moves. Nothing new here, what’s next?
Up next: some Scandinavian indie flavour with Those Dancing Days. They played on one of the small stages to a full house that gathered even on top of threes to get a glimpse of this female quintet full of dancey, moody, electro-pop tracks and denim shorts.
Footage and edition: Hadria Yazidi.
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
First stop of Thursday afternoon was 30 Seconds To Mars. In between a brief tropical rain storm and gigantic red beach balls, frontman Jared Leto (whose credibility is near zero) managed to raise some pretty effusive cheers after appearing from backstage with a huge Swedish flag around his neck (well it looked more like a cape than a scarf).
30 Seconds To Mars
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
In the mean time the mainstage next door was getting ready for the first big show of the night: Volbeat. Danish heavy metal with some punk rockabilly sounds, and we suddenly realized why this genre is so popular in this part of the globe. Time for a break at the designated backstage/press area where beers went for 42 crows and the DJ mixed MGMT with electro pop tracks sung in Swedish as if it was the most natural thing in the world.Volbeat
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
From the distance we started to hear movement at one of the major stages and we saw some psychedelic visuals with a sims-like version of M.I.A. projected on the big screen, musicians and dancers appeared on several different platforms as "Galang" opened the set to kickstart a (true) party on the hands of the fierce Maya: "What's up Sweeedeeeen!?".Photographers were invited onstage for a taste of her view during "Bucky Done Gun", while she posed sarcastically almost mocking of the press in her usual controversial-ish fashion. Right away M.I.A. took position behind a conference-looking mic-stand in the middle of the stage, picked up a pint of beer from underneath and took a sip.
M.I.A.
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
M.I.A.
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Most of the tracks were performed either remixed or mashed up one with the next, as if a DJ was selecting the music. Everyone (me included) was dancing loose at this point, and if this didn't feel like a club night enough... for the last songs, the fans invaded the stage and served as back up dancers (damn Swedish have good dancing skills!).Maya went backstage briefly while requesting the sound engineer to "Turn my shit uuup!!" and returned for an encore with "Paper Planes" (I will never understand why this is the most famous M.I.A. song) and "XR2".
M.I.A.
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
We were then tipped about apparently the biggest pop band in Sweden, going by the name of The Ark. Out of curiosity we moved back to the main stage where a huge flag with the band’s logo and portraits was being rolled out on the back. A brief instrumental intro for the half glam-rock, half pop white dressed Arks and singer Ola Salo (who used to look like Russell Brand before he cut his hair) wearing a leather purple mono with an almost 360 degrees cleavage.The crowd collapsed in a deep applause, apparently people are crazy about this band and Ola knew it, bragging of his looks and doing awkward dance moves. They however, put on a more than a decent show which even involved a costume change (sparky leather was traded for feather wings... of course).
The Ark
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
The last act ended at 2AM but the party went on until almost 6AM (how’s that for British curfew? HA!) but you couldn’t really tell what was going on since in Borlänge’s summer the sky is always clear, and the only dark-ish night goes roughly from twelve to three in the morning.I can’t think of a way to describe how tired we were at the beginning of day two (imagine walking around with an anvil on each eyelid) but our first scheduled act of Friday afternoon was promising enough to carry on.
One girl that has more power than most guys: Miss Maja Ivarsson and The Sounds set the bar so high that I almost felt embarrassed for the band that had to perform afterwards. Black leather shorts and jacket, high heels and an "I’m about to eat you all in a sandwich" attitude. I have to admit that even I felt helplessly attracted to her.
The Sounds
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Next we went to see Carl Noren, brother of Mando Diao’s Gustaf and former Sugarplum Fairy who is now pursuing a solo career (the third Noren brother Viktor is also going solo right now, by the name of Viktorious, but that’s a completely different rant that I will save for some other time). Carl’s band performed on one of the small stages (actually a theater) and to me he seemed like the Swedish pop version of Pete Doherty, same guitar, same hat, same attitude but blonde hair. Also another specialty was the rest of his newly acquired band members: CJ and Mats from Mando Diao that along with drummer Nik helped shape up Noren's songs for a proper live presentation. I have to be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from this project but the tracks sounded actually pretty amazing, catchy but not too cheesy, pop but with some proper strings, a nice addition to any summer soundtrack.
Carl Noren
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
We were looking forward to see Jessie J afterwards and we moved to one of the side stages. To our surprise no Jessica came from in between the stage smoke, but a blonde long haired guy with a guitar stood there just smiling for a couple of seconds. The girls in the front row started to cry their lungs off as soon as this character began playing his Take That songs. What’s going on? Did we miss something? Apparently Jessie’s show was cancelled and Petter’s (that’s the name of this artist) slot was pushed forwards. It was not really much of a show, just pop melodic cloying songs (in Swedish) played and sang by him, I cannot describe how uninteresting this was.Petter
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Whilst waiting for The Strokes (stage time was from 00:00 to 02:00) we went for a quick break backstage and besides the bar and some couches there was a small stage that held a couple of bands and DJ's through the weekend. One surprisingly awesome act we saw there was Genuine Harmony, a quartet from Karsland which sounded like an early version of The Kooks, with some 60’s classic brit-rock influences tastefully mixed in between. I was interested in getting to know them a little better and arranged a brief interview which I just put together in a separate feature, here.Genuine Harmony
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Now, the time of truth when we were going to experience the tracks from Angles live for the first time. The stage was dark, with a dotted light panel on the back changing its colors timidly. We heard cheers and an instrumental sci-fi music as the five characteristic silhouettes of The Strokes took their spots. Moretti sat down, looked around, and hit the drums: pum, tac, pum, tac... "Can’t you see I’m trying, I don’t even like it..." the exact same sound and excitement that you probably felt when you put that first Strokes record on 10 years ago was here again.The Strokes
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Lights were maintained low, and "Is This It" felt intimate even though 20,000 people were watching Mr Julian Casablancas hide behind his mic and shades. While I was still trying to decide if I should clap, cry or keep taking pictures, they dropped track number two: "Reptilia". "We’re gonna do something very special tonight." said Julian, "We’re gonna play a song we’ve never played before. Well... we recorded it, but this is its live premiere. Please be nice, I only learned the lyrics fifteen minutes ago. Here’s Machu Picchu." The common denominator of their set was the grinning looks that they gave to each other, as evidence of their playful sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. Jules kept talking to the crowd constantly in between songs, mentioning very important (not) things such as "I don’t understand why the stage is so fucking far away from the crowd man, really", or "Well... uhm, I forgot what I was gonna say..." I think he was drunk to his bones, my friend says he was just being entertaining with a nice "flow".
The Strokes
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
The Strokes
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
The mystery is unveiled: Nick is the one doing the backup chorus on "You're So Right", and he’s actually quite good. "We’re gonna calm it down for a second, cause this is waaay too out of control. Life Is Simple... In The Moonlight" said Julian before slowing the tempo a bit for this track.We entered the last minutes of the set, during the solo of "Juicebox" Casablancas went to the side of the stage, came back, and slapped Albert on his behind, then a partial acoustic version of "Under Control" with just a quiet guitar and Julian's voice until the second verse. Two gems were saved for the big finale: "Last Night" + "Take It Or Leave It". There was only one thing missing from The Strokes set: an encore!!
The Strokes
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
The Strokes
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
It’s time for day three, and speaking of three we only had three hours of sleep the night before so Red Bull’s empty cans were starting to pile up in our car’s back seat. The first thing we saw on Saturday was the overwhelming set of Mando Diao which was part of their "acoustic" tour (well not really acoustic but alternative versions of the songs with more strings). This performance was so strikingly incredible.
Mando Diao
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
The night before we received an email from the festival stating a complete photo ban for Bob Dylan (that meant no photos and no videos) so the big screens on the side of the stage kept the same static frame from the distance during the whole show and you could actually see him closer if you looked straight to the stage. Imagine it like a soccer match broadcast, with no replays or zooms into the relevant scene. Yes, it was quite boring.The songs were still there, the band was very tight but with a noticeable lack of passion, on the other hand Mr Dylan managed to keep a shy grin from beneath his black hat while doing some impressive bar mitzvah friendly dance moves. Nothing new here, what’s next?
Bob Dylan
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
There was also activity on the outskirts of the festival perimeter, powered by P&L a couple of bars from the area were holding gigs and my friend was dragged to see Armand Mirpour a brand new Swedish act. There were only 30 people on that dark bar but frontman Armand was doing a stadium performance in a Frankie Francis style, interacting and mixing with the crowd. Really good pop rock songs, catchy and refreshing.Up next: some Scandinavian indie flavour with Those Dancing Days. They played on one of the small stages to a full house that gathered even on top of threes to get a glimpse of this female quintet full of dancey, moody, electro-pop tracks and denim shorts.
Those Dancing Days
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Those Dancing Days
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
By accident I ended up on one of the closed stages, an events room of one of the hotels, and Beardyman was making everyone dance in the middle of a deep blue fog. "Do you wanna feel some real, real, old school hip hop from where it all started?" asked Darren rhetorically while mixing his own beats on the spot and rapping at the same time.Beardyman
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Håkan Hellström was the main artist of the festival and was in charge of closing down the presentations on Saturday night. I think that if you work the crowd like that, wearing a top hat (and you are not Slash) then there's no doubt that you have (at least) some talent. It was like watching a performance by Beyonce, I did not really feel the connection with his music, but on the other hand I couldn’t stop staring at him. Håkan Hellström
Photo: Hadria Yazidi
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
We prepared a brief video coverage of what went on during the weekend, and if you are still doubtful about totally-going to the Peace And Love Festival next summer (remember the Olympics are on and there's no Glastonbury) please take a look at the short below and let us know if we might have to make room for you on our car.Footage and edition: Hadria Yazidi.
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Volbeat
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
M.I.A.
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
The Ark
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
The Sounds
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
CJ with Carl Noren
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
The Strokes
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Bob Dylan
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Those Dancing Days
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Håkan Hellström
Photo: Hadria Yazidi
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
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