The last day of Pstereo was a good festival day. Many different artists, but the same quality booking with different styles, some well known bands, and many new, at least for me. The big headliner Saturday was Motorpsycho, who played their 1997 album Blissard. But before them we got 6 hours of non stop music from three stages. And while Friday night had a few light rain showers, the weather was also good on Saturday. With two sold out days, it looks very promising for Pstereo next year.

Carmen Villain was first out for me on Saturday. She is an ex-model who started singing and playing guitar, and she released her debut CD, Sleeper in March this year. She has already played festivals like Hove and Oya before she came to Pstereo. Personally I wasn’t much taken by her concert. The music becomes too introvert for me, and I feel that not much is happening. I am also not too comfortable with the shoe gazer style where there is little or no interaction with the audience. But the critiques and the hipsters like her, and that is good enough.

After Carmen Villain I saw Woven Hand. The leader of the band, David Eugene Edwards, was a founding member of the alternative country band 16 Horsepower, and Woven Hand is a natural extension of that band. The music is harder than 16 Horsepower, with less country elements, but Edward’s lyrics are still centered around spirituality and gloom. On stage Edwards is in charge with his slow moving drone like songs.

The next band out for me was Monster Magnets. They are considered the grandfathers of stoner rock, and they are definitely a band of my liking. Their singer and leader, Dave Wyndorf, has been in he band since the start in 1989, and he also has a history of heavy drug use, resulting in an overdose in 2997. Their music is fresh, hard, guitar based rock with references to 70’s heavy and space rock. As a live band they are ideal for festivals like Pstereo, and I enjoyed their set.

Dizzee Rascal is a rapper from London. He was one of the artist who fronted the new rap style grime, after 2000, and his debut CD, Boy In Da Corner won him the Mercury Price in 2003, when he was 18 years old. Ten years later Dizzee Rascal is a mature artist, and many of his fans were disappointed over his change of style. He is very fluent in his delivery, rapping in machine gun precision. As a hip hop concert it worked for me, but I am always disappointed when the only “musician” on stage is a DJ.

Oslo Ess is the most hard working Norwegian rock band these days, having played over 250 concerts the last year. The upside to this is that the band is extremely tight and together, while the downside is that a concert can become routine for the band. They have had a new drummer the last months, and that has definitely been a plus for the band. Kenneth Kapstad is considered one of Norway’s best drummers, and his hard, precise but also detail rich drumming pushes the band forward.

Baauer is the man behind the hit Harlem Shake, and he changed Pstereo to a gigantic disco during his set. Here I must admit that this is definitely not my genre, but  the fans, mostly the younger part of the Pstereo attendees, seemed to enjoy the set immensely. I have no problems with other people’s taste, but I feel a bit cheated when there is no band on stage, only one guy with a computer.

Motorpsycho closed this year’s Pstereo festival with a concert where they played their album Blissard. Motorpsycho is a genre by themselves, always going their own ways and never caring about what’s hip or not. Blissard is classic Motorpsycho, and most of the songs worked very well live. This was also Kenneth Kapstad’s second concert this night, and we got to hear him playing music that is more complex than with Oslo Ess. With pyro and great lightning, this was the perfect way to close the festival, and Pstereo 2013 is on my top list of festivals this year.

Monster Magnets

All pictures are © Per Ole Hagen and must not be used without written permission.