japis music store

Reykjavík, Iceland

Jun 4, 2000

One Comment “japis music store”

  • esbs

    says:

    gunnar theodór eggertsson
    last saturday in a local music store, near the reykjavík city centre, a mysterious concert took place. the virtually unknown band, ‘whm’, were set to play inside this store, japis, at 15:00, and word on the street said that it may or may not involve some sigur rós members. whm is a band of four, with singer/guitarist jón þór birgisson, bass-player georg hólm, orri páll dýrason on drums and kjartan sveinsson on keyboards. the band introduced themselves as whm, and then said that because nobody knew them they were just going to play cover songs today, something by some other local bands who were probably better known. whm then proceeded to play only sigur rós covers, and quite well i might add. they also announced that it was a special concert because orri, the drummer, had just become a father. congratulations:)

    I don’t know the names of the first three songs they played, for they are new. the first one i recognized as the same song they premiered at the “angels of the universe” concert in ms, a song I really like because it doesn’t build up in the same way as most of the other new songs, and therefore stands out very nicely. the second song i did not recognize, I am certain that i’ve never heard it before, but listening to it drained all feeling from my legs and I felt like I was floating in the air. the third song I can’t quite place, but I’m sure I’ve heard them play it before, I can’t remember when, but that doesn’t matter really. what does matter is that it was truly amazing, as was to be expected. after those three songs they were going to quit, they were in a hurry because one of them had to play at his sister’s wedding or something, but due to popular demand they decided to play one more song. apparantly whom shares rehearsal locale with sigur rós, so they thought they’d make a tribute by covering one of their worn-out old songs. the group didn’t seem to be completely sure which worn-out old song the singer was talking about, and when the keyboardist started the wrong one (which I think was the bíum bíum bambaló cover, but I’m not completely sure), the singer pointed out the mistake and then they played svefn-g-englar. “woo!!!” :)

    I am really happy I went to this concert, because I had no idea if the rumors were true about it really being sigur rós. the whm cover-up was both very funny, as a joke, but also very smart, because japis is a very small place for a concert, and had it been advertised as a sigur rós concert I imagine there had been an enormous crowd (not only because of their popularity here, but also because it was free). instead it was a very small, and personal concert. you got to stand right next to the band, and I imagine it was a bit like being at a sigur rós rehearsal… only with a bunch of other people. from where i was standing, the background behind the band was a big window looking out on a street with lots of people walking by, and it was a very fun set. it was really interesting to watch the different reactions of people as they walked by and saw what was going on inside. the athmopshere was great and the group were in a very good mood, obviously enjoying the whole whm joke.
    (gunnar theodór eggertsson)

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