The alternative/psychedelic rock band Sólstafir from Iceland released their newest album, ‘Berdreyminn’ in May this year. With respect to the release, they toured in Europe and made a stop over in Hannover on Sunday the 18th of June 2017 at the  Musikzentrum venue with support from Motorowl. Unexpected traffic jams back unfortunately led to my missing live Motorowl‘s performance, but based on word of mouth, it was a show worth seeing.

As the crew set up for Sólstafir, the venue was comfortably full and as the band entered the stage an old number was played: “Nàttfari”, the outro song of the album ‘Masterpiece Of Bitterness’. The song ended and the guys started to play the opener track “Silfur-Refur” from their new album. The atmosphere was quite uplifting when the band began to play. Musically and visually, both elements complimented the atmosphere in the venue on the night. Mid song, front man and guitarist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason leaped to the counter of the cloakroom and continued riffing, quite cool! After the song, Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson picked up his banjo teasing the next song which was of course “Ótta” and cheers followed.

With many interesting choices to kick off the set  which set the atmosphere for the evening, some could be surprised about some of the set list choices. Two tracks, only, were played from the new record and half of the set list was focused on older material, particularly from ‘Köld’. Brave choices, but some more newer material would have gone down nicely. Nevertheless, it was a great selection of very good tracks. The track “Necrologue” was dedicated to an old friend passed of the band. Aðalbjörn asked for silence and explained that the band don’t mourn, but they keep him alive in their minds in playing this song live. What followed, however momentarily, was a couple of babbling idiots who interrupted this important moment.

Aðalbjörn made their hecklers politely but decisively aware of the respect they didn’t show to their neighbors and the band and with that, applause followed. After this emotional moment, they ended with the tracks “Pale Rider”, “Fjara” and “Goddess Of the Ages” with the final two track being clear standouts. Aðalbjörn went through the crowd, jumped on the bar and sang the song from there. The audience, who couldn’t decide whether or not to look to the stage or to the bar, had a blast nonetheless. But it was a very nice move. All in all, Sólstafir‘s show was a night of awesome musicians with a light and sound quality that was outstanding!

A wonderful evening in Hannover. Sólstafir, as the main act, were a very good live band and the mood in the venue was unique. Although they released a new album a few weeks ago, they focused on good old stuff and mixed in a few new tracks. All in all, the atmosphere, set list, sound and light show were awesome. Thanks for that awesome end of the weekend!