- When you enter the Slottsskogen, there's a feeling of being shut off from the rest of the world. The leafy public park in central Gothenburg is where Way Out West takes place each year. A narrow stream trickles through the festival grounds, which hold four stages: Azalea, Dungen, Flamingo and Linné. Each night the crowd spills onto Gothenburg's streets for Stay Out West, with parties taking place across the city.
Kontra-Musik founder Ulf Eriksson, one of many Swedish acts on the bill, spun mid-tempo acid techno on the opening afternoon of the festival. He was playing on the Dungen stage, Way Out West's most idyllic arena. Some people danced, others lounged on the grass. It felt like a suburban BBQ, with the occasional smoke machine bursts even adding the illusion of cooking meat. (And it was most definitely an illusion—the festival is all-vegetarian affair.) Shortly after, another Swedish artist, Neneh Cherry, played live with Rocketnumbernine over at the Linné stage. Unfortunately, the material from their collaborative album sounded tame in the cavernous tent.
The evening's focus was on Way Out West's two main rock bookings— Motörhead and Queens Of The Stone Age—before the crowd filed out for Stay Out West. I went to Trädgår'n, a venue that normally does brisk business in cheesy dance music, to watch Forest Swords play live. I always had Forest Swords clocked as solitary listening music, but seeing him interact with his own creations, thrusting back and forth with each lurching drum hit, ended up being one the festival's most thrilling moments. It was a magnificent set—orchestral and sonically rich but abrasive, the reverb- and dub-soaked sound crying out for a mammoth speaker stack.
Friday began with more Swedish fare on the Dungen stage, this time from Stockholm collective Studio Barnhus, AKA Axel Boman, Kornél Kovács and Petter Nordkvist. The trio bounced around giddily, dropping bouncy, feel-good house. Up next, Pional's summery vocal house perfectly suited the surroundings, before Jamie xx took to the decks. Though he threw in a few curveballs—mixing Plastikman's "Spastik" into Detroit Grand Pubah's "Sandwiches," for example—it was his more melodic selections that drew the biggest response.
The pick of the Stay Out West parties on Friday was the Hessle Audio showcase in the basement of Nefertiti. I watched the crowd slowly fill up as Ben UFO, Pangaea and Pearson Sound worked through swampy tunes hovering around the 100 BPM mark. Their selections were typically on-point, though the sound system seemed to struggle with bassier tracks—the room was audibly shaking.
Saturday began with the Mark Ernestus-backed band Jeri-Jeri dishing out one of Way Out West's most vibrant performances. In addition to a drummer, three other percussionists, a guitarist, a keyboardist and a vocalist, they had one of the most offbeat dancers I've ever seen: limbs and dreadlocks flailing, she was the visual embodiment of the band's joyous polyrhythms. Over on the Dungen stage, Planningtorock's performance had a more intimate, bare-bones feel. She worked her way through highlights from her politically-charged repertoire: "Misogyny Drop Dead," "All Love's Legal" and "Let's Talk About Gender." Jaako Eino Kalevi exuded a kind of natural elegance that matches his refined synth-pop, with him and his drummer sipping from glasses of white wine as they played. A highlight from the was "Pass The Cat," a track from his recent 12-inch on Beats In Space Records 12-inch. Above & Beyond played on the Flamingo stage in the afternoon—perhaps an example of festival organisers trying to tick a few too many boxes.
Rain swept through the site later that afternoon, before the skies cleared in time for a closing set from Röyksopp & Robyn. Nils Frahm's Stay Out West performance at Gothenburg's Opera House proved a classy finale. Smoke curled up through spotlights, giving the stage the feel of a Victorian tobacco room. As Frahm dipped between electronics and more traditional piano pieces, I got the feeling that a lack of requisite limbs was all that was stopping him from playing four pianos at once. The Opera House was little more than half-full, and staying on for Max Richter's performance after Frahm meant sacrificing my chance to see Kelela over at Nefertiti. (Attendances seemed to be an issue at Stay Out West: the night before, Machinedrum played to a near empty room at Gothenburg Film Studios.) Way Out West books a lot of great artists, but maybe more of them should have played at the festival proper.
Photo credits: Annika Berglund (crowd), Olle Kirchmeier (lake scene), Adrien Pehr (Pangaea), Niklas Axelsson (Nils Frahm)