The prevailing theme for the first half of Roskilde Day Two was rain.
Yes, Thursday afternoon was a wet one. Even before I set foot on the festival grounds, the rain had started to comie down and it didn’t look to be letting up. So, remembering the old adage about any port in a storm, I headed for the nearest covered stage to take in Vilde Tuv’s early afternoon set. With her blend of folk music and electronic sounds, she put on a compelling show that got the day off to a good start, despite the rain.
Following her set, I made my way over to check out Seattle-based singer-songwriter Dean Johnson, a charming performer with a warm, high pitched voice that really works to draw the listener in. And also, a man who went shopping for a new wardrobe in honour of his Roskilde show.
“I got these pants at the ladies department in the supermarket in Copenhagen,” he said, drawing attention to the striped pants he was sporting onstage. And though it was an unusual look, it was certainly a memorable one. Speaking of memorable, Johnson reflected back on the first time he played Roskilde back in 2024, calling it the best show of his life (or something to that effect) and it seems like this one is also likely to go down in his books as another good one, if only due to the makeshift Danish rhythm section assembled for the show, who impressed Johnson with their musical prowess.
One think I quite liked about Johnson was how he introduced each of his tunes by announcing what kind of song it would be, differntiating each one by its subject matter. Though I did also notice that it seemed like at least about half of the songs were introduced as “a heartbreak song.” But hey, on a rainy afternoon, heartbreak songs seem thematically appropriate somehow.
If the weather’s crap, you might as well rage and Napalm Death did just that, bringing the righteous fury with a killer set of what vocalist Barney Greenway referred to as their “noisy shit.” Though missing key longtime member Shane Embury for this show, the grindcore legends put on a typically fanstastic set, with Greenway barking his way through killer numbers like “Narcissus,” “Practice What You Preach” and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it classics like “You Suffer” and “Dead.” The absolute highlights for me though were their crowd pleasing cover of Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” and the song Greenway introduced as being not about freedom of religion, but freedom from religion – “Suffer The Children” off 1990’s Harmony Corruption. And while he later claimed that Napalm Death and musical beauty are mostly incompatible terms, the Birmingham bruisers put on a beautiful show in its own way.
Frankly, I can’t think of anything more beautiful than a grindcore band that closes out their set by telling the crowd to take care of themselves and their fellow human beings because that’s the best thing any of us can do in a world that’s falling apart and run by terrible people. And then Greenway ended off by wishing us “love and peace.” Reader, I may have teared up a bit. That’s right, I get emotional over grindcore sometimes.
Following Napalm Death, I moved over to the Orange Stage for Little Simz, who, though a more obvious crowd pleaser and worlds removed from Napalm Death, somehow matched their energy perfectly with a set of thoughtful, emotional, and straight up fun hip hop. The highlight of her set came midway through, when her band left the stage and she did of a mini-DJ set (while continuing to rap at the same time), briefly turning the mainstage into a dance club fora brief moment. It may not seem like a natural transition to some, but a festival like Roskilde is all about variety and for me, Little Simz coming right after Napalm Death was the perfect one-two punch of positivity. And, most importantly, she finally brought the sun out. Thank you Little Simz.
Photo Credit: Christian Hjorth, courtesy of Roskilde Festival
It was tough to pull myself away from Little Simz, but I made the call to cut out at the tail end of her set to secure myself a good spot for Ethel Cain at Arena stage and I’m glad I did. Cain and her band (shout out to the guitarist for wearing a Nicole Dollanganger shirt) put on a phenomenal show that was powerful, dramatic, and absolutely one of the best things I saw at Roskilde. Reader, I may have found myself getting a little emotional again. Does this mean Ethel Cain is grindcore? Well, no – though perhaps in the spiritual sense she is. With the heavy, cathartic energy of some of her tunes, she’s certainly at least metal-adjacent.
The rain may have eventually ended, but the music kept going with the likes of Ken Carson, Kneecap and Krøyer putting on intense performances well into the night. I’ll admit to not being overly familiar with Carson but he put on an impressive show that got the kids losing their shit to the tunes off his latest, The Xperiment. He also had a shitload of pyrotechnics, and any show with loads of pyro can’t be all that bad. Kneecap were of course one of the most buzzed about acts of the whole festival and with their midnight set at Arena, they brought the political fury to an appreciative crowd. Krøyer stands out though as not just one of the best acts I saw all day but my favourite new discovery of the whole festival. Basically a one-woman industrial metal band, Ditte Krøyer screamed and growled her way through a cathartic, strobe light-filled musical exorcism.
And though staying to watch most of Krøyer’s set meant that I missed out on the bulk of Gorillaz’s show, I was fine with that as I still caught a handful of songs from the band, including their biggest tracks, “Feel Good Inc.” and “Clint Eastwood.” I also caught Damon Albarn getting a little emotional as he paused at one point to ask the crowd if he could get “deadly serious for a moment.” He then went on to launch into a bit of praise for Roskilde in particular and Denmark in general, noting that he fell in love with the place back in the early ’90s and has been coming back for more ever since. – a sentiment expressed by many artists over the week. Was it just sentimentality and the general good vibes of Roskilde that had Damon feeling all the feelings, or was he too possibly listening to some grindcore earlier? There’s no way of knowing for sure, but we do know he wasn’t all that into hearing anything from Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats that evening …
