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Sunday, July 04, 2004

Roskilde is Mudkilde - Iggy Rocks, Morrisey falls a bit flat

I forgot to mention it had rained a bit Thursday and Friday here, and also it has been unseasonably cool. Friday at the Festival was a bit damp, but nothing like Saturday. Veritable downpours on the way to the festival and after we arrived turned parts of the festival grounds into swampland. I'm not one to complain about a bit of mud, but really, it is so bad we have decided to opt out today and let our shoes dry. But here's a recap of yesterday.

We did some laundry in the afternoon, and I got a haircut. It started to rain around 2 p.m. and a search for rubber boots that we thought might come in handy proved fruitless. Apparently Copenhagen is nearly sold out due to the demands placed on it by 75,000 festival mudhoppers.

We caught a bit of Kings of Leon before heading to the Shins show. The Shins told the crowd they were from New Mexico and that that was "a long ass way from here." I was thinking I would be able to say how nice it was to see the Shins in something less than a shoulder to shoulder First Avenue, but it started to rain again about 5 songs into their set and things got ugly. Rain poured off the edge of the tent where we were standing and it was like taking a shower. Then some idiot young people started pushing, literally, trying to shove their friends deeper into the crowd. Real smart thing to do less than 200 yards from where 9 Germans lost their lives from the exact same thing just a few years ago. Before we left though, we were treated to a really nice slow version of "New Slang."

Iggy and the Stooges were on the main (Orange) stage and put on a forbidable show. In Sean Hoffman's words, "They've still got it." Iggy's pants slid down to reveal his 57 year old butt crack at times, but he is still the king of cool. A highlight for me was my favorite Stooges song 1969. They played I Wanna Be Your Dog twice, once during the set, and once during the encore. It poured during the middle of the set and we shared our umbrella, but this did nothing to dampen the show.

We managed to stay late enough to catch a bit of Morrissey. He started at midnight, but I knew we'd kick ourselves if we missed him. Problem was it was again very crowded at the Arena stage, though not so bad as at NERD the day before. Morrissey's show featured a cool 15 foor tall light show bearing his name, but his set proved self-indulgent and featured so many slow ballads I felt like I was in England. The crowd started to trickle out a bit to head to Fatboy Slim on the Orange Stage. Morrissey played a few Smiths songs including "There is a Light...". We could not wait to get to my new favorite, "America is Not The World" and we headed out around 1 a.m. taking the bus back to Copenhagen.

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