A week off, traveling north, long hours on the train and reaching my second favourite city of Sweden – Östersund. With the best of company and three days of music I have had a grand vacation. Between meeting new friends, hearing a lot of familiar and a little new music it is with such such such nostalgia that I already look back on my week. How could it end, why is there not more…

During the week I had the chance to see 16 bands in total, several of them however I only caught half or less of. The Majority (all but two) of those are Swedish. The genres are surprisingly well spread across the board, ranging from hard rock to indie pop.

Thursday

• Oscar Linnros
• Nejra
• Shout Out Louds
• Europe
• Raubtier

Friday

• Melissa Horn
• Johnossi
• Sarah Blasko
• Teenage Fanclub
• Kent
• Familjen

Saturday

• Dream Evil
• Jeanette Lindström
• Lars Winnerbäck
• Hoffmaestro & Chraa
• The Teddybears

Teddybears

They had an amazing night with all the necessary components for a great concert. A mix and mash of genres, such a tempo that leaves you out of breath after every track, and the crowd at their mercy – Loved it, and it deserves my best of for the festival.

Kent

I have seen them a few time, but some how I can’t get enough of their synth-enlightened indie pop goodness. Atmosphere and an amazing drive makes them a must see.

Melissa Horn

It rained and the poncho was kind of mostly getting in the way… but there was nothing that was going to stop me from enjoying an hour of Sweden’s most talented young musician. There is an unparalleled amount of emotion and beauty radiating of stage and I just don’t want it to stop.

Nejra

Played at the most cosy stage of Yran Nejra had a great concert. In the depths of the building one reaches a smallish room set-up with a few sofa-groups and at the front, two lines of couches. Right on the second row some ~3m from the stage I was able to get to learn Nejra’s music like never before. Intimate and wonderful.

Winnerbäck

There is so much Östersund tradition and homage here to the local people that flies right past me, but even so the stage lights up with an ensemble of great musicians playing some of the best Swedish music available. Winnerbäck has been perfecting his craft for a long while and it is only getting better.

Should have been in the top five…

Due to conflicting times and interests I have a few concerts I mostly or completely missed that I wanted to see more of. The first one is Familjen of which I only caught the last three tracks or so. They play some brilliant electro and listening to the end of it was enough to understand what I had missed! Second on the list (and right at the top of my must see list) is Hoffmaestro and Chraa. Due to another concert – Lars Winnerbäck – I only had time to see the last track. Considering the amount of touring Hoffmaestro is doing right now this is not a huge problem and I look forward to catching them at another venue and time.

I would also like to thank everyone there for an amazing week! Thank you all. And here, especially for everyone (yes you) that didn’t get too see N.E.R.D and Pharell that cancelled their concert – Johnossi tribute.

My youtube videos can be viewed in this playlist. Also would like to thank Dreamingtree72 on youtube for some excellent videos of various concerts I myself didn’t get any footage of.

So long and thanks for all the fish

Richard