From Iceland — Matt's Fave Airwaves 2014 Shots

Matt’s Fave Airwaves 2014 Shots

Published November 12, 2014

Matthew Eisman
Photo by
Matthew Eisman

That Matthew Eisman sure was busy during Iceland Airwaves. In addition to shooting an absurd number of band portraits at our Hafnarstræti office throughout the festival, Matthew was also on staff with Iceland Airwaves, responsible for capturing live shows every night. He sent us an assortment of his favourite shots from the bash, along with some notes on each. Here they are, in the order that he shot them in!

Vök In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Vök – My first shoot of Airwaves. What’s not to like about a sax player rocking out?

Júníus Meyvant In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Júníus Meyvant – What I thought would be a standard singer/songwriter-type performance turned out to be ten-piece band kicking out infectious, 60’s soul-inspired tunes.

Kippi Kaninus In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Kippi Kaninus – Elements of electronic, brass and noise blended together into instrumental jams that were catchy too. Way cool.

Ásgeir In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Ásgeir – Fresh off a headlining US tour, Ásgeir sounded tighter and more confident than ever.

Lay Low In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Lay Low – She busted out footstompin’ old favorites and a tender new tune. Good stuff!

Kaleo In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Kaleo – For such a young band, it’s striking how mature they sound and how well they work an audience.

Vío In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Vío – They won the most recent Músíktilraunir award for up-and-coming bands so I wanted to check em out.

Geislar In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Geislar – How could this group not be awesome given that it consists of members from other great Icelandic bands like Hjaltalín, Moses Hightower and Drangar?

Alice Bowman In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Alice Bowman – Dreamy and tinged with sadness.

Phox In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Phox – Lead singer Monica Martin has the voice of a Siren. I really liked this gig. One of my favorite discoveries of the festival.

Megas and Grísalappalísa In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Megas / Grísalappalísa – Best gig of Airwaves by a country mile (in my humble opinion). Explosive energy and absurdly fun…it was everything good about rock ‘n’ roll.

La Femme In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
La Femme – Disco, punk and Lucha Libre masks. I’ll take it.

Árstíðir In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Árstíðir – Some of the hardest-working, nicest guys around. They flew off almost right after this gig for a five-week tour in Sweden and Russia. They’re probably freezing their balls off in Siberia right now.

Ylja In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Ylja – Folky with some beautiful vocal harmonies.

Döpur In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Döpur – Noise/feedback/drone project of Krummi (Legend, Mínus). I’m partial to anything Krummi-related.

Mugison In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Mugison – This was a special moment when Mugison’s wife joined him on stage. She’s a music teacher and currently on strike. Important stuff people!

Anna Calvi In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Anna Calvi – Guitar shredding, powerhouse vocals and huge lighting. Definitely one of my favorite shoots.

Ibibio Sound Machine - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Ibibio Sound Machine – Funky and colorful. Crowd had a blast and so did I!

Adult Jazz - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Adult Jazz – All hands on deck.

FM Belfast - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
FM Belfast – Capturing a moment this like is about as good as it gets as a music photographer.

Valdimar In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Valdimar – Went to Laundromat to grab a burger and one of my favorite local bands happened to be playing. Score!

Samaris In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Samaris – Dark, mysterious and haunting.

Vorhees In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Vorhees – She looped interweaving guitar lines, drum patterns and vocals. Only caught her last song but would’ve liked to hear more.

The Knife In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
The Knife – Probably the most hyped performance of the festival. Visually stunning, but not my cup of tea.

Future Islands In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Future Islands – All heart and sweat. Frontman Samuel T. Herring paced around the stage like a caged animal and was completely captivating. Didn’t know much about them beforehand but I’m a believer now.

Grísalappalísa In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Grísalappalísa – A band so nice I had to shoot them twice.

Byrta In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Byrta – Heard good things from a friend so I dropped in for a couple songs.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Fuzzed-out riffs and badass drummer.

The War on Drugs In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
The War On Drugs – ‘Lost in the Dream’ is one of my favorite records of 2014. It was great to hear those songs take off live.

The Flaming Lips In Concert - Iceland Airwaves Music Festival 2014
The Flaming Lips – I shot The Lips a couple years ago and wasn’t really blown away. But looking back, it was probably because they played in the middle of afternoon at an outdoor festival and the mood was totally wrong. This gig was completely different. Perfect atmosphere and tons of positive energy. Loved it!

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