Thursday, November 1, 2012

Hellvar @ Airwaves 2012 - A Review by Grapevine

Compared to the two previous examples of callow youth, Hellvar have definitely been round the block a few times and had a feel of an indie rock version of The Expendables (To emphasis this point, here’s a lovely video of a young Heiða Hellvar singing back in the ‘90s with the band Unun!). This may seem snarky, but there’s a point to this. Despite their “experience,”  they rocked with more attitude, balls, desire, and played as if their lives DEPENDED ON IT, than people who were nearly half their age. And because they were such committed pros, they were actually ready 10 minutes early and managed to get an extra song in their set! True, some parts of their set music lacked finesse (their band member Gary The Laptop finally committed hara kiri on stage, forcing the band to drop their electro parts), but when they managed to hit the high end two part harmonies on “Falsetto,” it almost made my hairs stand on end.