Øya Festival 2014 Day Three: Blood Orange, Neutral Milk Hotel, Highasakite, and Robyn and Röyksopp

Highasakite

Highasakite, Neutral Milk Hotel, Röyksopp, Röyksopp and Robyn, Robyn, Øya Festival 2014, Øya Festival 2014: Day 3, Blood Orange

Øya Festival 2014 Day Three: Blood Orange, Neutral Milk Hotel, Highasakite, and Robyn and Röyksopp, August 8th, 2014

Aug 14, 2014 Röyksopp and Robyn By Laura Studarus Photography by Laura Studarus

Of all the highly anticipated sets of day three of Øya (Blood Orange, Neutral Milk Hotel, Robyn and Röyksopp among them) I didn’t expect that the one that would actively make me tear up a bit would be Oslo’s Highasakite. Clad in a sparkly blue top, frontwoman Ingrid Helene Håvik absolutely mesmerized the hometown crowd, her strong, clear soprano swooping and diving in a way that recordings simply do not do justice. I’m a fan of lyrics—it takes a strong aesthetic for me to overlook lines like “Am I the real Darth Vader?” But with the band’s blend of pop, throat singing, spaghetti western, and heavy percussion, they could have replaced all their semi-narrative lines with shopping lists and I would have probably still felt feelings.

Blood Orange (Dev Hynes and co) brought and impossible level of cool to their set—despite the fact that a run-in with a security guard at Lollapalooza Hynes had to hobble onto the stage using crutches. A noted songwriter for other musicians (including Solange and Sky Ferreira) Hynes felt comfortable enough to let his backing vocalists (which included girlfriend/Friends frontwoman Samantha Urbani) do much of the melodic heavy lifting. Somehow his subdued vocal lines and guitar work (often delivered while seated) only seem to enhance the mystery and sex appeal of the performance.

Neutral Milk Hotel had a strict “No Photography” policy during their set, which security guards enforced by flinging themselves directly at the offending parties. However, after the first song (“Two-Headed Boy”) frontman Jeff Mangum declared the policy “bullshit” and opened it up for cell phone snaps ‘a plenty. Cheers to the band for being cool enough to let fans getting fans getting on fans, and for writing an album like In an Aeroplane Over the Sea that still holds up.

Robyn and Röyksopp’s headlining set was an exercise in pop bombast. (Read: It was freaking fun.) First Röyksopp took the stage, eschewing most of their ambient material in favor of a dance-heavy set that heavily relied on material from Junior. (Special guest Susanne Sundfør was on hand to perform most of the vocal parts.) “Happy Up Here” wasn’t just a song—it seemed like a way of life for the gleeful Norwegians.

Next up, a mullet-sporting Robyn appeared, looking a bit like a 1980s android. Girlfriends were called, time machines were used, and she didn’t just dance on her own—she got the whole crowd to get down with her.

But the real fun started when Röyksopp and Robyn’s joined forces. Starting with Junior cut “The Girl and the Robot,” where Robyn serenaded the members of Röyksopp who were dressed like robots, all the way through to the confetti-heavy finale (standout collaborative single “Do it Again”), the paring made for a gleeful end to night number three.

Check out a gallery of day three photos here.

Check out an additional gallery of day three photos here.

(www.facebook.com/oyafestivalen)

(www.facebook.com/pages/Blood-Orange/141094315950968)

(www.facebook.com/pages/-Neutral-Milk-Hotel-/9075158370)

(www.facebook.com/highasakitemusic)

(www.facebook.com/robyn)

(www.facebook.com/Royksopp)