Review by Northings
Vunkfest 2009
16 Jul 2009 in Festival, Music, Shetland, Visual Arts & Crafts
Lerwick and Voe, Shetland, 11-12 July 2009
Ten Tonne Dozer Rock the House (Photo - Karen Bruce/Vunk Ventures)
SHETLAND is renowned for its music festivals which feature local talent, cultural exchange, visiting bands and youth music programmes. This weekend saw the latest arrival on the island’s music scene. So, what was on? A fiddle frenzy? An evening of folk? No, this was VunkFest, an extravagance of hard core punk, heavy rock, ska and groove metal.
Vunk Ventures is a not-for-profit collaboration set up to promote these musical genres. It is perhaps odd that such a loud form of music it is not often heard in Shetland, and VunkFest aims to fix that. ‘Vunk’ is an old Norn word meaning “a fit of caprice or merriment”, and that does sum up the spirit of Vunk.
The festival took place at the Norscot Angling Club in Lerwick and at the Pierhead in Voe. VunkFest is about original music but also about the free-flowing connections between music and visual art. A succession of bands made for a throbbing, hot Saturday night, whilst Sunday provided a mellower atmosphere and show of art inspired by the music.
Vunk Ventures is run by a committee and two of the driving forces behind the project are Dave Kok and Karen Bruce, whose backgrounds in music and visual art respectively gave rise to this collaborative, cross-artform festival.
Saturday night was a slick operation. Nine bands played sets of thirty minutes each and the turn over was tight, making for a high-octane odyssey that began with ambient punk and ended in a dervish of heavy rock and metal.
There were five Shetland bands. Hidden Agenda, whose rocky undertones were overlaid with bouncy lyrics and a cheeky sniff of pop. Poison Popcorn’s ambient punk medley ranged from the hypnotic and esoteric to the roaring. Abundant guitar effects melted over feisty, sparky drums making for an experimental, energetic and esoteric set.
El Pedro pumped out punky rock on bed of ska and reggae with much enthusiastic audience participation. Where else can you see a bunch of sweaty men screaming the lyrics ‘I Love You’ to each other?
Bacchus are 100% punk. They make original music in and often about Shetland, and had the dance floor sprawling onto the stage in a cacophony of Oi Oi Oi’s.
Shetland’s Scandinavian connections are not only to be found in traditional music, as Bacchus proved with ‘Babu’, a song borrowed from Faroese musicians. But ‘Babu’ is not a Faroese word, it is what happens when the sound of an ambulance siren is transformed into a gutsy, shout-a-long chorus.
Ten Tonne Dozer is the island’s groove metal and heavy rock combo. Like Bacchus, they have toured extensively in the UK and Europe. These, then, are musical ambassadors with following, growl, force and gusto.
VunkFest bought together bands from Shetland, Orkney, Inverness, Aberdeen and Glasgow. With a ‘Meet and Greet’ on the Friday night and a youth session for 12 to 18 year olds on Saturday morning, it is about showcasing original Shetland music but also introducing new influences, ideas and sounds.
Dirty Ride’s singer mutated from a polite, softly spoken Orcadian into a roaring mass of bulging blood vessels when he took to the stage. He was backed by rocking guitar and dirty beats making for a strong, playful set. This was only their third gig and Dirty Ride already ooze tight, experimental rock. A band to keep an eye (and ear) on.
The theatrically titled Brothel Corpse Trio blended horror punk with a double bass to create what they intriguingly describe as ‘Corpseabilly’. With the tempo rising it was then up to Inverness’s Stolen Order and Glasgow’s Attica Rage to notch it up to a crescendo of pure rock and metal. No room for flimsy fashion here, this is heavy, unadulterated hard core rock’n’roll, and the crowd lapped it up.
VunkFest drew an audience whose musical allegiances were emblazoned on their chests. The Angling Club was awash with band T-shirts ranging from UK Subs and The Ramones to AC/DC, making for a useful reminder of the musical traditions that spawn Vunk.
VunkFest’s spirit of collaboration is summed up in Jono Sandilands, who not only plays in Brothel Corpse Trio, but is also a recent graduate of Grey’s School of Art. Jono’s art work at the Pierhead saw the lyrics from Vunk bands’ songs cut into materials such as metal, plastic, fur and carpet, and then hung in the windows.
They included delights such as ‘I am a Yeti, I am a Yeti’ and ‘We’re Here to Make Your F*%king Ears Bleed’. No editing on the original, mind. This is an agitating movement in music that has always made free and hearty use of expletives in its expression.
Tirval Scott (also of Poison Popcorn) made surreal juxtapositions that mix computer wizardry and humour with strong, colourful compositions, whilst Orkney photographer Tom O’Brien explores music through portraiture and images of live performance.
Karen Bruce’s photographs catch the spirit of the mosh pit. There are revellers in mid-flight, frozen grimaces and punk roars. She had also suspended drum skins embellished with photography, plastic and leather in the rafters of the Pierhead, including one made at the gig the night before. The art was accompanied by hearty Sunday dinners, films by The Orkney Movie Group and a set from Poison Popcorn.
Art forms are too often pigeon-holed but what VunkFest does is forge connection by subject matter rather than art form in a way that is stimulating and refreshing. A visiting musician was overheard singing the praises of organiser Dave Kok, a Shetland resident with Antipodean roots: apparently, “Everywhere needs a crazy Australian”.
Maybe so, and with 200 people through the door on Saturday, VunkFest looks set to establish itself as an annual event in Shetland. To quote Bacchus, this is a genre of music that should indeed ‘Stand Up and Be Counted’
© Karen Emslie, 2009
