Today was a beautiful day in Reykjavik for the start of Iceland Airwaves. Although as I'm writing, the rain has begun to fall- but the sliver lining to that cloud is that the rain makes it warmer than when it's clear. So it's a blessing and a curse.

Lots of people have arrived today. The town is filling up with music lovers, and everyone seems happy and excited.

The real event kicks off at 7:30pm tonight. In addition to all the "on-venue" or official events that make up Iceland Airwaves, there are also a lot of "off venue" performances. These are often at bookstores, coffee houses and smaller bars, and are usually very intimate.

I caught band Ghost doing an in-store show at the bookstore adjacent to our hotel. They have a "real show" tomorrow night before FM Belfast at Tunglið. I got there right as they were finishing, but I really liked them and can't wait to play more of their stuff for you.

Airwaves Officially Begins

We arrived a bit early to Tunglið (which means "The Moon" and is pronounced "Toon-Le-Oh") and the band playing was much too hard for our taste, so we walked next door to Organ to see who was playing. "Perla" was the band, and from the outside as we walked it, they seemed downtempo rock, but then erupted into full-bore death metal; albeit musically complex, and only for a while. Not really our kind of music, but the sort of thing you hear and say, wow, if I liked this kind of music these guys would be great. (And we mean that as a compliment.)

Back to Tunglið and an awesome set tonight by Icelandic band Borko. Don't let the silly-sounding name fool you, these people make beautiful music, mixing laptop electronica, trumpet, guitar, bass and drums. You'll be hearing more from them on Digitalis.

They were followed by local favorites Benni Hemm Hemm who did a good show, but nothing too surprising (we're scheduled to interview Benni

Later, "Hjaltalin" did a really good set at "The Moon". You don't find too many rock bands that feature Oboe and Violin, but they pull it off perfectly- their instrumentation never sounds gimmicky.

We left shortly after local favorites Retro Stefson went on, because frankly Tunglið was too crowded and you couldn't move, and there was a line a block long to get in outside. We figured we'd check out the band playing the "press party" at B5, "UltraMegaTechnoBandidStefan", another Icelandic band.

UltraMegaTechnoBandidStefan put on an Amazing show, and I think that the oldest member of the band was 19. Perhaps I exaggerate. But only about their youth, not about what a great show they put on. Imagine Kraftwerk re-incarnated as teenagers channeling the Sex Pistols and you might get these guys.

We'll have some videos uploaded tomorrow so you can see for yourself.

Tomorrow night: we'll probably see Soundspell, FM Belfast, Ghost, Gusgus, and some others. See you there!