Written By: Ola’s Kool Kitchen
Hann sem óttast Death Get ekki njóta lífsins!– Icelandic for “He Who Fears Death Cannot Enjoy Life”– is the mantra for the ethos behind the Dead Skeletons, who have embarked on their first tour ever with a small handful of dates across Europe. I was present in London to record the gig for future broadcasting and lucky enough to experience this blossoming band at the beginning of their tour life. Before the show, I met Jon Saemunder Audarson, or “Nonni Dead”, as he is more commonly known, is the front man who spawned the band in 2008 as part of an installation for a show at the Reykjavik art museum. I asked him if he was nervous. He said no, and told me he did yoga and that seemed to ground him before performing, I believed him, he looked like a man engaged in the yogic arts, lithe, bright eyed and very full of life. The air was filled with anticipation. The venue appeared heaving with a sell-out. Oscillation were the opening band and celebrity DJ Tim Burgess from The Charlatan’s all added a special luster to the evening’s proceedings.
With Dead Skeletons, the extra dimension is the layers within their presentation. It’s not solely about the music. It is an interactive experience that possesses a philosophy and rich iconic imagery. The empty stage was monopolized by an old TV with the Dead Skeletons and Dead TV logo, circled by what appeared to be some ancient runic script, blinking at the audience. Nonni opened the ritual by adorning the television with burning incense and proceeded to paint a large canvas where he drew a caricature-like dark passenger of death.
Thus the festivities begun, with the TV prominently glowing at center-stage as a strange ornament, and the rest of the band flanked a few paces behind and around it. Nonni was an exotic bird with turban wrapped around his head; a textile sash wax fastened around his waist with beaded charm around his neck and the artwork he created tattooed along his arms. He didn’t just create the art; it lived along his person on his very flesh. Nonni was like a shamanic snake charmer and his singing voice echoed a droning pied piper whisking you away to his cathedral in the sky. The show had many elements of a religious experience, incense, rose-colored visuals, and a high priest TV.
On stage, the sound was rich and I looked forward to a playback of the decent recording afterwards. Musically, I find it difficult to describe the Dead Skeletons‘ sound. It does have traditional elements including that of psychedelic music, shoegaze, drone, and space rock, but it has this beat that gives it a danceable quality, a kind of cross-over of something else. The front row of the audience reflected this well with hand gestures and gyrations in the vein of Balinese dancers, slightly anachronistic with the European audience performing them.
To sum it up for you, it was a neo-religious, art house experience. Like the Twilight Zone, a tantalizing of the senses and entering another dimension of sight and sound. A band needs to find and communicate with its audience in order to be successful. Many people were dazed afterwards, the general consensus exclaiming it was a very special event, indeed. Dead Skeletons have found a home in London where their musical vision has been very warmly embraced. For those who wish to relive the glory or were not able to see any of the European shows, fear not, for Ola’s Kool Kitchen will be broadcasting this London gig very soon!