Iceage Heats Up Market Hotel in Brooklyn, NY
By Erin Christie
Called “Denmark’s Greatest Punk Band” by Newsweek Magazine, Copenhagen’s trophy-child Iceage is making their mark globally, one black eye at a time. The band’s members—Elias Bender Rønnenfelt (lead vocals), Jakob Tvilling Pless (bass), Dan Kjær Nielsen (drums) and Johan Suurballe Wieth (guitar)—joined forces prior to their high school graduations, on the cusp of adolescence into young adulthood, and have continued to gain momentum since. Armed with angst and an expansive knowledge of late 70s and 80s punk, Rønnenfelt and co. beg for revolution and their efforts have paid off greatly.
The last date of their roughly two month long North American run took place at Brooklyn’s own Market Hotel on the 28th of June. As the venue is located above a busy supermarket in the heart of the borough, one can only imagine how easy it could’ve been for the floor of the venue to collapse, the audience and band meeting cool linoleum and the scent of fresh greenery. Though the physical floor remained intact, within the venue a type of destruction just as catastrophic still took place. The air was murky with humidity and passion in the aftermath.
Upon hearing that the band’s record, Beyondless, (released earlier this year) was their FOURTH, I was shocked that I hadn’t heard of them, or any of those previous records, before considering their greatness. Throughout the past month alone, they’ve been blaring through my pulsing earbuds as I played Beyondless almost obsessively. But can you blame me? With time, though, I’m sure more and more people will begin to catch on, as I did.
Beyondless is sweet AND sultry, bold AND understated, crude, yet still business- professional. It’s a brave concoction that sits like fine wine, an acquired taste that is just as easy to entrance as it is to take by surprise. Thriving off of unpredictability, Iceage’s work is not about shock-value, but more about provoking audiences with what they otherwise wouldn’t expect. In a live atmosphere, this rings even more true. Like the actual Ice Age, Iceage brings a devastating chill accompanied seamlessly with the promise of new life: a new life for the early days of punk that were seemingly buried in the dust long ago.
In another life, it wouldn’t be difficult to picture Rønnenfelt as a Renaissance novelist, nose buried in dust-ridden texts, searching for inspiration. Aside from his missing petticoat, Rønnenfelt embodies literary prowess. On this album, as well as the three previous, his writing is drenched in rich imagery and filled with color. Lines such as “If we must, we'll have us pinned like butterflies / Framed in glass displays / As we're three sheets to the wind” (taken from “Thieves Like Us”) provoke startling imagery of spindly fairy-like beings, entrapped in a predicament of their own making. Iceage has a way of creating caricatures such as this that are stunningly beautiful, yet equally as thrilling, creating a platform for picturesque poetry to take form.
“You arrive like a siren refrain,” Rønnenfelt croons on another track (and one of the early singles), “Pain Killer,” recalling his lover’s killer quality hidden behind a delicate porcelain mask. Like a siren’s song, his lover’s words were enough to render him hopeless, under a trance of lust and desire that, as Rønnenfelt himself describes, “might not be good for [him].”
“Hurrah,” undoubtedly one of the most noteworthy of this most recent release is an ode to CBGB. Throughout the track, undertones of blaring bass tumble over the rhythm and into the mind like an earworm, relentless and there to stay. Much to the crowd’s delight, it was one of the opening tracks played that evening: during it, the venue of no more than 300 people surged with an unmatched energy. The sheer heat within the room made my glasses fog, worsened so by the amount of jumping and dancing I decided to engage in (justifiably so!)
Rønnenfelt is a temptress of his own design on stage, cracking his microphone cord like a whip and stomping around the platform. He effortlessly commands the venue like a puppet-master, and the crowd bends at his touch. As I wielded my camera before him, eager to capture his utter beauty, I recall him crouching down close and sitting on the amp directly in front of me. Though my camera was slightly smushed under his weight, I didn’t care as we screamed the lyrics into each other’s faces.
As I exited Market Hotel after the show, my ears ringing and my calves weak from having almost never touched the floor throughout the entirety of their set, euphoria surged through my veins, a feeling only equivalent to what I’d imagine true, unapologetic happiness feels like.
Though this was the last date of this particular run, Iceage will be back on tour with Black Lips this fall! Also, make sure to keep up with them on social media for the latest (@iceage).