Daði Freyr at First Avenue (October 17, 2026)

After a long run of way above normal temperatures, it finally plummeted to expected autumnal fare, cool-ish in the day and cold at night. Perhaps some winds blew in from the northern climes of Europe. If so, it was completely appropriate, as it was going to be an Icelandic invasion as Daði Freyr was playing at a pretty packed First Avenue main room on a Saturday night in a cool Minneapolis.

BRÍET (full name: Bríet Ísis Elfar) was the opener. The Icelandic singer has some EPs as well as the full length album Kveðja from 2020, which won her the Icelandic Music Awards album of the year in 2021. That album was a mix of pop and country, with the country music mostly winning out. Appearing solo with guitar, BRÍET started with that Americana feel and vocal tone, which is always a little odd to hear from a European (we noted in our review of Kaleo from September 2025, and oh, she has/is(?) dating the lead singer of that band). There was an early feedback issue (likely a faulty cable) that she fought through in the opener. It was jarring to hear the Icelandic accent and even occasional sentence from her in the banter, because when she started singing again, the southern American tone was back in full force. She told us most of the music would be from a recent EP, I think called Act I, with themes of “heartbreak & break ups” and had her reaching for the harmonica and also firing up the computer for drums and other backing music. Sweet Escape was free of the tech issues from the first song and things were back on track. An amusing anecdote about running into a very country musician in Nashville (where she said the recent album was recorded) led into Cowboy Killer, which included an on the fly attempt to teach the crowd to sing a vocal chorus (6/10?, maybe a little higher if we grade on a curve). Putting the guitar away for a more orchestral backing track led to an electropop dance number and the musical whiplash was in full swing. Finishing on another country song Walk Out the Door, BRÍET had finished a mostly Americana country run in a quick thirty minute set. 

Daði Freyr was up for an excited crowd. The electropop artist is sometimes identified as part of the “left field pop” subgenre, which has the catchy hooks of pop with unconventional or avant garde productions or arrangements. This seems to fit with his self description of aiming “his music to be fun, thoughtful, and a little unexpected”. Although at it since at least 2016, Freyr first hit the international music scene with the planned 2020 Eurovision song for Iceland, Think About Things. Though that event was cancelled, things had taken off. With the 2026 album Too Much Not Enough, we were sure to get plenty of the new work along with a smattering of earlier material. After a ridiculous video intro, Freyr came to stage solo and was as silly as you could absolutely hope he could be. A great early moment was where it seemed things had gone off track, but he jumped back on the mic with a lyric “nothing’s wrong” and you had to appreciate the approach. I Don’t Want to Talk Now was written for his wife and let him go fully into his pop humor, as he grabbed a guitar in support. This was so wildly effective, and the video screen of multiple Freyrs in identical costumes playing the instruments from the backing tracks (including backing vocals) was a great head nod to the technology at play. Although he mentioned it was his ninth show in ten days and that he was “sour in the head, running at 20% capacity”, he didn’t really show signs of being anything but at the top of his game. This was tremendous showmanship and after some fabulous direction of crowd applause, rolling into I’m Fine and hitting the dance notes hard. 

Although he had the backing tracks, Freyr was also constantly on the move with guitars, keyboards and various electronic instrument controls. This was hard work and the superficial easy going performance attitude belied how precise and demanding this all was. Make no mistake, this was professionalism at its finest, hidden like Dean Martin’s famed faked drunkenness on stage. His humor was off the charts and he had an on the spot made up song I’m So Sorry, which showed his ability to incorporate what was happening right during the show. And that he was headed into a song called Flying F**k continued to show that balance between fall down humor and clever pop music. An Icelandic song (“My only one of the night!”) had the audience clapping along even as they couldn’t understand a word, which tells you how completely in control Freyr was. That lower bass singing carried a lot of weight, and I’m Not Bitter had an impressive display of using it in a slightly higher register and the dance mode continued on, complete with disco ball effect on the back screens. Whole Again was a good cover that had the crowd singing along and Freyr showing how pleased he was with how things were going. He headed off stage for a video interlude and the second set started with 10 Years, continuing the silly dance feel that checked the left field pop box. Jokes continued at a rapid clip, but always held by the solid songs and Freyr had things exactly where he wanted them and a cover of Unwritten had the crowd at 10/10 in singing along. One More Night was “another song about partying”, but Daði Freyr had cleverly made an evening that let the audience simply be happy for a while, and in these times, that’s a true gift. The main set could only end one way, and Think About Things was the perfect electropop capstone. The encore started with a fairly brief version of Purple Rain but it was solidly done, which is saying something. Closing with Thank You, Daði Freyr had really shown a charismatic and well organized production and had made a show to remember.