Wait a moment. What the hell was that? I mean, I come to Hamburg (getting into speed control right at the beginning, of course, what else), expecting a nice concert but nothing more – and what do I get? This was amazing, can’t believe it!
To cut it short – the concert was fabulous, the audience went mad right from the first second (in Hamburg!), and Kaizers were verrrrry talkative… *gg*. Somehow I have the feeling I won’t remember much to tell here – but I spent the whole concert either jumping around or laughing my head off, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who had lots of fun. =;-)
The setlist was a little shorter than in Norway, sadly. Christiania and På ditt skift were missing, but instead we got “Die Polizei” at the end! Yeah!
Here’s the setlist:
KGB, Delikatessen, Knekker deg til sist, Di grind, Container, Senor Flamingos adieu, Blitzregn baby, Bøn fra helvete, Ompa til du dør, Evig pint, Kontroll på kontinentet, Dieter Meyers Inst., Maestro. Encore Gypsy Finale, and then Die Polizei.
When I look at that now I realize that there’s several more songs missing – but during the show I only remembered Christiania and På ditt skift. Well, let’s see what the setlist looks like in Berlin…
Well, as always, the show started with a great performance of Geoff Berner – awesome, the audience was really listening, understood most jokes and participated. Partly so much that Mr. Artist threatened to wait outside after the concert and remember the face of the guy interrupting him, he he he. Then he announced the “guys with the tin cans” (who hung around backstage smoking by the way – well, some people would call that a smoke machine, but well, not Geoff Berner! *lol*), and shortly after, the Russian Dance came on. The nice and fancy new red logo had to stay in Norway, sadly, it was just too heavy – so they had the old round one again with the light bulbs – also nice, but not as nice as the new one… too bad! Next time, then…
KGB without sax is also possible, but somehow, the atmosphere wasn’t quite right yet during the first song. I’m not sure whether that was because of Hamburg or if maybe KGB is not the right starting song for Germany. But it didn’t matter, already during Delikatessen the audience was going crazy. *g* I don’t remember the Jackal’s welcome, but he pointed out at once that this was gonna be a “good Tuesday” (“Wait, it IS Tuesday, isn’t it? When you’re on tour, every day is a Saturday!”). Then he wanted to know who has the new album already – “but you’re lying anyway” – huh? *lol*
And then of course all the standard questions in Germany – how many Scandinavians are there? How many Danish? The answer was pretty many, but only raising their hands one after the other – “come on, don’t be shy!” How many Swedes? How many Germans? “And now I’d like to know where all the rest comes from. Slovenia?” – and of course someone shouted “here” at that point. *rofl*
Bøn fra helvete was then the first song with “real” oil barrel playing. Somehow they needed some time to get ready, Hellraizer had to caress his barrel first, the poor thing goes through a lot, you know… And the Jackal needed some time also. But then Hellraizer could assure us: “Don’t worry. We’ve done that before! Just don’t try it at home.” And also the Jackal could calm us down: “Whatever happens: Don’t panic! Just, DON’T PANIC!” Well, that of course caused some panicky screams in the audience. Jackal: “NO! Whatever you do, DON’T PANIC!” And so on for some minutes… *rofl*
At some point in time, someone called something in Norwegen, don’t remember what it was about – I think something like they should talk some Norwegian on stage or something. Comment the Jackal: “Oh, there’s also Finnish people in here?” And facing Hellraizer: “That sounded like a Finnish guy trying to speak Norwegian.” Hellraizer: “Nah, that sounded like a Danish guy trying to sound Norwegian.” Jackal: “No, if something, then a Swede.” All in Norwegian, of course. *g* And then they continued: “Actually, it’s a nice idea to speak Norwegian during a concert in Germany, that’s unusual.” Hellraizer: “Yeah, but nobody will understand.” Jackal: “Yeah, only very few people do. Who understands what I’m saying now?” There were only seven people raising their hands. Back to English: “And who understands what I say now?” Lots of cheers; Hellraizer: “Seems like eight or so…” *lol* So the result was that we should announce the next song in Norwegian, and yes, we could do that – it was Kontroll på kontinentet.
In the middle of the song, the Jackal climbed off the stage and on the rail of the stairs up to the gallery, where he spent the rest of the song (with torn pants *g*) hanging from some pole. But disregarding all torn tissue and torn skin (reminder: oil barrels with sharp edges are baaaad… *shiver*), the show on stage went on, including climbing the barrels, introduction of the band, towel on the head and whatever else. Just amazing.
Then there was something about the title of the next song being almost German (Dieter Meyers Inst.), and what’s the most typical German male name (Kaizers: “All men here are called either Fritz or Heinz!”) – but not “Dieter Meyer?!?”. Elvis was also there again, handing over the guitar, and what better thing is there in the world than to send Elvis off stage? “Actually, we wanted Roy Orbison, but he’s dead.”
Before they played Maestro, they asked if Hamburg people could dance – one very loud “YES!” was of course a good reason to get the girl on stage to dance there – but she wasn’t really excited by that though (one could put it like this: she ran away *lol*), but it wasn’t that hard to find a replacement. That girl spent Maestro on stage, dancing with the Jackal and listening to Hellraizer explaining her how to use the ma… shit, what are they called in English? The rattle things, I mean. *g*
Then they were gone, and when they came back, the Jackal asked if we wanted to hear one more song? Or two? Or three? “Well, you have to say how many songs you want to hear!” Then of course he got lots of full hands… *g* “20? If you have 20 fingers, that means you must be a cripple!” But Hellraizer explained: “That’s a different currency.” *rofl*
During Sigoynerblod, Minken ran to the front of the stage, shouting “schneller, schneller!”. Well, Killmaster understood “shaver”, or something. *g* So the Jackal turned his mike into a shaver, but then he explained to Killmaster that “schneller” means “faster”. Then the usual “say schneller” – but: “Hey, I said _say_ schneller, not _scream_ schneller!” And then we had to _say_ it first, then whisper it, then “love” it. That’s what they liked most, and afterwards we also had to “love Kaizer”. *rofl*
Between two songs, the audience got really quiet – Jackal: “Now, that’s a great audience. Can you also do the opposite?” – of course we could! One girl was squeaking very shrilly all the time. Hellraizer: “There is one pig in here!” The Jackal wanted to hear the squeaking over and over again then, just to complain afterwards that it hurts. =;-)
Well, and during Resistansen, everybody had to sing again of course and scream and shout hey and whatever, and when the Jackal wanted to start singing again, people were shouting and squeaking all the time, breaking his concentration – “I’m an artist, I can’t work like this.” To the next who shouted something: “Out! Hey, Fritz, throw him out!” Ähm ja, and of course the Jackal lost the key in the meantime and had no idea how to start again (and somehow he didn’t appreciate Killmaster’s help: “Hey, I’m an artist, I need my concentration!” *rofl*), the last verse was pure free style. Well, he’s an artist, he needs his concentration… *lol*
As the audience continued singing long after Kaizers had gone off stage, they had to return of course and play “Die Polizei”. Totally amazing, even though hardly anybody knew the song. Then a thank you to the people in front, the people in the back, the people on the stairs, on the gallery – and at the bar. “Did I forget anyone?” *g* Off they went, and the audience continued singing for at leat five more minutes… a song they had never heard before – awesome!
Well, and then I was totally finished and amazed and whatever, I still can’t believe it. So I didn’t even wonder about the Jackal taking over the merch stand lateron and giving advice to people about what shirts to buy, fitting to their personality… *lol*
Greetings to everybody I met, it is so great to just drive to the other end of Germany and be welcomed by so many people, yeah! Thank you!
And now I should probably get on my way to Berlin, I think… *g*