So, let’s go to Switzerland now! Pretty close to where I live actually, but because of some bad stuff like road toll and Swiss Francs I hardly ever go there – so I’ve never been in either Bern or Zürich up to now. So I first did a little “speed sightseeing” after arriving in Bern, and it turned out you can cover all the important sights in only one and a half hours. And it’s a beautiful city, I liked it a lot!
Then I went to the club and found it more by accident than on purpose (it’s basically impossible to hide a concert place better than that) – in the end you could hardly miss it though because of the huge amount of people crowding up in front of the club. So those were the people that wanted to get in but didn’t have a ticket yet – probably they didn’t get one either. The club was _really_ tiny. OK, spread across three floors, but you could only see something of the concert in the concert “hall” – which was about the size of my living room. =:-o And of course this small atmosphere should have an influence on the concert, no doubts about that.
But it started with Geoff Berner of course, who came on stage and first introduced himself. After all, he’s called BERNer. No relatives or descendants, though. *g* He talked a lot on stage this time, which seemed to be a little to much for the audience at least at the beginning (“do – you – understand – what – I – am – saying?”), but during the “Stupid”-song at the latest they started to wake up. And I loved the set again.
Then it started to get really crowded, and the Russian Dance came on. There were some surprises in the set list this time: KGB, Delikatessen, Knekker deg til sist, Container, Senior Flamingos Adieu, Blitzregn Baby, Bøn fra helvete, Di grind, Kontroll på kontinentet, Christiania, Evig pint, Maestro. Encore Ompa til du dør and Gypsy Finale, second encore Dr. Mowinckel.
The first thing the Jackal did was introducing Geoff Berner as an American from Texas (“What, he told you he was from Canada? Oh, this was only a joke, you didn’t get that.”) Then he explained that he himself, just like the club, was celebrating his 35th birthday today; so he made the audience sing him a birthday song. (Which we had to do again during the encore, but that time for the ISC. *g*)
Then the typical questions – who’s from Denmark? Who’s from Finnland? Somehow both questions were answered yes by two guys in front… “Now, how can that be? You’re mother’s from Denmark and your father from Finnland? OK, so the next question will be interesting now: Who’s from Sweden?” – Interestingly, the guy didn’t raise his hand this time. “Ah, okay, this would have been bad anyway, seems you know us!” And who’s from Norway? “Argh, the crew in the back can take their hands down…” *lol* Then there was a survey who had seen Kaizers before and for who it was the first Kaizers concert, and then the Jackal wanted to know whether there’s people downstairs watching the concert on screen – no reaction. “Hey, there’s people down there watching on the screen, right?” No reaction. “Ooh, that’s bad. We came a loooong way for this!”
In general, there was a lot of interaction with the crowd, of course, no wonder in that small a club. And if you can’t climb the barrels ’cause the ceiling is so low, you have to run through the audience back to the front-of-house. =;-) So Killmaster played his solo during Kontroll på kontinentet from the back of the hall, the Jackal carried Hellraizer on his shoulder through the audience, and the Jackal himself was more in the audience than on stage (ok, almost *g*). =;-) During the “faster” part of Sigøynerblod, he disappeared from the stage and into the mosh pit, until Killmaster ordered him back so they could go on with Bak et halleluja. *g* And at some point in time he just surfed back from the back of the hall to the stage, was probably easier than fighting his way through the crowd. =;-)
Before they played Kontroll på kontinentet, someone in the crowd shouted something, forgot what, so the Jackal asked “What’s your name?” and the answer was “My name is Sean!” – Hellraizer was excited: “He answered in a complete sentence!” *rofl* So he had to get to the front and dance, sing a long AND clap at the same time during Kpk.
Then at some point in time the Jackal started to talk in Norwegian (didn’t get anything except for “tusen hjertelige takk for det” though), and then he asked who had understood that – “So, you’re here because of the music, right? Not because of the great lyrics, ’cause you don’t understand them. Just because of the music. Or maybe because of our good looks?” Big cheers. “Hellraizer, I said it. You owe me 100 bucks.” And when Killmaster started to grin: “YOU owe me 200.” =;-) Hellraizer wanted to know then whether it was Francs or Euros – of course Euros, no question about it. *g* Then a little survey who _really_ was there because of the lyrics – turned out it was 5 people, or something. They were invited backstage to drink some red wine and discuss the lyrics. But Killmaster offered to go down to the bar, drink whiskey and discuss the music with the rest of the audience. *g*
Later the Jackal did the Sennheiser announcement again. Killmaster was sitting in the back of the stage at that time, discussing with Hellraizer, seems it was something like “now he’s telling THAT story again…” – or am I misinterpreting that? *g* When the Jackal turned around irritatedly, there was only an innocent “Ingenting!” though… *rofl*
During the Gypsy Finale, the guitarists finally dared to climb the barrels, but it didn’t help much. Hellraizer was crouching down and basically sitting on his barrel, and Killmasters posture didn’t look very healthy either. *g*
Well, then Dr. Mowinckel as last encore, finally again, and a gleeming Jackal mumbling (without mike) something about “Switzerland” and “I never expected… and now this!”, waah, so nice… and another proof that every concert is different. From the living room to the big arena – I’m really curious how the concert will turn out tomorrow!