Wohoo! Another trip to Norway that was soooo worth it! Concerts in Norway are just different – and this time, with the world premiere of Violeta Vol. II, even more so, of course.
Before the concert, I had been worrying a little if I would have anything at all to write about after the concert – usually, a new Kaizers song needs some spins for me before I can really enjoy it. And this time, I would get to hear each song only once, live, without lyrics to read along, and without even knowing the titles?! Well, nothing to worry about, as it turned out. It was just amazing! And my imaginary “list of things to report from the concert” grew longer and longer throughout the show.
Actually, it seems quite useless to report about a concert of which every fan has seen the stream, especially if the stream will probably be available for quite a while afterwards… But I’ll just ignore that for now. =;-) And _I_ haven’t seen the stream (yet), so it’s fully possible that I understood some things wrong that happened on stage.
Øya festival is REALLY huge (for Norway, at least) – however, it was no problem at all finding a nice space to see the show only twenty minutes before the concert started. And then it was time to mentally prepare for the new songs! And as expected, the beginning of the concert was a bit “weird”. I just feels strange to be at a concert of your favorite band and not know the songs. In addition, I was of course trying to somehow remember a bit of the songs and at least keep them apart… so I tried to give them some “working titles”. Kinda inconvenient if you hardly understand anything at all and you make up titles that are probably gibberish or at least really really bizarre… *g*
After the Russian Dance, they started out with the first song of Violeta Vol. II, I ett med verden. Or, according to my working title, “Du er meg”. It started out in rock style, and that’s how it was throughout the whole concert (except for the ballads of course). Or at least throughout the whole album, thus the first part of the concert. I noticed that the Jackal started getting the audience involved right away – making everyone clap along with a cowbell (the style of Vol. II: more cowbell!) or a tambourine or whatever. We always knew what we had to do, even though nobody knew the songs. Great!
The second song was Støv og sand (aka “Rett bak meg” or something like that). The two first songs were clear rock songs and were a lot of fun, but I’ll need to hear them more often to be able to say more about the songs.
For the third song, Kaizers welcomed the drummers of Bergen’s music corps on stage, who played a long and enhanced version of the intro of Tusen dråper regn. I hadn’t heard that song live before (they never play it in Europe…), but yes: It works great live! What I found very funny was how the audience screamed out in excitement (or relieve? *g*) when the song started. “Finally a song that we know!” =;-)
Kaizers thanked us for our patience – and explained that there was no need for us to worry or be nervous. They’ll guide us through the concert! Puuuh… how nice! *g*
Next up was the song that I decided was my favorite of the album right away. I had already heard it during the sound check in the morning (where I had been in line for tickets – NO, I wouldn’t get up early to listen to the sound check!), and I recognized it again right away: Drøm videre, Violeta (working title: Sommerfugl). A great ballad… And while they had already had guest drummers on stage before, it was now time for guest string players. Later on, there were also the “old” sax players joining in again, who had been supporting Kaizers at a few concerts a few years back.
Now it was time for a little change at the microphone. The Jackal took over the guitar, and Hellraizer put his hands on the microphone. Yes, his hands! He was actually dancing around on stage with the mike in his hand. Now that’s something new… And he announced the song Gresk komedie (so no working title for that one *g*). I liked that one a lot as well; danceable, groovy, and playful. I think. If I don’t mix it up with another one… =;-)
The next song was “Psycho under min hatt” – or rather Psycho in the Vol. II version, of course! Very fast, very punk-like, very incomprehensible. And really great! To me, the lyrics sounded like “Farten i bakken”, but the setlist had “Faen i båten”. Ooops.. almost the same… *cough* But I’m pretty sure this will be one of my favorites as well.
I’m not so sure about the following song, however. The Jackal took hold of a banjo (“I can play so many instruments… this time I’ll take the banjo!”), and the song started out almost in country-style. It changed into a clear rock song later. An important part of the lyrics was “Kom til papa” (I think), but the song is called Far til datter. And if I don’t mix it up with another one, it reminded me a bit of Auksjon and Toxic blod. Which are two songs I adore, but still, that one wasn’t really my favorite. At least not yet. Who knows what I’ll say after listening to it a few times. What was awesome about the song was Omen at the oil barrel. Absolutely motionless when he wasn’t hitting the barrel, and no expression at all when he was. Fantastic! (And not only then, but also during one of the first songs, when he was hitting something with two hammers; I couldn’t really see him then because he was hidden behind the barrel, the keyboard, and the drums; but I did see him swinging some hammers all around. *g*)
Next up was a pop song: Silver (or, according to my notes, Du skinner). Yep, it was much more pop than the other songs. I liked it, but I need to listen to it more often to really make up my mind.
And once more it was Hellraizer’s turn to sing; this time with his guitar, because the Jackal had to work out on the barrel. The song was called Domino – however, according to what the song sounded like, I was wondering a few times if he maybe wasn’t singing about the game, but instead about the male form of a dominatrix. *lol* He didn’t, of course, but that was what it sounded like. Yes, I am kinda influenced by the lyrics of a German band here, I must admit. *g*
And that was almost the end of Vol. II already! As last song, we got Den romantiske tragedien. Turned out this was the song that impressed me the least during this concert; let’s wait and see if it grows on me. Did the Jackal really read the lyrics? Or was he swaying so strangely on purpose? I did like the idea at the end, of having the middle part of Svarte katter at the end of this song (and album) again.
And that was it with Vol. II! And… uh, wait, I wanted to keep it short today, because I don’t have any time to write a report. Ooops. =;-) Anyway, for the next hour, we got a great “normal” concert – with a very enthusiastic audience. It seemed like everybody was really “relieved” now, and enjoying that they could finally sing along. At the beginning of Philemon Arthur, there was a scream of excitement again, and of course everybody sang along every single word. Next up were Diamant til kull, En for orgelet en for meg (including the concert drum of course), Svarte katter & flosshater, and Hjerteknuser (starting with the Jackal throwing the working glove). Some time in between, the Jackal introduced the band – or at least Omen, Hellraizer, and Killmaster… “we usually call the rest ‘accompaniment'”. Hey…! *lol*
And then they went even further back in time and played first Ompa til du dør, then Evig pint, and finally Maestro. And I have to admit – they caught me off guard with Evig pint! I really don’t know the lyrics for that one… *cough* Guess I should listen to that album again; by now I should even be able to UNDERSTAND it! =;-) But awesome that they dug out that song again! =:-D
And that was the end of the concert and Kaizers went off stage – just to come back once more, of course. And since the string players were there, we got “Die Polizei” as final song – and even though the Jackal asked us in the beginning to show that we can also be quiet, everyone was singing along loudly. At the end, the Jackal sat down at the edge of the stage with his bottle of wine, listening to the audience singing. He seemed to enjoy it even though the audience and the strings didn’t quite fit together… *g* And then Kaizers went off stage for good – and the audience kept on singing, until long after the music came on. Awesome, amazing, fantastic, impressive, wonderful – you name it. =:-D
So a fantastic concert, all in all – the only drawback about it is that I now have a very well-known thought in my head again: “Argh, I just HAVE to go to Stavanger and Rått & Råde!” Gnaah… they are just SO addictive. And they hook you up again and again, even with new stuff… =:-)