Last year, Skambankt played a one-off “nostalgia” show at Ranglerock, playing their full first album. I couldn’t go. Nooooo! =:-( A few months later, they announced that they would do the same thing again, this time in Oslo. Yaaaaay! =:-D
No question: I wouldn’t miss that. I’ve been a Skambankt fan since they started out, and while I don’t think that the first album is their best one (that place is shared by Hardt Regn and Søvnløs … just kidding, Hardt Regn and Eliksir of course! *g*), it is definitely this one that works best live. So that concert just had to turn out awesome! Plus, it was at John Dee, where I also saw my 4th ever Skambankt concert more than 10 years ago. Oh gosh … I’m old.
Anyway, John Dee was packed, and Hold Fast played a great warm-up show. (Except that you can’t really expect people to know your songs and sign along if you are the support act …) And when the change-over started, you could see that Skambankt were not only playing the old songs – they went ten years back in time! With the camouflage net all over the stage, the old cap hanging on the drum set, and yes: even the old military shirts and jackets. Waaaaah!! <3 If you do it, do it right, and Skambankt got full score on that one. =:-)
I had expected them to play the Skambankt album in order, so I felt really smart that I had already copied the setlist to my phone and wouldn’t need to take notes for once … Well, I was wrong on that one. And concert wise, it was probably a smart move from Skambankt to mix up the order a bit and “save the best for last”! Even though it gave me a bit of a bad feeling in the beginning … the first four, five songs were not the ones you remember from previous concerts, and while the audience enjoyed it, they were far from going crazy. That was more the typical Norwegian “sipping your beer and applauding when the song is finished” type of response … and NOT what I had hoped for for this concert! But then Skambankt played Me sa nei, followed by the song that they thought was way too difficult to play live – until they practiced it and found out it isn’t *g* (Våre fiender). And then: Desertør, KKK, Alarm – victory! The audience went crazy and now, it really felt like ten years ago, with people jumping around and screaming along. Yaaaay!
Even though we didn’t get the last part of Alarm. *grr* Instead of counting in again, Ted asked us who had heard the second EP they released, which contains the first song they ever made. “Do you know which one?” Everyone screamed “Skamania” – which I would have loved to hear, but was that their first song? Wasn’t that Demoattakk? But they surely won’t play that one. Or will they? WILL THEY?!?
Yep. They did!! =:-) Demoattakk, Skambankt, and off they went … The net was taken down, the guys changed into their modern black shirts (no leather west behind the drums though, pff … =;-)), and after the Sirene intro, it was time for the second part of the concert: “the greats”.
We had speculated a bit which “hit” songs they would play, and except for Mantra (which I always forget is a Skambankt song *g*), my assumption was pretty spot on. Here’s the full set list that they played:
- Systemets makt!
- Poltistat!
- Revolusjonens aggregat!
- Panzersjokk!
- Kapitalens spel!
- Me sa nei!
- Våre fiender!
- Desertør!
- KKK!
- Alarm!
- Demoattakk
- Skambankt!
— - O dessverre
- Vår bør
- Voodoo
- Dynasti
- Mantra
— - Stormkast #1
The new songs worked fabulously as well – especially Vår bør, where the audience gave me goose bumps by singing the whole intro by themselves. But also the other songs were received with loads of enthusiasm! And no, there was no way the audience would have let Skambankt finish the concert without an encore. An awesome atmosphere, and a concert that suddenly made me feel 10 years younger again … Thank you Skambankt! =:-D