The second Kaizers show in France – but this time, it was only about an hour away from the German border. And even though I had sworn myself only three weeks earlier to NEVER go to a big festival again, I had to be there, of course. Which was actually a good thing, ’cause now I might think about this decision once again – it really IS possible to organize a festival of that size in such a way that even the visitors can have fun. The organizers of Southside festival should take a good look at Eurockéennes and learn from that…
It started with a little over four hours in the car (okay, almost one hour was caused by my stupidity only… forgot to look at the traffic report and so I was in a traffic jam as soon as I entered the Autobahn… I COULD have taken the other way right when I started, but well… *sigh*), then going from the parking lot to the festival and standing in line for almost an hour – good that I was there in time… =;-) And the weather had gotten a little more stable than the last days. Of course it was bad to have such cold weather after almost two weeks of > 30°C, but at least it didn’t rain, except for some drops just before Nine Inch Nails came on stage. But well, I think I’m getting away from the topic a little here… *g*
So, taking a look at the big stage then, where Kaizers were the first act. Did I just write “big stage”? Of course I mean “BIG stage”! Wohoo! (And at least 4 meters distance between barrier and stage… *grr*) And okay, the first row was completely filled (with fans of NIN), but apart from this, there was nobody around… aehem. But there was no reason to worry, by the time Kaizers came on stage, there was a decent amount of people crowding in front of the stage. Of course it’s always hard to judge when you are in front, but I’m pretty sure that the area in front of the main stage was well filled after the first 30 minutes or so – and this was no surprise! Okay, nobody knew this weird band on stage singing in a strange language, and altogether (which means including myself) I counted exactly three people in Kaizers shirts *g*. And you could notice that during the first two or three songs, everybody was standing there, looking disbelievingly at the stage and thinking about what was THAT supposed to be?!? And then Kaizermania reached France… *gg* The audience wanted to be rocked, and Kaizers gave them what they wanted! People were clapping all the time and – okay, at least _trying_ to sing along, but well, they didn’t know the songs, of course. =;-) And the longer the concert lasted, the louder got the audience choir. And the audience got moving, towards the end almost everybody was jumping and sweating. Which means that Kaizers were really convincing and have for sure gained lots of new fans!
The Jackal did the first announcements completely in French, very nice – and something different. *g* I wouldn’t have minded if he had continued like that, but then he switched to English, okay, probably easier… =;-) He still wanted the audience to answer and scream in French anyway. So of course we had to scream “plus vite” in the middle of Sigøynerblod. Nice, nice… but pfaaah, I hate it if a crowd screams “ooooooouuuuuuiiii” in unison. This sounds like they are gonna puke any second… *g* But well, seems Mr. Jackal didn’t like an ordinary “Yeah”… =;-)
In general, there was a little more audience interaction this time than during the last festival shows I saw. The Jackal was making the crowd clap and sing along all the time, and during Bak et halleluja there was a nice and long audience-singing-part again. But why the hell is it _always_ the part of the audience I am not in that is loudest? Someone’s cheating!!!1
Aeh ja, I think I’m getting away from the topic again. Maybe the long audience part was also due to the fact that they had a little over 60 minutes, thus a pretty long time on stage, so they could afford some time for audience interaction.
So, what else remains to be said? Big crowbars are NOT the best tool to open a beer bottle, and, oh, of course, the setlist (from memory, but I’m pretty sure it’s correct):
Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Hevnervalsen, Container, Mann mot mann, Di grind, Señor Flamingos adieu, Blitzregn Baby, Sigøynerblod, Bak et halleluja, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro.
After that, the main act of the evening was over, weirdly the support acts came afterwards… *g* I didn’t like Bloc Party, Queens of the Stone Age were not quite as boring as in their concert at Southside festival, in the end I even started to like them *g*, Nine Inch Nails were great, Eagles of Death Metal also, and when everybody else was wandering to the main stage to see Chemical Brothers, I decided to do something else and went to the “Beach”, thus the stage that was directly at the lake. There I saw some elektro-punk band (or whatever that was) called The Faint that really got me (and this really is not the kind of music I normally like, well, maybe I was just worn out and would have like anything) and before I was bored to death by Bright Eyes I decided to go back to the car. Then going back the next morning, knowing that I’ll see this weird band again in just a little over a month! =:-)