Next day, next concert! After a quiet day with lots of sleep, some shopping and hot chocolate we got on our way to Sarpsborg. We knew that the concert place was tiny – 120 tickets, that’s nothing! Still, we were kinda surprised when we actually saw the place… This was clearly a bar and no concert place. The size was actually quite okay, but the room wasn’t built to host a stage… So basically, half of the room was reserved for the band, separated by a barrier that just stood there (and I guess it had to be held in place by the securities… *g*), and the audience could just pick some spot in the other half of the room or along the bar and not see anything…
I was lucky (or maybe experienced *g*) enough to pick the one spot that was not in the first row but where you could still see something and enjoy the concert – up on a step in front of the bar. So I can’t complain! And I think none of the other visitors would really complain either, because the concert was fun, the sound was great (for this kind of venue, at least), and it wasn’t too crowded and stuffed. But still, somehow it felt a bit like a concert for the first two rows, and the rest of the audience either wasn’t interested in what was happening or didn’t see anything or both.
So that was a bit of a downside – not so much for me, as I could see the guys on stage (or at least the heads *g*) and had room to dance. But I assume it seemed a bit weird for Skambankt as well, to not see anybody but the front rows. As a result, the concert was completely different to the one the day before in Moss. There, it was interaction and talk from the first song. Now in Sarpsborg, the band played their concert and hardly talked at all inbetween the songs.
The only things I remember is the sock that some girl promised to knit for them at an earlier concert and that they now got, and of course the usual stuff like counting in during Alarm and counting down again (like yesterday) in Me sa nei. Oh, and the band members were introduced all the time (guess it’s a convenient thing to say *g*), so each guitar solo was introduced with “Hans Panzer on guitar!”, and every bass solo with “Don Fist on bass!”. And we all know now that Hans Panzer is the best guitar player in Jæren, Bones is the best drummer in Hammerfest, Don Fist the best bass player in some street, and Ted the best vocalist in Kampen!
Here’s the setlist of the concert: Vår Bør, Skambankt, Slukk meg, Me sa nei, Trygge rammer, Malin, Alarm, Desertør, Tyster, Tanker som mareritt, O Dessverre, Stormkast #1, encore Panzersjokk.
The atmosphere in the front was great right from the start, and actually, a bit further back people were dancing as well. But somehow it seemed that most of them didn’t really care for the show, which was a bit sad. Everybody finally woke up when Skambankt played O Dessverre – but then, the concert was almost over, so that could have happened a bit earlier.
Still, the concert was a lot of fun and a worthy conclusion of the tour for me! Also, it was so great to meet so many people again – especially as I hadn’t expected that at all, and I think it is kinda cool to walk into some rock bar in the middle of nowhere… uh, I mean in some town in the Norwegian Østfold, uhem… and actually KNOW quite a few people there! It was great to see you all again! =:-)
And then, to conclude the night, some very nice talks before we got on our way back to Oslo. A great weekend, and thanks so much to Linda for the great company and hospitality! =:-D
Oh yeah, and on the way back, I really couldn’t stop grinning when the captain on the plane made the announcement “I’m sorry, but we have a problem with the plane and we cannot fix it. We’ll have to move to another plane. This means there will be a delay, but we’ll try to keep it as short as possible…” – well, this time it was my second and last flight, so I didn’t care. But I think that for my next trip to some Skambankt concert, I’ll really have to get myself a t-shirt with the sentence “Sorry for all the flight trouble, but I’m on my way to see Skambankt” printed on…