The next step towards world domination: Kaizers Orchestra take over London! And the fans are all coming along … =;-)
For me, that meant a week in London, filled up with lots of action – sightseeing in bright sunshine every day at daytime, and at night we went out to the O2 arena and some concerts. Yay! Quite exhausting actually, but a great vacation. Kaizers really picked the perfect week for their trip to London.
Finally it was Thursday and thus the day of the concert! After an extensive Vorspiel at our flat (where we – amongst other things – found out that both ladles and tea strainers are perfectly suited to fill up small bags of confetti *g*), we got on our way to the legendary KOKO. Just before the doors opened, there was quite a queue there, and right from the beginning it was obvious that there was only a small percentage of British fans in the audience. You heard mostly Norwegian everywhere – okay, with a bit of German blended in, and yes, of course also some English. =;-) But during the concert it was totally clear that most of the audience consisted of fans that had traveled to London to see the show. On the one hand, that meant of course that Kaizers probably did not win over any new fans or “conquered England” with this concert, but then: what other band manages to fill up a venue of 1500 people somewhere abroad? For most bands, it’s only a handful of “hardcore fans” that travel abroad for shows. So wow, that was definitely impressive!
Kaizers were supported by the Scottish singer Siobhan Wilson. Honestly, nobody really seemed to care or listen – I have to admit that I didn’t either. But then, I was still busy handing out the last packages. =;-) And of course admiring the venue – as if it was made for Kaizers! It seemed like an old opera theater, with galleries and boxes, three or four tiers, red velvet everywhere … just beautiful.
At 9:00 pm, the lights went out and the Russian Dance came on. It got more and more crowded in the front – and in my opinion, too crowded and a bit uncomfortable. That’s the problem if a venue is filled up with fans and fans only – everyone wants to be in the front. And where I was standing, we got regularly showered with beer from the galleries above … which means that I’ve definitely experienced more comfortable concerts. =;-)
It was obvious right from the beginning that this would be a legendary show – the atmosphere was indescribable, the audience incredibly loud, and EVERYONE was into the concert. Not like it usually is, that half of the audience is there for the party only. So considering the audience, this was a very good “Norwegian” concert with a very enthusiastic audience. But in London!
The Jackal mentioned a few times that this was the “first and last Kaizers concert in London”. Apart from that, there wasn’t really much talk at all – maybe because Kaizers just didn’t know what language to use? The poll in the beginning showed that there were about 100 people in the audience that did not understand Norwegian. Still, the Jackal switched to talking Norwegian after asking that. At least part of the time – I gotta admit, by that time I had been in England together with a group of Norwegians for five days; so I don’t have the slightest clue when he was talking English and when Norwegian. *g* But as I mentioned, there really wasn’t that much talking anyway. I would assume that this was due to the fact that KOKO had a strict curfew at 11, and even without talking, Kaizers easily played the two hours.
The setlist was pretty much standard: Aldri vodka Violeta, Siste dans, Tusen dråper regn, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Det polaroide liv, Sigøynerblod, Forloveren, Støv og sand, KGB, I ett med verden, Kontroll på kontinentet, Philemon Arthur & the Dung, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Hjerteknuser, Maestro. Encores Begravelsespolka, Bak et halleluja, and Die Polizei.
Right from the beginning, they made eager use of the barrels (even though some guitarist had to be encouraged – “Get your ass up there!”), the audience was singing along loudly (very impressive at the end of Din kjole lukter bensin), and quite early on in the show, we got a “Say halleluja! Say save me Kaizer! Say PLEASE save me Kaizer!” part. During Philemon Arthur, the Jackal seemed like a priest, standing in front of the crowd with his arms spread – so impressive! And they celebrated the break in Svarte katter for very very long again, which was also absolutely awesome. Or, to use the Jackal’s words: “Watch out West End, here we come!”
Oh yes, and then there was Forloveren =:-D – and there was confetti in the air …:
Thanks a lot to Linda for the video! And if somebody accidentally filmed this song as well, maybe even from the galleries, let me know! *g*
As encores, we first got the Begravelsespolka – what was quite surprising by the way was that the Jackal was not wearing a tuxedo and later a red shirt on stage, but the “normal” suit like on the European tour. Which of course didn’t hurt the atmosphere though. =;-) Next up was Bak et halleluja – even though originally, they had probably planned to play Dieter Meyers Inst. And as very last song, they played Die Polizei because “You were a fantastic audience; you must all be Norwegians!”. And the song worked perfectly as conclusion of the concert … and after Kaizers went off stage for good, the audience kept singing for quite a while. Awesome! =:-D
Unfortunately, there was no time for another encore, but the concert was fantastic as it was. Actually, it didn’t really mean that much that it was in London – but the audience was totally unique and special. The atmosphere was magical, and – if not before that – I’m sure there were a few tears falling during Die Polizei …