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24.03.2011 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Rockhall, Esch/Alzette)
Friday, March 25th, 201130.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Alte Börse, Zürich)
Thursday, March 31st, 2011So, and now the tour really starts! After three friends made it down from Norway, the group for the remainder of the tour is now complete. =:-) Tonight: Zurich. I already knew the venue from a concert of another band; but back then, it was full… When we arrived just before Jarle Bernhoft was supposed to come on stage, there weren’t really a lot of people there yet. But fortunately that changed until Kaizers came on! To keep it short (and that’s what I want to do, right? *g*): The venue seemed crowded, the audience was excited, had put on their dancing shoes, and were willing to sing, and the concert was great!
During the gypsy part, the Jackal just jumped into the audience… “Make some space, I wanna dance!” – why does he always do that in Switzerland, by the way? *g* After a bit of dancing, he ended up in the first row. Seemed a bit like he had seen it once or twice before how people in the front row behave… *lol*
As mentioned, the audience was willing to sing. And they sang loudly! During Maestro, the audience sang the whole bridge part, and it worked out just fine – for the first time on this tour. And during the introduction, there was no need for the Jackal to name all the colors in which Hellraizer looks good; the audience did that on their own.
As before, they really stretched Omens part in Svarte katter, with a very very long pause afterwards, where NOTHING happened (except for the audience cheering, of course *g*). But then Omen paid his dues for that lateron, when he started to play Ompa til du dør – which wasn’t on the setlist for today… oops. =;-)
This time they didn’t only ask who was from Norway, Sweden, or Denmark – but also from Italy, the UK, or the US. And well… why are there NEVER Americans at the concerts? Kaizers go on tour so much, but the Americans never come! *lol*
(Complaints about that remark should go to Kaizers and not to me, thank you. *gg*)
In the end, they ran out of time, unfortunately. I assume there would have been more encores if there hadn’t been a strict curfew at 10 pm. So they argued a bit about whether they had time to play another song, and then they took 170 as last song of the night. And the Jackal hit the oil barrel with such force that the bat broke…
The setlist: Intro, Delikatessen, Djevelens orkester, Señor Torpedo, Veterans klage, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Philemon Arthur & The Dung, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Sju bøtter tårer er nok Beatrice, Bøn fra helvete, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro. Encore KGB and 170.
They would have played Diamant til kull as well, but as the audience loudly claimed that they didn’t want to hear a pop song, they hopped over it. *grmbl* But that was the only downer of an otherwise awesome concert! =:-)
29.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Centralstation, Darmstadt)
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011Wow, it was hoooooot! Not only while sitting in the sun in the afternoon, but also at the concert… Actually, I had expected much fewer people at Centralstation, but no: it was packed! And because of that, it felt a bit like a sauna after a while… and I guess that’s a nice way to summarize the concert and the atmosphere in the audience: The concert was great, the audience was excited, but you couldn’t really get yourself to move. At least in the audience… I didn’t really mind that though. I loved the concert, but I have to admit that the atmosphere wasn’t as amazing as in Cologne, for example. This was a bit of a pity, but then, there were so (unexpectedly!) many people in the audience that the concert just had to be good.
I think Kaizers finally found the perfect setlist now; won’t mind if they stick to it (with a bit of variation in the encores of course *g*): Intro, Delikatessen, Djevelens orkester, Señor Torpedo, Veterans klage, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Philemon Arthur & The Dung, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Diamant til kull, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Hjerteknuser, Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro. Encore KGB and Bak et halleluja.
As I wrote before – it was hot, and hot temperatures obviously cause memory malfunctions. =;-) So I don’t really remember a lot… and honestly, there wasn’t really much “special” happening during the concert. Most things were just “like always”… like the Jackal’s cute attempts to speak German (he still translates the song as “eins für DAS Orgel”, and he’s very polite when asking the audience “singen Sie bitte!”), Hellraizer’s Indian name in the introduction (“He who hangs his head under towels and gladly gives his picks away”), the drum in En for orgelet was back again, and Omen was the hero of the song Svarte katter. In addition, there was a short commercial break, when Killmaster advertised the jewelry shop next door (“I bought some jewelry there today, it’s quite affordable!”), followed by the weather report, brought to you by Hellraizer (“Tomorrow will be sunny bla bla bla…”). Diamand til kull is a pop song that they normally don’t play in Germany, but they wanted to try it out again. And Hjerteknuser is the song that starts right at the moment when the towel (that the Jackal dropped from up on the barrel) hits the ground. Oh yes, and Mr. Terje Killmaster also known as the Photographer deserved his name tonight and entered the stage with a camera. And he was not afraid to use it. =;-)
Hmm… feels like this was a strange report, somehow. But then, it was… hot. And great! =:-)
28.03.2011 Disco Ensemble (Musikbunker, Aachen)
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011Why do all bands have to go on tour at the same time? I was totally pissed when I saw Disco Ensemble’s tour dates… because they were at EXACTLY the same time as Kaizers Orchestra’s!
Then I took a closer look and noticed that they would play in Aachen on a Kaizers off day, just between the two concerts in Belgium and Darmstadt. So the trend continues – somehow I can always fit in a Disco Ensemble concert… *g* I mean, I’ve seen them all over Europe and Germany by now: In Hamburg, Munich, Wiesbaden, Wadern, and of course Stuttgart, in Oslo, in Austria, at Pukkelpop in Belgium. The concerts all just fit in in some way… and of course Disco Ensemble is a band that you just have to see, even if you have to travel a bit!
I arrived at Musikbunker and was a bit sceptical… what kind of club was that?! Tiny, run-down, trashy, … and hardly anybody there. Fortunately, the latter changed until Disco Ensemble came on. And they didn’t seem to mind the rest!
The setlist wasn’t anything special, but it included all songs you would expect. And the audience really went crazy! It’s always the same: On Disco Ensemble concerts, you don’t have a choice but to jump around and sing and dance and go crazy. From the first minute right until the last. Just awesome! Still, I’d love them to play more than just 60 minutes… of course it’s hard to keep going for so long, ’cause you’re constantly moving, but hey – they bring out so much energy that you don’t notice that you’re getting tired… =;-)
It felt a bit strange for me, in the middle of the Kaizers tour. And I was a bit afraid that I would be so excited about the concert that I would feel like the Kaizers concerts aren’t really worth it and I’m following the wrong band… And well: The concert was fantastic and I loved it, yes! =:-D But then it was so different from Kaizers concerts, that it couldn’t replace them. I just want both parts… Or maybe we should get Janove to give Miikka a lesson in talking, and get Kaizers to play a few Disco Ensemble songs, and combine the two? Or… how about having Disco Ensemble warm up for Kaizers, or the other way around? *g*
Just kidding of course. But hey… it’s so great to be on tour and get to experience such great concerts! =:-D
27.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Vooruit, Gent)
Monday, March 28th, 2011Hmm… not a big surprise: After the awesome concerts in Cologne and Amsterdam, it was time for a “normal” concert now. For me, that mostly meant a really strange mixture… on the one hand, I had a hell of a time (mostly because of the great company!), on the other hand, Kaizers seemed to do a bit of an “economy version” of a concert.
Somehow, most of my notes start with “no ..”, which isn’t a good sign for a concert. But then I talked to a few people after the concert who had seen Kaizers for the first time or only a few times – and they LOVED the concert. Which is really typical: Even on bad days, Kaizers manage to deliver a great show and convince the audience! =:-)
The setlist: Intro, Delikatessen, Djevelens orkester, Señor Torpedo, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Philemon Arthur & The Dung, Femtakt filosofi, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Bøn fra helvete, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro. Encore Min kvite russer.
We didn’t get to see the bass drum today (not in Amsterdam either, but that was because there was a girl on stage during that song – this time the Jackal just didn’t want to do it, it seemed). And they skipped the introduction in Kontroll på kontinentet as well, because the Jackal had introduced the band earlier on already.
But of course there were quite a few funny and entertaining moments as well, for example during Resistansen. The Jackal conducted audience and band and pointed out who should be making noise at what time. And he didn’t point at the whole band only, but also pointed out single band members. That worked just fine – until he pointed at Omen… Omen didn’t want to play alone, or more precisely, he didn’t react at all. So the Jackal ran over to him, in full frenzy, and screamed at him in “tullenorsk” for not doing what he was supposed to do!!!1 Hysterically funny… *rofl*
Then the Jackal talked a bit about what he remembered from the last time they played in Gent – mostly the huge white stuffed tiger he bought that day for his daughter, and which is called “Gent” now… =;-)
Of course they kidded around again when Hellraizer joined the Jackal on the microphone. During Svarte katter, Omen poured water over his head before combing his hair. And the Jackal wanted to know if the audience understood their lyrics. Or did they travel so far for an audience that doesn’t understand ANYTHING?! Should they rather sing in another language, like Chinese? The Jackal would be able to do that, no problem, since his mother is Chinese. But that doesn’t work as well as the Norwegian lyrics. In any case, it’s a pity if we don’t understand the lyrics, because they are great. So great that Kaizers get an award for the lyrics every year (except for last year, because they didn’t do an album that year). Better than Shakespeare!
At the very end, during the encore “Min kvite russer”, the Jackal suddenly stopped singing in the middle of a line. “Any questions?” But probably the audience shouldn’t have laughed when he asked us to not interrupt his ART… *lol*
Haah… looking back at the concert like this, there were quite a few highlights. But it was a bit sad to see how many great parts they just left out this time.
Today is an off day, so time for Kaizers to recharge the batteries. And time for me for a little Disco Ensemble concert tonight!
26.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Paradiso, Amsterdam)
Sunday, March 27th, 2011OK, I guess I can keep it a bit shorter today: Great show! Another amazing concert – not QUITE as awesome as the one in Cologne, because the audience didn’t move quite as much, but then the hall was about twice the size of yesterday’s venue. And almost full! It did look a bit empty in the beginning, but by the time the concert started, everyone had made it in and the place was packed. =:-)
I had expected a short support gig by Blaxtar, but it seems that the organizers didn’t want two support acts… so we got only Jarle Bernhoft. A pity, as I think that Blaxtar would have been a great addition. But since that sounds so negative: Bernhoft is definitely growing on me. It’s still not my music, but it’s really good. And it works very well as support!
The Kaizers setlist: Intro, Delikatessen, Djevelens orkester, Señor Torpedo, Veterans klage, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Philemon Arthur & The Dung, Femtakt filosofi, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro. First encore KGB and Bak et halleluja, second encore Min kvite russer.
I assume that they decided for Kvite russer because the audience was incredibly loud. Very impressive! The audience wasn’t quite as wild as in Cologne, but then they were singing along all the time, and very very loudly! Might have been due to the fact that – according to the poll – almost half of the audience was Norwegian… (but actually, I don’t really believe that. I assume that most people put up their hands because the BAND was Norwegian, not they themselves. *g*)
Some small details:
- The Violeta logo in the back was missing this time (actually, it wasn’t there in Cologne either). Instead, the pulled up the backdrop to expose the movie screen for the Violeta part – but unfortunately, you could only see a small part of the screen beneath the backdrop, which was a pity.
- Hellraizer was veeerrryyy nervous again before having to sing in “Din kjole lukter bensin, mor”. But actually not AS nervous as yesterday. Yesterday he actually pissed his pants because he was so nervous…
- For “En for orgelet, en for meg”, the Jackal got a girl up on stage to pronounce the song title in Dutch. And of course she had to/was allowed to stay on stage for the rest of the song.
- At the same time as the concert, there was a soccer match between Norway and Denmark to qualify for the European Cup. So soccer was a VERY important topic, of course! If Norway won, they’d go to the European Cup – and beat the Dutch there… Which is something you can nicely sing about (“…and we will beat the Dutch!”), which the Jackal OF COURSE did. And not only once, but every time he got a new result. *g* The final result (at least the one that was reported from the stage): 3:2 for Norway – so… “we will beat the Dutch!” *lol*
- For the encores, the Jackal came out on stage and balanced along the edge of the stage, over everything that was in his way: mostly monitor speakers and oil barrels of course. *g*
- And at the end, before the second encore, we got the Jackal’s tap dance again, until he was dragged off the stage. Terrific!
Conclusion: Yeah, let’s continue like that! I fear though that the concert in Gent might be a bit more quiet and standard. But we’ll see…
25.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Stollwerck, Köln)
Saturday, March 26th, 2011Waaah! And now the tour is REALLY getting started! Yesterday was great, but today was SO SO SO much greater! =:-) Well, I wanted to keep it short, but I know that won’t work with this concert…
The venue was packed – not quite sold out probably, but almost. I was surprised how wrong memories can be… I remembered the Stollwerck to be huge, but no, it definitely isn’t. Nice and cozy! And as I mentioned: packed with people… more precisely with Kaizer fans who were HOT for the concert.
So it was no surprise that the atmosphere was just awesome right from the start. Already after the first song, there was a (Norwegian) discussion on stage: “Are they all here to see US?!” – “Fantastic!”
As always, they started with the gypsy part, and the audience went crazy. By the time they played Resistansen, the Jackal was up on the barrel, directing the audience and the band by turns – and both sides looked up to him, hung on his lips and did everything he told them to. Sheer madness! But the beginning of Katastrofen is actually quite mean; Omen plays the beginning of Bak et halleluja on the organ, until the Jackal starts singing Katastrofen… =;-) And they played Djevelens Orkester again, yeah!
The Violeta part started out a bit more quietly, because the songs aren’t known that well in Germany yet, obviously. But it didn’t matter at all – I noticed again the enormous amount of energy that especially the Jackal puts into the songs. Philemon Arthur and Femtakt filosofi – wow, the guy LIVES these songs. And the audience was absolutely fascinated.
The one of the (many) highlights of the concert: En for orgelet, en for meg! I love the song, and it seems to be THE song of Violeta that is best-known in Germany. When it was clear which song would follow, there were cheers of joy from the audience. And it was absolutely crazy to see the audience during the song, just amazing! =:-D The Jackal had us sing along in German: “Eins für das Orgel, eins für mich!” Not quite right, but that makes it even more likable… *lol*
They played Diamand til kull again, which got a nice reception,and as I had expected, Psycho under min hatt was a wild pogo song. And then the Jackal tried to come up with the German translation for the song title “Svarte katter & flosshatter”. “Black cats and… uh?” Of course the audience could help him out! He just had to jump on the barrier and hold out his microphone to a girl in the front to get the translation: “Flusspferd!” Which means hippopotamus. Not QUITE the same, but close enough… *rofl* I don’t know if that was a joke or a guess…. but hey, “Black cats and hippopotami” is a great song title as well, right? =:-D
Then they played Hjerteknuser, which they had left out yesterday. A short break for questions from the audience (“Can I fuck you?” – “Yes, Jürgen, of course you can, right after the concert! And after that, we’ll take care of the rest of you… And by the way, this was the LAST question…” *lol*), and then it was time for the hits part of the concert. And this time this was 100% true – even though I gotta admit that I normally feel that the best part of the concert is over after the Violeta songs (Because I have seen and heard the remaining songs a few times *cough* before); this time, everything went up a few extra notches and the remainder of the concert was just awesome! The audience went completely crazy, people were jumping around, dancing pogo, surfing the crowd, and singing along – not matter what you sing, just do it! Sheer madness. Did I say that before? Whatever: sheer madness!
So the result was two encores – first KGB and Dieter Meyers, and then Bak et halleluja (I guess I don’t have to mention that the audience went crazy during that song, right? *g*). And while the audience kept on singing, the Jackal started tap dancing. The rest of the band stood around him, clapping and cheering him on… until they started to get enough of it and dragged him off stage. *lol*
The complete setlist: Intro, Delikatessen, Djevelens orkester, Veterans klage, Katastrofen, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Philemon Arthur & The Dung, Femtakt filosofi, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Diamand til kull, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Hjerteknuser, Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro. First encore KGB and Dieter Meyers Inst., second encore Bak et halleluja.
All in all, the concert was almost exactly two hours long – and my first sentence after the show as: “Better than Folken!” And yes, it was. Completely different, of course, but all in all: better. =:-D
And the lesson of the night: If the front man is fighting tears on stage, the audience did EVERYTHING right!
24.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Rockhal, Esch/Alzette)
Friday, March 25th, 2011
And here it goes again! (Great – now I have Zombie Porkchop’s “History” in my head… *argh*) Kaizers made it down to Europe after the “warm up gigs” in Scandinavia. First stop: Luxembourg! Which means the tour started terribly confusing: German, English, Norwegian, Luxemburgish, French, and Portuguese (’cause I had to buy a ticket for a Portuguese band playing at Rockhal *g*) – all in one day. Argh!!
But wait, I wanted to keep my reports short, so let’s get started. Unfortunately, Rockhal was pretty empty – not much of a surprise, of course, because it was the first Kaizers Orchestra concert in Luxembourg, but a pity. On the other hand, that not too bad for the first concert of a tour, because like this, Kaizers can test their show in front of a “neutral” audience to see the reaction to the different songs.
The concert started with the local support band The Disliked, who played ska punk. Great, I liked it a lot! But very confusing language-wise… the band itself didn’t know whether to talk English, French, or Luxemburgish. *g* Next up was Jarle Bernhoft. I didn’t know him at all… and my conclusion after seeing him for the first time: Seems to work fine as support act. He uses loops to “imitate” a band, which is really fascinating. However, it’s definitely not my music; and I fear that the loop-thingy won’t be fascinating for more than a few times. But the “common” Kaizer fan won’t be seeing all concerts, so I’m not really representative here. =;-)
The setlist: Intro (“Begravelsespolka” according to drmowinckel.com), Delikatessen, Veterans klage, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Philemon Arthur & The Dung, Femtakt filosofi, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Bøn fra helvete, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro, encore Dieter Meyers Inst.
So that means that a couple of great songs didn’t make it… =:-( I’m not surprised about Hjerteknuser, and I don’t really mind that one either. =;-) But I REALLY hope that Djevelens orkester, Señor Torpedo, and Diamand til kull will make it back on the list at least once in a while!
Some remarks about the concert:
- In the beginning, the Jackal greeted the audience in French. (I’m still waiting for a concert where he speaks _only_ French. That would be cool! *lol*)
- The day was very nice and sunny, and they had time to enjoy it, because they had arrived the day before already. “And back home in Norway, it’s snowing!”
- At the beginning of “Din kjole lukter bensin, mor”, the Jackal and Hellraizer are singing together. So the Jackal ordered Hellraizer to the mic and explained that Hellraizer was very very nervous. “Just don’t forget the lyrics now!” Hellraizer: “Do you think they would even notice?” =;-)
- In “Svarte katter & flosshatter”, Omen has his 5 minutes of fame when he grabs the megaphone. And boy, was he cheered! Of course he combed back his hair dramatically afterwards, before the song continued. And after the song, he started cleaning up, and dropped the crowbar in front of Killmaster’s feet. *g*
- The Jackal and Hellraizer also sing together in “Bøn fra helvete”. The Jackal let go of the microphone this time, so that it was swinging back and forth on its stand. And of course the two of them had to swing back and forth as well in order to sing into the mic. *lol*
- During the introduction in “Kontroll på kontinentet”, we first got a looooong bass solo. First a normal solo, then played with a stick. Afterwards, the Jackal introduced Killmaster: “… always playing on… an electric guitar!” What, were did the Firebird go? =;-) And because of all the confusion, Killmaster’s name is Gary now. *cough* But then we can call the real Gary by his Indian name now: “He who wears a towel over his head and gives out picks willingly.” (I’m NOT gonna tell you what I understood instead of “picks” at first. *rofl*) And I’ve never seen that before, but both guitar players were throwing lots of picks into the audience this time.
- During Maestro, the audience was singing along much louder than I would have expected, and almost everyone seemed to know the song. I have to admit though that the spontaneous new “clapping/stomping choreography” in the middle went over my head, so I couldn’t keep up. *argh*
- The encore was dedicated to Matthieu, who was enjoying the whole concert enthusiastically and managed to ask for Dieter Meyer just when Kaizers were getting ready to play… Dieter Meyer. *g*
So, all in all this was a typical “first” concert in a new city, which means the expectations were rather low. But like (almost) always, Kaizers managed to get the audience excited and totally convince them. And even though the plan was probably more to concentrate on the music this time, they put on quite a bit of a show, and it was really entertaining!
Uhm ja. “Short”. I fear I’ll have to practice that a bit. Tune in again tomorrow to read the next episode of “Susi S. tries to report about a Kaizers concert in ten short lines!” *lol*