28.4.2007 Skambankt (Sprellfestivalen, Ås )

The next day started way to early, and I felt more dead than alive, but well – there was a lot more sightseeing to do, and another concert that night, so we got on our way pretty soon.

First back to Fredrikstad, as we didn’t have the time the night before to visit Gamle Fredrikstad – which was really nice, and we even got to buy a Hellbillies CD on the flea market to be prepared for this night’s concert. And we bumped into Powersolo, I think. *g* After that we went south, to Kirkøy, which was an incredibly nice trip. A beautiful landscape, and a weather you wouldn’t expect in Norway even in the middle of summer. And an adventurous tunnel, where we waited forever and then found out that we were waiting for a ledebil – thus a car that goes back and forth through the tunnel all day guiding the cars that want to cross. OK, so that’s where all the toll money goes… =;-) Well, we were rewarded for the wait with a beautiful port and icecream in the sunshine… =:-)

Back to Fredrikstad, and on to Halden and the castle Fredriksten, with a very nice view over the countryside. But then we had to get on our way to Ås to be there in time for the concert!

Luckily we took the time to eat something first and didn’t plan to do that in Ås… uhem. OK, I was expecting a small town, as it was impossible to find a place to stay there – but I was expecting a TOWN, and more than just a university! Guess I was wrong there. Or we didn’t find the town. =;-) So in the end, we were there way too early after all. And I was way too tired to do anything, so we basically just sat around until the concert started.

Then Hellbillies went on, and the people went crazy. And I mean really crazy. =;-) OK, probably not a surprise for any Norwegian, but I didn’t expect that. I can understand it though,we got bands like that in Germany as well, and if everybody knows the songs, nothing can go wrong at a concert. I’m not sure if I “liked” it or not – I was so damn tired and completely annoyed about everybody and everything, I just wanted them to stop. Which they didn’t do for two hours… *sigh* But well, when I was at Sziget years ago, I learned to sit in some corner at a concert and get some sleep. And it works at Hellbillies concerts as well. =;-)

Finally they were done, we got into first row and well… everybody else left, we wondered why nobody started running around on stage changing the equipment – and then we figured out we were at the wrong stage. *argh* Embarrassing… *cough* But hey, it wouldn’t have been so hard to put up a sign anywhere, or at least a time table?!? Fortunately Skambankt had waited for the Hellbillies concert to finish and we only missed the intro. Otherwise I would have been SO fed up. But like that, it’s actually quite a funny story, at least after we got over the first shock. *gg*

So we went right into the concert this time. The audience was hot already, and as this hall was just the right size for Skambankt (we had been worrying before how that concert would turn out if they had played in the huge hall and all the Hellbillies fans had left…), it was a really nice and intimate concert. And the hour was quite late, so some people were a bit more active and talkative on stage than normally… =;-)

As it was a festival after all, the setlist was a bit shorter (copying from the list one by one here =;-)): Nok et offer, Me sa hei, Oppkast, Skambankt, Dessert, Dynasti, Ræwa, Alarm, Tyster, Min eliksir, Skamania, encore KKK. They also had Fritt fall on the list but didn’t play it, guess they ran out of time.

There was a lot of talking this time, but I don’t really remember much… In the beginning, Winters congratulated Ås to the university: “You look a lot smarter than last time!” Then they started talking about Klepp, but I didn’t really get any of that, as I was busy with my camera and trying to find a nice place and at the same time wondering why Fist was suddenly standing at the mike without his bass – well, didn’t seem like there was a reason for that anyway. =;-)

Then we got a long explanation for Revolusjonens aggregat, about revolutions… and about aggregates… and about revolution aggregates… And again, we had to count up, and this time they “found a russ!” to count up during Alarm – “and it’s actuallly a russ that can count to four!” =;-) And this time, the clapping at the beginning of Alarm actually worked out, but well, this was a university town, so if anybody can get it right… *g*

But then obviously their time was up, so they skipped Fritt fall and played Skamania as last song, came back once for KKK, and that was it. Much too short, but a great show!

We hang around a bit longer but then got on our way – looking forward to get some real sleep finally. Which meant that the next day, we only got started fairly late and thus couldn’t explore the Vestfold as thoroughly as we wanted. But well, there will be a next time for sure!

And while this trip was really different from my other concert trips, it was more than worth it. Very touristy days with a beautiful landscape and perfect sunshine all day, plus two great concerts… life can be great. Thanks to Linda for a fantastic weekend! And for bearing with me even though I tend to be annoying when I’m tired… =;-)

And now it feels kinda scary that there won’t be any Skambankt concerts for me for the next three months… Guess I gotta start looking forward to Raumarock now! =:-)

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