Amsterdam

28.02.2013 Kaizers Orchestra (Melkweg, Amsterdam)

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Nostalgia! I’ve seen a Kaizers concert at Melkweg in Amsterdam before – that was in 2004. Nine years later I was back at the same venue, and somehow … it was like back then!

I’ll try to keep my report a little shorter than usual because I don’t have much time for writing. But I’ll have to bring this to paper (or rather electrons) anyway: Kaizers seem to go “back to the roots” a bit for this European tour. While, during the latest tours, they’ve always played a somewhat “downsized” version of their Norwegian playlist, it seemed that they really targeted the songs for a European audience this time. For me, who has seen them so many times, that is a little annoying at first glance – oh no, not all the oldies and hits again, I want new stuff and songs that they don’t play that often! – but it worked perfectly.

Here’s the setlist:

  • Aldri vodka, Violeta
  • Det polaroide liv
  • Tusen dråper regn
  • Ompa til du dør
  • Bøn fra helvete
  • Di grind
  • Din kjole lukter bensin, mor
  • En for orgelet, en for meg
  • I ett med verden
  • Sigøynerblod
  • Kontroll på kontinentet
  • Forloveren
  • Maestro
  • Svarte katter & flosshatter
  • Dieter Meyers Inst.
    ——–
  • KGB
  • Begravelsespolka
    ——–
  • Min kvite russer

The Jackal didn’t wear a tuxedo tonight, and everything else seemed a bit more “casual” as well. As was to be expected, the audience was very quiet in the beginning – but already during the second song, Det polaroide liv, Kaizers started to animate the crowd in “old fashion”, and they drew them along. In Ompa til du dør, the audience took over the singing – something that proved that it was absolutely the right thing to do to play all the old hits! ‘Cause those are the ones that the Europeans know and love, and they get the audience excited. So Di grind fit perfectly well as next song, even though the audience wanted a bit too much when singing along and was singing much more than they were actually “supposed to”. *g*

During En for orgelet, Killmaster did a little dance again, before the Jackal climbed the oil barrel, bass drum in front of him, and had the audience in his hands. During Sigøynerblod, the Jackal “did the Moses”, divided the crowd, jumped off stage, and sang a verse down in the audience – before he climbed back on stage and sat in front of the monitor box, singing intensively just to the monitor. Ridiculously funny!

“The old songs are just the best” – so next up was Kontroll på kontinentet. But the new ones are great as well! Of course, the response to Forloveren was a bit more quiet, but to make up for that, the Jackal made us sing “tsk-ch tsk-ch” in the middle. Well, there’s nothing like audience interaction! Yes, that’s how it used to be, that’s what was sometimes missing during the last tours, and that’s what was back this time. Yay! =:-)

During Svarte katter, Omen had to take some (or actually quite a few!) notes after his megaphone solo, before they could continue – the Jackal didn’t like that, but the audience did! *g*

What I found very interesting was the Begravelsespolka … in the beginning, the audience didn’t really seem to care. It seemed to me like everyone on stage was getting a little worried, ’cause hey – their best live-song, but hardly any reaction?! Well … they could definitely stop worrying after the tap dance! By then, the audience was totally into it!

As final conclusion, we got Min kvite russer – yes, that is a great song, and I was really impressed by how loud the audience was singing. But damn it: the first concert of the tour, and my voice is ruined. *grmbl* I really vote for switching the roles in the future and have the men squeak around. =;-)

What else? There were fans from China and the USA at the concert. The audience was incredibly loud for the hall, considering that it wasn’t sold out and the audience seemed very very quiet and lazy in the beginning, especially compared to Norwegian audiences. And as soon as Omen did anything strange, there were grinning faces all around – okay, the grins did look a little confused, but definitely entertained!

Hach – a great start of the tour, even though I would wish for a bit more variation in the setlist for the remaining concerts. =;-)

26.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Paradiso, Amsterdam)

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

OK, 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…

3.4.2004 Kaizers Orchestra (Melkweg, Amsterdam)

Saturday, April 3rd, 2004

Yeah! Finally some more Kaizers concerts! And not only some, but a whole lot, the dates are great, the time is right, I have some free time, and I wanna be saved! =;-)
... read on!

3.4.2004 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Melkweg, Amsterdam)

Saturday, April 3rd, 2004
3.4.2004 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Melkweg, Amsterdam)