Eigentlich hatte ich ja gar nicht vor, dieses Wochenende schon wieder einen Bericht zu schreiben, und dieser wird auch nicht lang werden (Anmerkung nach Fertigstellung: muahahah… *lol*). Aber so ein paar Sätze fallen mir zum vergangenen Wochenende doch durchaus ein!
Vorab vielleicht noch kurz zur Erklärung: Ja, ich hab das Stück jetzt viermal gesehen. Das ist extrem viel, und nee, eigentlich war es nicht so geplant – der ursprüngliche Gedanke war, dass ich es zweimal sehen will, um es auch wirklich verstehen zu können. Allerdings war da dann plötzlich die Wahl zwischen dem Premierenwochenende und den Fanvorstellungen, und verschiedene Leute haben die Tickets gekauft – und zwar jeweils zwei, weil wir’s ja zweimal sehen wollten, ne? =;-) Und ohne jede Frage: Besser ging’s nicht! Ich war vorher ja selbst skeptisch, ob viermal nicht übertrieben ist… aber nee, das Stück ist so toll und beeindruckend, dass ich es mir auch noch öfter angucken würde. Und dass ich gerade suche, wie ich vielleicht noch eine Vorstellung in Oslo besuchen kann… =;-)
Was ich echt interessant fand, war, wie sehr sich die Vorstellungen unterscheiden. Eigentlich passiert ja jeden Tag genau dasselbe – aber in Details gibt es doch immer wieder Unterschiede. Manche Sachen bemerkt man einfach nicht jedes Mal, andere sind aber definitiv immer ein kleines bisschen unterschiedlich! Auch die Formulierungen und Wortwahl unterscheiden sich teilweise doch recht stark, das hatte ich nicht erwartet. Und besonders eindrucksvoll ist es, wenn man plötzlich etwas ganz Neues auf der Bühne wahrnimmt, was zwar auch in allen anderen Vorstellungen vorher (vermutlich) ganz genauso stattgefunden hat, was man aber nicht mitbekommen hat. So konnte ich auch bei der vierten Vorstellung noch Neues entdecken – ganz abgesehen von kleinen Details der Story, die man vorher zwar gesehen, denen man aber keine Bedeutung beigemessen hat. Beispielsweise (SPOILERWARNUNG!) stirbt ja Monello bei Djevelens Orkester, als Lucifer ihm ihren Atem ins Gesicht bläst, während Vicente überlebt – warum lässt sie ihn am Leben? Nun ja… er hat noch seine Gasmaske auf! Oder der Rosenkranz, den Victoria Sonny zu Beginn des Stückes in die Hand drückt und der ihn offenbar vor Lucifer bzw. dem Tod beschützt, bis er ihn ihr verächtlich vor die Füße wirft – und zwei Sekunden später erschossen wird.
Interessant fand ich aber auch, dass es durchaus “gute” und “schlechte” Vorstellungen gibt. Die zweite Fanvorstellung war qualitativ nämlich deutlich schlechter als die anderen Vorstellungen – keine Ahnung, woran das lag, aber viele Gags und inhaltlich wichtige Stellen sind untergegangen und wurden nicht so deutlich dargestellt wie in den anderen Vorstellungen. Das hat dem Gesamteindruck keinesfalls geschadet; ich fand aber trotzdem interessant, wie sehr man das merkt, wenn man schon andere Vorstellungen gesehen hat. Was aber super eindrucksvoll war, war die Reaktion des Publikums nach Ende des Stückes, denn das war reiner Wahnsinn. Nach der Premiere war das Publikum ja auch sehr enthusiastisch, aber nach den Fanvorstellungen: Wow! Klar, das war konzertgewohntes Publikum. Also wurde nicht nur geklatscht, sondern natürlich auch geschrien. Das war doch um einiges lauter als bei den anderen Vorstellungen – und das konnte man den Schauspielern auf der Bühne auch sofort anmerken, dass sie total geflashed waren. =:-)
So, nun noch kurz zu den Besonderheiten der Fanvorstellungen: Vor Beginn des Stückes kam an beiden Abenden zuerst Helge heraus und spielte ein wenig auf dem Klavier, bis dann Tore Renberg, Geir Zahl und Vegar Hoel (Sonny) hinzukamen und von Jan Zahl interviewt wurden. Dass am zweiten Abend Tore Geir beim rauskommen die Bühnentür vor der Nase zuknallte, ist ja hier nicht erwähnenswert… äh, zu spät, hups. *g*
Auf jeden Fall war dieses Interview sehr unterhaltsam – am ersten Abend eher “formell”, am zweiten Abend deutlich humorvoller und amüsanter. Inhaltlich kam nicht wirklich viel Neues rüber, interessant war es aber auf jeden Fall! Auch wenn die meisten Antworten nicht allzu viele echte Aussagen enthielten – Geir hat z.B. keine Ahnung, wie das Kaizers-Universum überhaupt zustande gekommen ist (“Das weiß nur ein Mann, und der ist nicht hier.”), die Geschichte und überhaupt die meisten Entscheidungen bezüglich des Stückes entwickelten sich über die Zeit in Zusammenarbeit zwischen Tore Renberg und Kaizers, da gab es keine klaren “wer ist für was verantworlich”-Strukturen. Tore als Fan wurde schnell klar, was insbesondere Janove unbedingt im Stück drinhaben wollte, und grundsätzlich sollte die Geschichte die drei Bereiche Krieg/Widerstand, Mafia und “nach dem Krieg” beinhalten (was ja auch logisch ist, da genau das die drei Alben widerspiegelt). Das dann aus der Hand zu geben war für Kaizers natürlich schon ein gewisses Risiko, aber durchaus kalkulierbar, da sie Tore als Fan ja kannten und da Mitbestimmungsmöglichkeiten hatten. Zudem haben sie die Musik für das Stück ja selbst eingespielt; nur die Schauspieler haben das Singen übernommen. Das Stück, so wie Tore es abgeliefert hat, veränderte sich dann natürlich noch weiter, als die Schauspieler übernommen haben.
Danach war dann Zeit für Fragen aus dem Publikum – damit überrumpelte Jan am ersten Abend die Zuschauer, sodass kaum etwas gefragt wurde. Und meine extra ausgedachte und gedanklich vorformulierte Frage für den zweiten Abend stellte Jan dann fast wörtlich als erste “offizielle” Frage – na danke auch. *lol* Nämlich die Huhn/Ei-Frage: Stand zuerst fest, welche Lieder unbedingt rein sollen, oder ging es zuerst ausschließlich um die Geschichte, und dann wurden die passenden Lieder reingesetzt? Auch hier lag die Antwort in der Mitte; bei ein paar Lieder war natürlich klar, dass die drin sein mussten, aber es sind durchaus auch Lieder rausgefallen, weil sie einfach nicht sinnvoll reingeflickt werden konnten.
Dann noch ein bisschen Rumgewitzel mit Helge (der die an ihn gerichtete Frage natürlich mit eisernem Schweigen beantwortete), und dann war es Zeit fürs Stück! Am ersten Abend saßen Helge und Geir im Zuschauerraum und sahen sich das Stück noch einmal an, bevor sie in der Pause für die zufällig ausgewählten Gewinner Programme und Poster signierten, am zweiten Abend verschwanden sie aber direkt nach dem Interview. Das und die Tatsache, dass Janove nicht dabei war (obwohl das ja beim Ticketverkauf angekündigt war), führte doch bei manchen zu einem gewissen Unmut – völlig verständlich. Genauso wie es natürlich auch verständlich ist, dass Janove mal ein freies Wochenende verdient hat oder Geir und Helge vielleicht nicht so wild darauf sind, in der Pause mit Autogramm- und Fotowünschen überrannt zu werden… dennoch, so wirklich “fair” war das nicht, denn es war ja anders angekündigt.
Unserer Stimmung tat das indes keinen Abbruch. Schließlich waren bei den Fanvorstellungen auch viele viele liebe Leute da, die man endlich mal wieder gesehen hat (hey, die letzte Tour ist schon mehr als ein halbes Jahr her! *gg*), und natürlich ging’s danach noch ins Cementen. Resultat: Ein Großteil der Kaizer-Fan-Familie versammelt, lange Diskussionen über das Stück, erste Planungen für die anstehende Tour und natürlich jede Menge alter Geschichten und Blödeleien. Hach – schöööööön war’s! =:-)
Actually, I didn’t really plan on writing another report this weekend, and this one won’t be that long either (note after finishing: muahaha… *lol*). But I guess I can come up with a few sentences about the “fan weekend” after all!
First of all, as a short explanation: Yes, I saw the play four times now. And yes, that IS a lot – it wasn’t really planned like that, however. Originally, I had planned to see it twice in order to be able to really understand it. But then, there was the choice between the weekend with the premiere and the fan weekend, and different people bought the tickets – so each bought two tickets of course, because we wanted to see it twice, right? =;-) And hey, no doubt: best decision ever! I had been a bit skeptical beforehand… four times is a lot. But no, the play was so impressive and great that I would love to see it even more often! Actually, I’m currently looking at the Oslo dates, trying to figure out if I can somehow squeeze in one of the dates there… =;-)
What was really interesting to see was how much the shows differed. Of course, everything that happened was exactly the same each day – but there were small differences in the details. There were some things that you just didn’t notice every time, and others that were a little bit different every time! Also the wording of what the actors said differed quite a bit, which is something I hadn’t expected. And what I found particularly impressive was how sometimes, you suddenly saw something completely new on stage, even though it had been the same (presumably) during all other shows before, but you just didn’t notice at all. So I got to see some new stuff also during my fourth visit! Plus, there were so many small details that you might have noticed before, but suddenly you understood that they actually do have a meaning after all. For example (SPOILER WARNING!), Monello dies in Djevelens Orkester when Lucifer blows her breath in his face. Vicente, however, survives – why doesn’t she kill him as well? Well… he’s still wearing his gas mask, while Monello lost it! Or the rosary that Victoria gives to Sonny in the beginning and which obviously protects him from Lucifer resp. death, until he throws it at Victoria’s feet – and is shot two seconds later.
Another interesting part was that there are obviously “good” and “bad” shows. The second fan show was much worse in quality than the other shows – no idea why, but some jokes and some parts with important content were quite unclear and didn’t get as much focus as during other shows. This didn’t hurt the overall impression at all; but I thought it was interesting to see how much you notice something like that when you’ve seen other shows before. But what was really impressive, in turn, was the audience’s reaction after the fan shows. I mean, the audience at the premiere was really enthusiastic, but this time: Wow! Of course, that was an audience that is used to concerts. So they didn’t just clap, but scream as well. And overall it was so much louder than at the other shows – and you could see that in the reaction of the actors as well. They seemed totally blown away – so nice! =:-)
So, now a bit about the special parts of the fan show: On both nights before the play started, Helge came on stage and played the piano for a bit until Tore Renberg, Geir Zahl, and Vegar Hoel (Sonny) joined him on staged and were interviewed by Jan Zahl. Guess there’s no reason to mentioned that on the second night, Tore banged shut the stage door just when Geir was about to come out… uh, oops, too late to not mention it.*g*
This interview was definitely really entertaining! It was a bit more “formal” the first night and much funnier and more relaxed the second night. Contentwise, there wasn’t really a lot of new information, but it still was very interesting! Even though most answers didn’t really contain clear statements – for example, Geir has no clue how the Kaizers universe actually came about (“There’s only one man who knows, and he’s not here.”); the history and all in all most decisions about the play just “happened” somehow, in a cooperation between Tore and Kaizers, and there was no clear structure who was responsible for what. Tore, as fan of the band, pretty fast got a good idea about what especially Janove wanted to see in the play; mainly, it should contain the three parts of war/resistance, mafia, and “after the war” (which is quite logical, since these are what the three albums are about, respectively). Of course it was a risk for Kaizers to give control of the play into someone else’s hands, but it wasn’t too bad, since they knew Tore as a fan and they could contribute quite a bit. In addition, they recorded the music, and the actors took over the singing only. After Tore delivered the play, it still changed quite a bit of course when the actors started working with it.
After that, it was time for questions from the audience – on the first night, Jan caught the audience off-guard with that so there were hardly any questions. Of course I was prepared the second night… and Jan asked exactly the question I wanted to ask, almost word by word, as the first “official” question. No fair! *lol* Basically a chicken/egg question: Did they decide beforehand which songs should be included, or was it the story that came first, and then they used the songs that fit in? Again, the answer was somewhere in the middle; there were a few songs that HAD to be in the play, of course, but there were some songs as well that they wanted to use but just couldn’t fit in.
In the end, there was a bit of kidding with Helge (who of course did NOT answer the question he was asked), and then it was time to start the play! On the first night, Helge and Geir were in the audience to watch again, before they signed programs and posters for the randomly selected winners during the break. The second night, they disappeared right after the interview. That and the fact that Janove wasn’t there at all (even though that was promised when the tickets were sold) was criticized by some fans. And rightfully so – even though it was absolutely understandable as well that Janove deserves a free weekend once in a while and that Geir and Helge might not be so enthusiastic about everyone flooding them with autograph and photo requests… still, that wasn’t really “fair”, because it was advertised differently.
We didn’t mind at all though. These were the fan shows, so there were so many many nice people there which we finally got to meet again (hey, the last tour was more than a half year ago already! *gg*), and of course we concluded the night at Cementen. The result: A huge part of the Kaizer fan family in one place, lots of discussions about the play, first plans for the upcoming tour, and of course a lot of old stories and joking around. Hach… soooooo nice! =:-)
11.11.11 – St. Kaizers Day, oder so ähnlich! Neben dem neuen Kaizers-Album und der Spektrum-DVD feierte auch das Kaizers-Musical “Sonny” Premiere, und das konnte ich mir natürlich nicht entgehen lassen… und hier natürlich mein Bericht!
Nun habe ich schon so viele Konzertberichte geschrieben – aber wie schreibt man einen Musical-Bericht? Gut, vorab vielleicht erst mal der Hinweis, dass ich bei der Bezeichnung “Musical” bleiben werde, auch wenn Kaizers selbst ja konsequent von “Musiktheater” sprechen, aber ich sehe da nicht wirklich einen Unterschied… =;-)
Ich bin mit hohen, gleichzeitig aber fast nicht “enttäuschbaren” Erwartungen in die Vorstellung gegangen. Ich liebe Musicals, ich liebe Kaizers, da konnte eigentlich nichts schiefgehen. =;-) Und genau so war es auch; ich war nachher total geflasht, beeindruckt und begeistert! Allerdings war ich sehr sehr froh darüber, das Stück gleich an zwei Tagen hintereinander zu sehen, denn beim ersten Sehen war ich doch ein wenig “überfordert”. Wie viel davon an der Sprache lag und wie viel an der Story, kann ich leider nicht wirklich trennen. Sprachlich gesehen war ich überrascht, dass ich doch sehr viel verstanden habe – eigentlich fast alles bis auf ein paar kleine Plänkeleien und Gags, aber solange einer allein gesprochen hat, war es – trotz (oder wegen? *g*) des Westküstendialekts sehr gut zu verstehen. Die Lieder kannte man ja sowieso (auch wenn ich die Texte der alten Lieder am wenigsten kenne, da ich damals ja noch kein Norwegisch konnte). Allerdings enthielt das Stück sehr sehr viele Personen und Charaktere, die man erst einmal auseinanderhalten musste, und es passierte auch storymäßig sehr viel. Das im Zusammenhang mit der Sprache fand ich schwierig; ich fühlte mich doch ein wenig überfordert, und an einigen Stellen kam ich bei der Story nicht so ganz mit. Interessant fand ich, dass Janove nach der Vorstellung meinte, es wäre sicher hilfreich, das Stück mehr als einmal zu sehen… stimmt absolut, beim zweiten Mal konnte ich fast alle “Löcher” füllen, aber das ist doch eigentlich nicht der Sinn eines Theaterstücks, oder?! Ich kann mir aber sehr gut vorstellen, dass man dem Stück als Norwegisch-Muttersprachler auch beim ersten Mal schon komplett folgen kann und ich da doch einen klaren Sprach-Nachteil hatte.
Rogalandteater ist winzig – nun ja, wenn man es mit deutschen Musical-Theatern vergleicht zumindest. *g* So 400 Leute passen wohl rein. Bei der Premiere war logischerweise ein Haufen Prominenz im Publikum und vermutlich auch mehr “typische” Theatergänger; am zweiten Tag war das Publikum auffallend jünger. Die Bühne war eindrucksvoll – ein sehr einfaches Bühnenbild zwar, mit zwei Treppenaufbauten, die verschieden eingesetzt wurden, und diversen Requisiten. Die Bühne war aber im Verhältnis zum Zuschauerraum absolut gigantisch!
Auch musikalisch ist wohl “eindrucksvoll” das Wort, was am meisten aussagt. Einige Kaizers-Lieder waren kaum verändert und wurden nur von den Schauspielern gesungen, andere kamen in ganz anderem Gewand daher. Und sehr viele wirkten einfach durch die Masse an Menschen auf der Bühne und die ganze Inszenierung absolut gigantisch. Phänomenal! Wow! Da hat man die Lieder hundertmal gehört, und plötzlich hauen sie einen wieder um… =:-) Ganz besonders beeindruckt war ich von den Versionen von Bak et Halleluja und Ompa til du dør, die perfekt in die Stimmung passten und bombastisch rüberkamen. Auch Rullett, Dieter Meyers, Evig Pint und ganz besonders Drøm hardt waren einfach genial.
Die Schauspieler sind keine ausgebildeten Musical-Sänger, und das merkte man teilweise auch ein bisschen. Im Allgemeinen fiel dies aber nicht negativ auf, auch wenn man bei schwierigen Gesangsstellen vielleicht mal Unsicherheiten bemerkte. Dafür brachte aber jeder seine eigene Art zu singen ein, was natürlich total spannend ist, da man die Lieder ja nur von Janove (oder Geir) gesungen kennt. Rausstechen taten ganz klar Vicente und Victoria, die ganz toll singen. Vicente brillierte mit Dieter Meyers Inst, alleine am Klavier vorgetragen, und mit einer gänsehauterzeugenden Version von Evig pint, während Victoria vor allem mit Kvite Russer überzeugen konnte. (Übrigens: Ich bin dafür, die Rollen auch in Zukunft live umzudrehen, damit wir Mädels “lalala” singen dürfen und die Kerle “Kvite Russer”. Danke. *g*) Ein gesanglicher Reinfall ist leider leider leider Hauptfigur Nummer 3, Sonny. =:-( Seine großen Auftritte sind der Anfang von Maestro und Kontroll på kontinentet – und beide waren einfach schlecht. Sehr sehr schade, zumal die beiden Lieder auch noch ziemlich direkt hintereinander kommen und somit die Qualität doch plötzlich stark absinkt. Schade! Aber genau deshalb ist es vermutlich ein “Musiktheater” und kein “Musical”. =;-)
Vorab war ich vor allem gespannt, wie die Lieder in die Geschichte eingebettet werden. Passen sie wirklich “natürlich” rein? Oder werden sie nur an ungefähr passenden Stellen “reingeschoben”? Tja, bei dieser Frage bin ich zu keiner richtigen Antwort gekommen… es ist ein Mittelding. Teilweise passen die Lieder wirklich ganz genau, teilweise fast genau (wo dann ein Name oder eine Zeile geändert wurde – wie z.B. bei Ompa til du dør), teilweise wirkt es aber doch so, als wären sie ein wenig reinkonstruiert worden, nach dem Motto “oh, wo können wir denn das noch reinbringen”. Auch da sind die Lieder nicht fehl am Platz, aber so ganz natürlich passen tun sie nicht immer. Ein gutes Beispiel ist hier wohl die Nebengeschichte rund um Fader Martin und Fru Conrades – die beiden singen zusammen Bris und Di grind, die aber beide überhaupt nichts zur Story beitragen. Das wirkt ein bisschen, als würde das Stück damit gestreckt und als würde so den Hauptdarstellern eine kurze Pause gegönnt. Aber hier muss ich sagen, dass das meine persönliche Auffassung sein kann – ich kenne die Lieder sehr gut und verstehe sie daher in einer ganz bestimmten Richtung; vielleicht kann man sie aber auch ganz anders deuten, sodass sie besser in den Kontext passen und die Geschichte durchaus voranbringen. Da sind wir dann wieder bei den Sprachproblemen. =;-)
Und jetzt mal noch zur Story, und hier dann endgültig eine SPOILERWARNUNG. Wer das Stück noch selbst sehen und sich überraschen lassen will, sollte besser nicht weiterlesen… =;-)
Zur Story: Durch das ganze Stück hindurch führt Lucifer, die als eine Art “Erzählerin” fungiert, gleichzeitig aber auch als Todbringer. Sie ist in fast allen Szenen im Hintergrund dabei.
Vicente, Victoria und Sonny wachsen zusammen im Krieg auf und sind Teil der Widerstandsbewegung Resistansen. Vicente (der Anführer von Resistansen) und Sonny schließen Blutsbrüderschaft, Vicente und Victoria sind ein Paar, aber auch Sonny liebt Victoria – die aber natürlich nur einen der beiden heiraten kann, und das soll Vicente sein. Sonny schafft es, ein Treffen mit Monsieur Clavier, dem Erzfeind von Resistansen, zu arrangieren. Vicente übernimmt die Aufgabe, unter dem Alias “Tony Fusciante” Monsieur Clavier zu treffen und zu erledigen. Allerdings wurde er verraten und sein Revolver ist nicht geladen, und so kann Clavier ihn überwältigen und gefangen nehmen. Zuerst zwingt er Vicente jedoch, eine Runde Russisch Roulette zu spielen, während er selbst Rullett singt – und zwar auf Französisch! Absolut genial. Ich will dieses Lied nur noch auf Französisch ab jetzt. *g*
Victoria und Sonny kehren mit der schlechten Nachricht, dass Vicente es nicht geschafft habe und tot sei, zu Resistansen zurück, und Sonny tritt Vicentes Nachfolge als Anführer an. Nach Jahren der Folter durch Monsieur Clavier (bzw. durch seinen deutschen Folterknecht – “Ve know who you arr” – zum Schreien komisch!) wird der standhafte Vicente von Monello befreit, der ihm erzählt, dass Resistansen vor die Hunde gehe, Sonny alles übernommen habe (inklusive Victoria) und dass Vicente einen Sohn habe, der von Sonny aufgezogen wird. Auf der Flucht wird Monello erschossen, und Vicente muss sich allein in einer Welt zurechtfinden, die sich verändert hat. Keiner kann ihm sagen, wo er Resistansen findet, und ein “Dieter Meyer” hat die Herrschaft übernommen. Es stellt sich heraus, dass dieser Dieter Meyer, auch bekannt als Maestro oder Papa, Sonny ist, der sich mit Monsieur Clavier zusammengetan hat, um eine riesige Mafiaorganisation auf die Beine zu stellen. Sprich: Sonny, Dieter Meyer, Maestro und Papa sind alles eine Person! Und Sonny ist außerdem “der Böse”! =:-o Kommentar Helge nach dem Stück, als ich völlig verwirrt irgendwas von “was wo wie, Sonny böse, das geht doch nicht!!” stammelte (erwähnte ich schon, dass ich insgesamt ein wenig überfordert war und daher direkt danach eigentlich gar keine Meinung abgeben wollte, sondern erst das Stück noch mal Revue passieren lassen, als plötzlich Helge vor mir stand und wissen wollte, wie ich es fand? *g*): “Na ja, das wusste ich ja vorher.” Äh ja, schön dass du das wusstest, ich hab da gerade trotzdem ein Solidaritätsproblem. Verdammt, ich MOCHTE Sonny!!! *lol*
Anyway, zurück zum Stück. Wir haben also die Mafiaorganisation Dieter Meyers Inst., geleitet vom Maestro Sonny, der gleichzeitig auch Papa für Vicentes Sohn Camille ist. Victoria liebt eigentlich immer noch Vicente, ist aber mit Sonny zusammen und steht unter seiner “Fuchtel”. Vicente macht also gute Miene zum bösen Spiel, tut, als sei die Vergangenheit vergeben und vergessen, und verbrüdert sich wieder mit Sonny. Der bleibt aber – zu Recht – misstrauisch und macht immer wieder klar, wie gnadenlos er seine Organisation leitet. Denn er ist der Maestro! Die Bevölkerung unterteilt er in diejenigen, die ihm untertänig zur Seite stehen, und den “Abfall”, der in den Fängen von Dr. Mowinckel landet. Vielleicht die beste Szene des Stückes: Vicente bekommt einen Eindruck vom Leiden des “Abfalls”, während diese Drøm hardt singen. Absolut mitreißend und eindrucksvoll! Und direkt danach kommt Dr. Mowinckel auf die Bühne, trällert lustig den Drøm-hardt-Refrain, stellt sich vor einen der von ihm geschaffenen “Zombies” (ja, Zombies, im Theater! *yeah*) und sagt “Eg har et spøkelse på min rygg”. *rofl*
Zu guter Letzt kommt es zum Showdown zwischen Sonny und Vicente, denn Sonny fordert bedingungslose Gefolgschaft. Er richtet die Pistole auf Vicente, ein Schuss ertönt – und Sonny fällt tödlich getroffen zu Boden. Denn nicht er hat abgedrückt, sondern Vicentes Sohn Camille. Vicente, Victoria und Camille sind erlöst, und zum Abschluss singen alle “Sonny” – wobei ich gestehen muss, dass ich das an der Stelle nicht wirklich einordnen kann. Natürlich ist das eigentlich das perfekte Abschlusslied… aber sie haben doch gerade den Bösewicht erschossen, und plötzlich ist der ganz nostalgisch wieder der gute alte Blutsbruder?! Das hat mich beim ersten Mal komplett verwirrt, beim zweiten Mal fand ich es schon eher akzeptabel – als eine Art “Abschluss”; so war es einmal, und jetzt geht es anders weiter.
Nun ja – sagte ich schon “viel Story”? Das ist auch wirklich der einzige Kritikpunkt, den ich habe. Es passiert so viel, dass man echt jede Sekunde “auf der Hut” sein muss, um nicht abgehängt zu werden. Und ich muss gestehen, ein paar kleine Fragezeichen habe ich in der Story noch… aber ich habe ja nächstes Wochenende noch die Chance, die “Löcher” zu füllen. =;-)
Insgesamt muss ich auf jeden Fall sagen: Toll toll toll! Eine völlig neue Erfahrung. Und dennoch total “typisch Kaizers”. Wer also die Chance hat, sich das anzugucken – auf jeden Fall machen! Und selbst wer kein Norwegisch kann: Allein für die neue Version der Lieder lohnt sich ein Besuch allemal – ganz abgesehen davon, dass Musical ja immer total toll und eindrucksvoll ist. =:-)
Hach, noch mal! Und sehr gerne auch gleich noch ein weiteres Stück, wie Kaizers und Tore Renberg ja schon andeuten… *g*
11/11/11 – St. Kaizers Day, or something like that! Apart from the new album and the Spektrum DVD, the Kaizers musical “Sonny” celebrated its premiere, and I definitely couldn’t miss out on that of course… here’s my report!
Now, I’ve written so many concert reviews – but how do you write about a musical? Well, maybe I should first note that I will stick to the term “musical”, even though Kaizers keep calling it “music theatre”. But I don’t really see the difference there… =;-)
I went into the show with high expectations, but with expectations that were probably impossible NOT to fulfill. I love musicals, I love Kaizers, so nothing could go wrong here. =;-) And that’s just how it turned out: I was absolutely flashed afterwards, totally impressed and amazed! However, I was very very glad to see the play two days in a row, because after the first time, I was quite “overwhelmed”. I can’t really say how much of this was due to the language and how much to the story; unfortunately, that’s hard for me to separate. Regarding the language, I was surprised how much I actually understood – in fact I got almost everything except for a few small skirmishes and jokes, but as long as there was only one person talking, I had no problem understanding – despite (or maybe because of? *g*) the west coast dialect. And of course the songs were familiar anyway (even though I have to admit that the lyrics of the old songs are the ones I know least, since I didn’t know Norwegian back then). However, the play involved a huge number of people and characters, which you had to recognize and keep apart, and there was a lot of story to keep up with. And that, in connection with the language, was pretty hard for me; I felt a bit like this was too much to keep up with at the same time, and I was lost in the storyline a couple of times. However, I found it interesting that Janove said lateron that it would be helpful to see the play more than once to really understand it … that’s absolutely true, and the second time I was able to fill in almost all of the “holes”, but that’s not really the sense of a theater play, right?! But then I can imagine that a Norwegian native doesn’t have the problems that I had, and that usually, it should be possible to understand the story the first time around. I guess I had a little disadvantage after all, language-wise… =;-)
Rogalandteater is tiny – well, at least if you compare it with German musical theaters. *g* I guess that it takes about 400 people. Of course there were lots of celebrities in the audience during the premiere, and probably a more “typical” theater audience. On the second day, the audience was noticeably younger. The stage was impressive – despite the very simple set design, with two stair structures that were used in different ways and various stage props. And in relation to the rather small auditorium, the stage seemed absolutely gigantic!
Also regarding the music, “impressive” is probably the word that fits best. Some of the Kaizers songs were hardly changed at all and just sung by the actors, others were very different from the original version. And many left a huge impression simply because of the amount of people on stage and because the context was so bombastic. Phenomenal! Wow! So you’ve heard the songs a hundred times, and suddenly they hit you again, as if they were all new … =:-) I was especially impressed by the versions of Bak et Halleluja and Ompa til du dør, which fit so perfectly into the mood of the play, and which were just absolutely impressive. And also Rullett, Dieter Meyers, Evig pint, and especially Drøm hardt were simply brilliant.
The actors are no trained musical singer, and this showed a little sometimes. But in general, this wasn’t negative, and it didn’t really matter that you could notice some weaknesses whenever the singing parts got really difficult. Quite the opposite; each actor used his or her own way of singing the songs, and this of course is really exciting because we know the songs only in the way that Janove (or Geir) sings them. The best singers by far were Vicente and Victoria, who both sing just amazing. Vicente shone with Dieter Meyers Inst, presented alone at the piano, and with a spine-tingling version of Evig pint, while Victoria was particularly impressive in Kvite Russer. (By the way: Can we please distribute the roles the same way at concerts in the future? So that we girls get to sing “lalala” and the guys get the “Kvite Russer” part? Thank you. *g*) Unfortunately, the main character number 3, Sonny, was a letdown regarding the singing, which I thought was really really sad. =:-( His “big moments” in the play are the beginning of Maestro and Kontroll på kontinentet – and both were just bad. This is a real pity, especially since Kontroll follows just after Maestro, so that the quality drops considerably from one moment to the other. What a shame! But that might be the reason why it is called “music theater” and not “musical”. =;-)
What I was wondering most about beforehand was how the songs would fit into the story. Would they really fit in “naturally”? Or would they rather be “pushed in” wherever there was an opening to put in a song? Well, I didn’t get to a final conclusion for this question… it’s something in between. Some of the songs fit really well, some pretty good (in these cases, a name or a line was changed to make them fit – like for example in Ompa til du dør), but some also leave the impression that they don’t really fit but there’s a constructed context, as if someone wondered how these songs could be included after all. Still, these songs aren’t out of place, they just don’t fit in naturally. A good example is probably the side story around Fader Martin and Fru Conrades – the two sing Bris and Di grind together, but both songs don’t contribute anything to the story. So it feels a bit as if the songs were put in to stretch the play and to give the main actors a little break. But I have to say here that this might just be my personal view – I know the songs very well, and therefore I interpret them in a certain way; perhaps you can understand them differently as well, so that they fit better into the context and contribute something to the story. So here we are back at the language problem. =;-)
So, let’s get to the story now. Here’s a clear SPOILER WARNING! If you want to see the play yourself and you want to be surprised, don’t read on … =;-)
About the story: The character that leads through the entire play is Lucifer. She acts as a kind of “storyteller”, but she’s also the one who transports death. She’s in the background of almost every scene.
Vicente, Victoria, and Sonny grow up together during the war, and they are part of the resistance movement Resistansen. Vicente (the leader of Resistansen) and Sonny become blood brothers, Vicente and Victoria are a couple, but Sonny loves Victoria as well – Victoria, however, can marry only one of the two of course, and that will be Vicente. Sonny manages to arrange a meeting with Resistansen’s biggest nemesis Monsieur Clavier. Vicente takes on the job to meet Monsieur Clavier, under the alias “Tony Fusciante”, and to dispose of him. However, “someone” rats on him and his gun is not loaded, so Clavier can overwhelm and capture him. Before Clavier does that, however, he forces Vicente to play a round of Russian Roulette, while he himself sings Rullett – in French! Absolutely brilliant. From now on, I always want this song in French. *g*
Victoria and Sonny return to Resistansen with the bad news that Vicente didn’t make it and is dead, and Sonny follows Vicente as leader of Resistansen. After years of torture at the hands of Monsieur Clavier (or rather his German torturer – “Ve know who you arr” – hilariously funny!), Vicente, who didn’t rat on Resistansen, is rescued by Monello. Monello tells him that Resistansen is going down, that Sonny took over everything (including Victoria) and that Vicente has a son who is raised by Sonny. Monello is shot on the run, and Vicente must cope on his own in a world that has changed. Nobody can tell him where to find Resistansen, and a “Dieter Meyer” has taken control. It turns out that this Dieter Meyer, also known as Maestro or Papa, is Sonny, who teamed up with Monsieur Clavier to form a huge mafia organization. So basically: Sonny, Dieter Meyer, Maestro, and Papa are all the same person! And Sonny is the “bad guy”! =:-o Helge’s comment after the play, when I, totally confused, stuttered something like “what, where, how – Sonny is the bad guy, what the hell…?” (Did I mention that I felt quite overwhelmed and didn’t really want to give any opinion about the play right afterwards, but instead think through it all again before I make up my mind, when suddenly Helge stood there and wanted to know what I thought? *g*): “Well, I knew that, of course.” Oh really? *g* Doesn’t really help me though, ’cause I have a solidarity problem here. Damn, I LIKED Sonny!!! *lol*
Anyway, back to the play. So we have the mafia organization Dieter Meyers Inst. with its leader Maestro/Sonny, who is also raising Vicente’s son Camille. Victoria still loves Vicente, but she’s married to Sonny and has to do what he wants. Vicente puts a good face on things, acts as if the past was forgiven and forgotten, and apparently joins forces with Sonny again. Sonny, in turn, remains suspicious (and righteously so) and repeatedly proves how mercilessly he steers his organization. For he is the Maestro! He divides the population into those who are submissively at his side and the “waste”, which ends up in the clutches of Dr. Mowinckel. Maybe the best scene of the play: Vicente gets an impression of the suffering of the “waste”, while they are singing Drøm hardt. Absolutely captivating and impressive! And right after that, Dr. Mowinckel comes on stage, funnily humming the Drøm hardt chorus, and stands in front of one of the “zombies” (yes, zombies, in the theater! *yeah*) that he has created and says “Eg har et spøkelse på min rygg”. *rofl*
In the end, there’s the showdown between Sonny and Vicente, because Sonny is demanding unconditional allegiance. He aims the gun at Vicente, a gunshot rings out – and Sonny falls dead to the ground. Not he has pulled the trigger, but Vicente’s son Camille. Vicente, Victoria and Camille are free, and at then end of the play, they all sing “Sonny” – but I have to say that this was something I couldn’t place at all. This is the perfect song to conclude, of course … but they just shot the bad guy, and suddenly he’s the good old blood brother again? This left me completely confused the first time; the second time I found it a bit more acceptable – as a sort of “completion”; this is how it once was, and now things are different. Still… quite confusing.
So well – I said there was “a lot of story”, didn’t I? =;-) That’s really the only criticism I have. There’s so much happening that you must be “on guard” every second to avoid being left behind. And I must confess, for me there are still a few small question marks left in the story … but I’ll still have the chance next weekend to fill in the “holes”. =;-)
And all in all I can only say: Awesome! Amazing! Fantastic! A completely new experience. And yet, totally “Kaizers”. So if you have the chance to watch this – definitely do so! And even if you don’t know Norwegian: It’s worth a visit just for the new versions of the songs already – not even mentioning the fact that a musical is always amazing and impressive, no matter if you can understand or not. =:-)
Yay, I want to see it again! And I definitely wouldn’t mind a second play, like Kaizers and Tore Renberg are hinting at already … *g*
Last time in Ås, we had been sightseeing all around the Østfold the whole day, were terribly tired, slept through the Hellbillies concert, and waited for Skambankt at the wrong stage in the end, ooops. This time, it was entirely different. We slept late, had a quiet day, arrived in Ås just when the fun actually started, checked where the concert would be right away, and prevented some fellow fans from doing the same mistake that we did. =;-)
Before Skambankt, some American rapper was playing. I had never heard of Ryan Leslie, and I guess I don’t care to find out who he is, but people seemed to enjoy themselves; and he was obviously a big star, ’cause he didn’t get close to the audience without a bodyguard close by. *lol*
In the meantime, we got some weird looks from the merch stand – why the hell would somebody learn a language because of a band?!? Well, I don’t know. It just… happened. *g*
Anyway, then it was time for Skambankt. As we had suspected before, most of the people were there to see Skambankt, so the concert room filled up very quickly. Still, for a student thingy: The audience was great! Lots of drunk kiddies, of course, but no annoying drunk kiddies. =;-) And everyone wanted to see the concert and have fun. Yay!
So the atmosphere was great right from the start, even though Terje pointed out that they thought maybe it was a bit too late for that… no, it was not!
Skambankt played almost exactly the same setlist as the day before. The only difference was that they added Født på ny as first encore. Actually, I don’t have a lot to report here – all in all, the concert was very similar to the one in Sarpsborg, even though the room was much bigger, the stage much higher, and so of course there was less interaction with the front rows. OK, and so I was standing in the back this time, which of course meant I couldn’t really see all that was happening on stage. But then, I managed to film some nice clips – check them out on my YouTube channel. Oh, and by the way – even though there were technical problems in almost all of the songs that I recorded, the rest of the concert went just fine. Guess my camera spreads bad karma or something. *g*
There was a bit of talk, but not really a lot worth remembering. =;-) Before Malin, Terje asked whether we knew the following song. Everybody screamed YES before even knowing what was going to happen (well, except for those people who knew the setlist… *g*), so Terje announced they would now play their favorite cover song “Krabbeklo”. =;-)
In Me sa nei, we had to count down from 40 (which took quite a while *g*), and as mentioned, the first encore was the ballad Født på ny. Nice to hear that one live!
That’s about all there is to report about the show – Skambankt should really start doing different things at their concerts, or it doesn’t make sense to write reports. *lol* But hey, just check out the videos, ’cause the concert was a lot of fun and the audience was great!
So now I’ll take a little break again from touring… before I’ll get on my way up to Northern Norway in December, yay! =:-D
Skambankt return to Sarpsborg! Last year’s concert at Rock 51 was a bit… weird. But that didn’t prevent me from going there again – especially since Sarpsborg’s quite easy to get to, and with another concert in Ås the next day, it was absolutely worth taking a little trip to Norway again!
Sarpsborg itself turned out to be a nice enough little town – but too small to spend a whole afternoon without getting bored. =;-) But I had some stuff to work on anyway, and after a nice and tasty dinner it was time to get ready for the concert!
At Rock 51, we were welcomed by the merch guy (he he, yep, THAT is how you sell stuff! *g*) and got to greet some fellow fans. This time, the stage was arranged a bit differently, so that – even though there was a pillar right in front of the stage and it was hard to see – it felt more like a concert place than a bar with some noise coming out of a corner, like it was last time. =;-)
The concert started with the Eliksir intro, followed by the first song Mantra. Next song up was Skambankt – and it was clear right away that the audience wanted to have fun. The audience was quite mixed, so there were some people who were amazingly enthusiastic, while others just stood and looked on. But all in all, people seemed to enjoy what was happening; and all were definitely interested, unlike last time in Sarpsborg.
Not much talk though – there were some question about who had been there last time, who had heard Hardt Regn and so on, but that was almost it. A little remark when the guitar wasn’t in tune (“That happens when you don’t check it yourself!”), but apart from that, they let the songs do the talking. =;-)
Third song was Slukk meg for eg brenner, then Amnesty, Dynasti, and Fritt fall. Yay! =:-D Then Løgnprofitør, Malin, Kaos så inferno, and Me sa nei. That one with some nice explosions in the middle, hadn’t heard that before. *g* The last songs were O dessverre, Tyster, and Stormkast #1.
Throughout the concert you could see how much fun Skambankt had on stage – and that’s always great to watch! Even though it is a bit weird to see Terje in the dictator position. =;-) Ordering the others up on the barrier, casting reproachful looks to whoever played a wrong note – but not only that, also turning around to guide everyone through a passage of Tyster that (at least that’s my assumption *g*) never worked out right. This time it did. Terje just has to start conducting… *lol*
They went off and came back shortly after to play the last two songs, KKK and Min eliksir. And I noticed that I don’t remember the lyrics to any of them, ooops. =;-) Well, I guess I’ll have another chance tonight…
So, a great concert, but it might be possible to even top it tonight! Let’s see if they’ll manage that. =:-)
Blood, Sweat and lots of Rock’n'Roll Bericht von Marlene
Zusammen mit zwei Freunden war ich eine der 150 glücklichen Menschen, die dem Skambankt-Lydverket-Event im Internasjonalen beiwohnen durften, for free und einfach so.
Mehrmals wurde uns mitgeteilt, dass punktgenau um 20.00 der Einlass wäre und deshalb alle dann bitteschön auch da zu sein hätten. Also fanden wir uns, um auf Nummer sicher zu gehen, schon kurz vorher am Ort des Geschehens ein, bestellten Getränke und stellten fest, dass allgemeine Entspanntheit vorherrschte. Um 20 Uhr wurde es für meinen Geschmack innen zu voll. Das Volk wartete auf Einlass. Mit Punktgenauigkeit wurde es jedoch nichts, da sich der Tollak verspätete, wie sich rausstellte, als er sich durch die Menge wühlte.
Dann durfte auch das Publikum die Wendeltreppe rauf und rein in den Raum mit Bar und kleiner Bühne, die reich bestückt war mit Instrumenten und deshalb den Musikern wenig Bewegungsfreiraum bot. Alles Gute auf ca. 7qm also.
Nach kurzer Instruktion (“Bitte nicht auf Kabel treten, Kameras aus dem Weg gehen und nicht böse sein, wenn mal eine Einstellung wiederholt werden muss.”) begannen die Aufzeichnungen. Asbjørn Slettemark, Moderator der Sause, positionierte sich an diverse Stellen mitten im Publikum und berichtete über Neuigkeiten der Musikwelt wie Röyksopps Besuch im Altenheim ob des neuen Albums “Senior”, Indiemusik in amerikanischen Fernsehserien, splitterfasernackte Bühnenauftritte Kvelertaks.
Das Skambanktinterview entpuppte sich leider als nur zweiminütiges Gespräch über Terjes favorisierte CD-Neuerscheinungen des Herbstes und das war’s.
Aber eigentlich ging es ja eh primär ums Konzert, weil wir höchstwahrscheinlich nicht die Chance haben werden, an der kommenden Tour teilzunehmen.
Die Bandmitglieder bahnten sich ihren Weg durch das gespannt wartende Publikum zur Bühne, das heißt Børge, Terje, Tollak und der Christer Knutsen. Ja, derjenige welche, und er sollte nicht etwa Hans Panzer an der Gitarre ersetzten, eine Vorstellung, mit der mein Kopf kurz eine Menge Freude hatte, sondern verkroch sich in eine Ecke, in die kein Licht mehr kam und haute zum Beispiel bei Amnesti ordentlich in die Keyboardtasten. Und wenn doch mal Licht auf des Christers Kopf fiel, konnte man ein breites Grinsen sehen.
Als die Programmleiterin ein wenig nervös nach Hans fragte, meinte Terje nur: “Ach, der kommt gleich.” Enspannt waren sie alle. Das machte sich auch beim Spielen bemerkbar. Sie hatten sichtlich Freude daran und zumindest das Publikum um uns herum auch.
Den Anfang machte “Kaos, så inferno”, gefolgt von “Mantra” und nochmal “Mantra” für eine andere Kameraperspektive. “En gang til!” wurde danach zur Belustigung der Band gefordert, aber wir bekamen “Amnesti” auf die Ohren. Genug mit neuen Liedern, dachten sie sich und packten “Slukk meg”, “O Dessverre” und “Stormkast” aus. Bei letztem wurde von einem übermütigen Gast leider ein Glas gen Bühne geworfen, welches an einem Scheinwerfer zersprang und so über den vorderen Bühnenbereich niederregnete und den Terje leicht erwischte. Das Lied wurde unbeirrt zu Ende gespielt und kleine Wunden abgetupft.
Der Vorfall konnte der guten Laune nichts anhaben, und auch unsere Euphorie begleitete uns durch den Rest der Nacht.
Blood, sweat, and lots of rock’n'roll Report by Marlene
Together with two friends, I was one of the 150 lucky people who could attend the Skambankt Lydverket event at Internasjonalen, for free and just like that.
We had been told several times before that the doors would open precisely at 8 p.m. and therefore, everybody had to be there at that time. So, to be on the safe side, we arrived a bit earlier, ordered our drinks, and found out that the whole atmosphere was very relaxed. At 8 p.m., it was way too crowded inside for my taste. Everybody waited for the doors to open. But that didn’t happen on time, because Tollak was late, as it turned out when he fought his way through the crowd.
Soon after, the audience was allowed up the spiral staircase as well, into the room with a bar and small stage, which was richly equipped with instruments so that it didn’t offer the musicians much room to move. Thus all the best on just 7 square meters.
After a short instruction (“Please do not step on cables, make way for cameras, and don’t be angry if a shot must be repeated.”) the recording started. Asbjørn Slettemark, moderator of Lydverket, positioned himself at various places in the audience and reported on music news, like Röyksopp’s visit to the nursing home in conjunction with the new album “Senior”, indie music in American television series, Kvelertak’s naked stage performances.
The Skambankt interview unfortunately turned out to be no more than a two minute conversation about Terje’s favorite CD releases of the fall, and that was it.
But actually, the concert was the highlight anyway, because most likely we won’t have the chance to see Skambankt during the upcoming tour.
The band members made their way to the stage through the excited crowd, that is, Børge, Terje, Tollak, and Christer Knutsen. Yes, Christer Knudsen himself, and he wasn’t there to replace Hans Panzer on guitar, an idea which enlightened my head for a minute, but he crept into a corner where there was no light and worked the keyboards, for example during Amnesti. And if some light actually made it to Christer’s head, you could see a broad grin.
When the program director asked about Hans a little nervously, Terje just said: “Oh, he’ll arrive soon.” They were all relaxed. This was also noticeable when they were playing. It was obvious that they enjoyed it, and the audience – at least those around us – did too.
The first song was “Kaos, så inferno”, followed by “Mantra” and again “Mantra” for a different camera angle. “En gang til!”, the audience shouted afterwards, which amused the band, but we got to hear “Amnesti”. Enough new songs, they thought and played “Slukk meg”, “O Dessverre”, and “Stormkast”. During the latter, some mischievous guest unfortunately threw a glass towards the stage, which broke at a spotlight and rained down on the front of the stage, hitting Terje. Unflinchingly, they finished the song and dabbed small wounds.
The incident couldn’t harm the good mood, and our euphoria accompanied us through the rest of the night.
About every big and small town in Norway has its own rock festival – that’s quite typical for the Norwegian music scene. Stavanger has been struggling with this a bit over the last couple of years. The last rock festival in Stavanger, Pulpit Rock, went bankrupt after the third year. But fortunately, it didn’t take long until a new festival was planned for the city, namely Rått og Råde! Not everybody welcomed this plan though, because the festival was scheduled to be in the middle of a residential area, where a lot of elderly people are living. However, the plans were approved, and so Stavanger was all set for a new festival for about 10000-15000 people.
I was really curious about how this would turn out, mostly because this festival was really HUGE for Norway. I gotta admit that I don’t like big festivals, I’m much more into the small and cozy ones, but then – even huge festivals in Norway seem more like medium-sized festivals in Germany, and I was wondering how they would manage to set up such a festival for the first time.
And I was impressed! Overall, the festival was just amazing. The area was big enough for the amount of people, there were enough bar and food stands and toilets so that you didn’t have to queue for long, the organization worked out very well, there were enough securities and volunteers to get everything to run really smoothly. Thumbs up!
A big plus was the weather of course: three days of sunshine without even the slightest clouds. Would you ever expect that in Norway in September? That was so nice, and even though it did get quite cold at night, this made the festival perfect. So it’s hard for me to really judge the festival… No clue how it would have been in the rain. But like this, it was just amazing!
So does that mean there was nothing to criticize? Almost, but not quite. The area was really nice for a festival. The stages were arranged nicely, you could see very well, and it never got too crowded – you could always find a nice spot in the audience. So that was perfect. But then, the festival was far from sold out. From what I heard, there were 10.000 people there the first and last night (and about 6000 on Friday), which wasn’t too bad, but still under capacity. With a few thousand people more, I think it would have been quite crowded. Not necessarily in front of the stages, but everywhere in between. There was a nice “market street” in between the two stages, where the food stands were located and where you could sit down and rest a bit. That part was usually quite crowded, especially when everybody was walking from one stage to the other. And as bands on both stages took turns playing (which means that there was always some music playing – great!), that happened quite frequently. There were a few narrow paths that just weren’t suited for a lot of people walking there at the same time. It worked out fine with the amount of people that actually was at the festival, but I’m not sure if it would be the same with even more people. And the same was true for the exit, by the way. It looked quite frightening to see everyone head toward the same narrow path at the same time right after the concerts. The organizers took every precaution they could, the path was well-lit, and there was just no way to get the crowd off the area more quickly. But this is clearly a bottleneck for the festival, which might pose a problem if the festival is continued and might even grow.
Apart from that, the area seemed perfect for a festival. Very easy to get to from the city center (and the bus transfer worked out just great – except that it was VERY hard to actually get hold of one of the bus passes that were advertised; nobody seemed to know about them), mostly gravel grounds (so it wouldn’t get too muddy with rain), and lots of space. I can understand it though that the people living in the area were not too fond of the festival, even though the concerts ended by 11 p.m. at the latest – there’s still 10.000 people invading your neighborhood, seven hours of noise every day, and quite a bit of hassle walking around the festival grounds. However, I think that this should be bearable, as it’s only one weekend in the year – and a big plus for Stavanger.
I gotta admit that this was more or less a “surprise festival” for me. The line-up sounded great to me, because I knew almost all names on the list. However, for most of them I had NO clue what to expect. This made it really exciting, especially since there was always a band playing. So I could just walk up, check them out, and decide whether I liked it or not. Pretty cool – but it also means that I can’t report too much about the bands, because most of them were completely unknown to me. However, I’ll try to do my best now to report on the festival concerts!
The first artist of the festival was Susanne Sundfør on the big stage. I didn’t make it to the festival until halfway through her concert, but I was impressed. Not only by the crowd of people that was already gathered in front of the stage, but also by the music. When I arrived, Susanne Sundfør was doing a part alone, which was very nice. After a few songs, the band joined her. I hadn’t even noticed they were missing! But they did give a different touch to her concert and added some variety. A very nice opening concert!
After Susanne Sundfør, Line Larsen took over on the second stage. Gotta admit that she didn’t convince me. It was nice music, but not catchy at all.
Next up was Karpe Diem, and my first surprise. I suspected… hmm… maybe some “dark” rock band? I got a hip hop act, which actually wasn’t too surprising I guess, I think I’ve even heard them on the radio before. They managed to get the crowd moving! I liked the show quite a lot, and so did the rest of the audience, as it seemed.
Then, before the main act, Casiokids played on the small stage. And I left after the first song… Sorry, but what was that? Indie-alternative-wannabe-rock? Not my thing, not at all.
So I had time to grab something to eat before a-ha came on. I didn’t really expect a lot from the a-ha concert. I knew that I didn’t really know them (just the hits of course), I knew that it’s not necessarily the kind of music I usually listen to, and I knew that it was really cool to get to see them play live once! And I got pretty much what I expected: A professional show, a bit too reserved in my opinion, a lot of nice pop songs, and a dedicated audience that was impressively loud when singing along. In the beginning, my attitude was mostly “okay, it’s something you gotta see once, but well…” Towards the end, they played more and more hits and thus songs that I knew, and I started to really enjoy it. Yes, guess you HAVE to have seen a-ha on stage once, and if it’s only to note that Morten Harket looks like David Hasselhoff, or that it sounds pretty awkward if a whole audience suddenly squeaks “STAY!”. *lol* But yeah… that probably sounds rather insulting to any a-ha fan, sorry about that. But they were never my heroes. =;-) And I did enjoy the concert, more than I had expected.
The second day of the festival was the big “Kaizers day”. =;-) First up everybody faced a hard decision: While Uncle Deadly (aka Geir Kaizer) opened the festival day on the main stage, Skambankt were doing a signing session downtown. Not sure how the signing session went (’cause I didn’t have any doubt when deciding for Uncle Deadly), but the Uncle Deadly concert was really nice. It was a bit of a downside though that it was so early in the day and there were only very few people on the festival grounds at that time. Too bad! You can read more about the Uncle Deadly concert in my report.
After Uncle Deadly, a band called Rub A Dubs played on the small stage. I hadn’t heard of them before, but they sounded very promising! I’m really bad at finding genres for bands – but they had brass, which is always a big plus, and they got people dancing!
Next up on the main stage was Mew from Denmark. Again, I didn’t know more than the name, but this time my expectations were about right. A nice rock band with some “weird” influences, with a front man in a dark leather coat, singing sometimes in normal voice, sometimes two octaves up… =;-) But it was really fun to listen to! And to watch the guy whose only job on stage it seemed to be to dance. Hmm… does that mean he’s part of the band?
The next band was also from Denmark, and my first impression was “they sound Danish”. Honestly, I have no clue what made their sound typical Danish (nor do I have any idea what typical Danish sound IS *g*). The band was Oh No Ono, and actually, I even knew one of their songs – which doesn’t mean I knew the band. They reminded me a bit of Casiokids. Just standing, hardly moving, pretty monotonic music… not quite my style. And it seemed that most people were thinking the same, as it was quite empty in front of the stage at that time.
Or maybe this was already because of the next band and people preparing for the BIG concert of the evening: Band of Horses. You don’t know them? Well, I didn’t either. But EVERYBODY in Norway does, and they really were the big highlight of the day for many. So people were really enjoying their concert. I found it was nice, but without knowing the songs (I had heard one on Norwegian radio though! *g*), I couldn’t quite figure out what makes them so special. It was nice music, well performed, but it didn’t really catch on for me.
Anyway, I think it would have taken a lot to take my mind away from the upcoming concert at that time. Because next up were Skambankt, who delivered a fantastic concert in front of an even more fantastic crowd! All about the concert here.
The headliner on Friday was The Prodigy. I’ve seen them before, twice even, and I always hated it – not because of the music which I find is quite suitable for festivals, but because it was impossible to listen to their concerts, as the bass was turned up so loud that it hurt. And not even in your ears, but in your whole body… It turned out though this time that it wasn’t too bad! The sound was absolutely okay, and I stayed almost until the end of their concert, even though I had planned to leave after five minutes. But no, I gotta admit, that was a fun concert! The crowd loved it as well – but it was obvious that there were a lot less people at the main concert than the day before.
The next day, like the first two, started in bright sunshine and warm temperatures, so that everybody arrived at the festival grounds early and everything started out very relaxed and happy. First up was Bare Egil Band. One guy with guitar and microphone, obviously quite funny, but I found out that my Norwegian might be sufficient for daily conversation, but not to understand what all this was about and whether it was good or bad. =;-)
That was much easier for me with the next band: Madcon! One of the few Norwegian bands of the festival which are known outside of Norway as well. In the beginning, it seemed like they had a hard time getting the audience to go along. They worked really hard though, making the audience scream again and again, splitting them into two groups and having them compete, making them jump – and it worked! The crowd was quite impressive for this time of the day, and it was obvious that everybody had fun. And rightfully so! Madcon seemed like the perfect band for that time and that crowd.
The next band, Tôg on the small stage, also had quite a few people in the audience. Not sure in which genre they should be placed – electro-alternative maybe? It was a nice mixture, in any case. At least from the musical side. Not sure why they all had black clothes and white scarves on their heads, that looked a bit silly. But it’s the music that counts, right? =;-)
Then we went back to the hip hop. Lars Vaular was another band where I knew only the name and nothing else – at least that’s what I thought. I did know their sunglasses song though. =;-) I watched their performance from the very back, so it’s hard for me to judge the reaction of the audience, but it seemed to me that they managed to capture the audience – but there weren’t as many people who let themselves capture as under Madcon’s concert.
While the main stage was turned into a hip hop stage, the small one now became the hardcore stage. I don’t like that genre, I can’t tell what is good or bad, but Purified in Blood were quite impressive. Less because of their music (it just sounded like “noise” to me), but because of the audience. There was actually a pretty big circle pit! OK, there’s circle pits at about every concert I see in Germany, but you can’t compare Germany and Norway in this respect. Honestly, I had never expected a real pit in Norway. But then I wasn’t surprised that it was _extremely_ aggressive in there. OK, it was nothing compared to later on, but before that…
… Thomas Dybdahl played on the main stage. Talk about different styles! =;-) Nice, melodic pop rock. The main stage audience seemed to like it. I found the concert quite nice, but I didn’t know any of the songs, and nothing really stuck.
So then it was time for Kvelertak on the small stage. Very similar to Purified in Blood, but more melodic and thus easier to listen to, in my opinion. But it might be that PiB is just as melodic, I just haven’t found the underlying melodies yet. =;-) I saw Kvelertak a few times as support for Skambankt, and while it’s not my kind of music, I have total respect for what they do on stage. I was pretty shocked by what was going on in front of the stage though. I’m quite used to seeing pogo pits, but that looked terribly aggressive. And I always thought people are in there together and not against one another… guess that doesn’t count for Norwegian pits, who knows. If I saw that correctly, it ended with the PiB singer being escorted out by the police… uhem.
For some reason, they were done fifteen minutes early (my guess was that they had planned for an encore, but people just left, but I don’t know whether that’s true), and then the waiting for Ozzy Osbourne began! I had seen him once before, in 1997 if I recall correctly. Don’t really remember anything from that concert except that it was raining and he covered “Singing in the rain”. =;-) Again, I didn’t really know any songs, just some fragments here and there, but it turned out to be an amazing concert! The audience was absolutely crazy, Ozzy was very friendly and entertaining, the music was great (well, except for the singing maybe – Ozzy was a bit off-key sometimes…), there was a foam sprayer and the first row, the securities and camera got covered in foam a few times, and Ozzy seemed very excited about the great audience. Honestly, that seemed a little bit fake to me… not sure why, because the audience was quite enthusiastic. But not really that loud, I thought. However, Ozzy seemed amazed and said he was amazed, so maybe he actually was. =;-) He played a really long set – almost two hours – and it seemed as if he would have continued if the hour hadn’t been after eleven, which was the strict curfew.
That definitely was a nice conclusion to a great festival. From what I read up to now, the sales weren’t as good as expected, so it’s not quite clear yet whether the festival will be repeated next year. I really hope so though, because it’s a great thing – and yep, every Norwegian town needs its own festival! Especially if it’s such a nice one. =:-)
One of the last festival gigs of the year, bright sunshine, and homecoming at the same time – this Skambankt show at Rått og Råde just couldn’t go wrong! I was there the whole festival (check out my report here), but the Skambankt concert was the highlight, of course.
And it seemed that I wasn’t the only one who thought like that. When I arrived at the small stage (while Band of Horses was still playing on the big one), there was already quite a crowd in front of the stage, and there were more and more people coming. Great! And the atmosphere was amazing; it was the first time at the festival that people started shouting for the next band to come out. Yay! And also throughout the concert, I was amazed by the enthusiastic and loud audience. That’s just so great to see, and Skambankt really deserve it! I was kinda happy though that I was on the side and not in the middle of the action, ’cause it seemed quite aggressive in there… and it actually ended up with a girl behind hurt because someone jumped into her back. =:-/ But it was impressive to watch the crowd! OK, at least until I saw the Kvelertak concert the next day, because the audience was even more enthusiastic and aggressive there – but Skambankt delivered the way better concert, of course. =;-)
It started with an old lady (supposedly Tollak’s grandma-in-something-like-law =;-)) coming on stage and delivering a speech that she’d gonna check out the kind of music that the youth likes to listen to now, and that people should promise (and repeat after her, of course) to behave nicely and not pee into other people’s backyards. Which of course was Skambankt’s response to the “rullatoropprør”, where elderly people had protested against the festival and called Skambankt’s music “åndelig terror” – spiritual terror. Great idea to answer this in this way! =:-)
Then Skambankt came on to the Dynasti intro, and after Dynasti they continued with Skambankt. Twice even, because Terje tripped Tollak on the first try. =;-)
As always, they got the audience going under Skambankt, everybody was screaming along. Løgnprofitør got the atmosphere up even more, and while Mantra is a bit calmer, everybody knew that one. So it continued as it started, with a really hot audience and a band that didn’t take much time to talk in between or let the audience get any rest. Next up were Vår bør, Malin, and then Slukk meg for eg brenner.
Then Skambankt decided to play a song from the new album, namely “Kaos, så inferno”, the opening track of Søvnløs. And the reaction was very positive, even though people could only know the song from some live videos or the one time it’s been played on the radio.
Next up was Tanker som mareritt, followed by O dessverre, which everybody knew again. The time was almost up already – but Terje asked whether we wanted to hear another song. And then he offered not only one more song, but two! First Me sa nei (where we had to count down from 21 in the middle), then Stormkast #1, again with a great and long solo part in between. And that was it – no time for encores, unfortunately. =:-(
Too bad, but a great concert anyway, even though they didn’t even play Alarm. I really think they’ll have to think about playing a bit longer on the next tour so that they can fit in both old and new stuff into their set! *g*
