Rått og Råde

Festivals 2011

Monday, May 30th, 2011
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Der Sommer steht vor der Tür (genauer gesagt schickt er schon seit ein paar Wochen die ersten Vorläufer vorbei, wie schön!), das heißt, es ist höchste Zeit, sich endlich mit den Sommerfestivals dieses Jahr zu beschäftigen und zu entscheiden, welche einen Besuch wert sind!

Letztes Jahr verbrachte ich neun Wochenende am Stück auf Festivals und Konzerten – das war schön, das machte Spaß, es war aber auch seeeeehr seeeeeehr anstrengend. Daher für dieses Jahr der Vorsatz: weniger Festivals! Das war anhand der ersten Bestätigungen der großen und kleineren Festivals nicht schwierig. Problem nur: Festivals haben es an sich, dass die Bands erst nach und nach angekündigt werden und das Line-Up sich daher immer mehr verbessert… Und das Resultat: Die Festivals dieses Jahr sind mindestens so vielversprechend wie letztes Jahr, und ich fürchtevermute, ich werde auch diesen Sommer wieder im Freien mit Krach auf den Ohren verbringen…

Also, hier mal (für mich und Euch) ein kleiner Überblick über die relevanten Festivals diesen Sommer!

Rock am Ring/Rock im Park, 3.-5. Juni

Los geht’s am Himmelfahrtswochenende mit Rock am Ring und Rock im Park. Hier fand ich das Line-Up zu Beginn sehr sehr schwach. Mittlerweile aber? Echt nicht übel! Von den Headlinern ist zwar nur System of a Down so richtig mein Fall, aber unter den kleineren Bands verstecken sich einige Perlen, so dass es einem ganz sicher nicht langweilig wird. Besonders stark ist natürlich der RiP-Samstag und RaR-Sonntag mit – für mich – durchgehend tollem Programm. So toll, dass ich sogar über eine Tageskarte nachdenke… System of a Down allein wären es schon wert, und dann noch DIESES Vorprogramm? Mal gucken. Auf jeden Fall war das hier schon mal ein schönes Beispiel dafür, wie ein Line-Up wachsen kann!

Southside/Hurricane, 17.-19. Juni

Ein wenig im Gegensatz dazu das Southside (und Hurricane) dieses Jahr. Hier treffen die Headliner (bis auf die Chemical Brothers) komplett meinen Geschmack, dafür ist bei den kleinen Bands eher wenig dabei, was mich anlockt. Natürlich Kaizers Orchestra, wegen denen ich auch hinfahren werde, aber sonst? Eher dürftig, finde ich. Und da ich ja insgesamt absolut kein Southside-Freund bin (Klartext? Okay: Das Southside ist das am schlechtesten organisierte Festival hierzulande, und es ist nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis etwas Ernsthaftes passiert, denn es gibt einfach kein Sicherheitskonzept. Siehe hier.), wird es daher bei mir nur der eine Tag werden, nämlich der Samstag. An dem natürlich die Chemical Brothers Headliner sind. Kashmir spielen am gleichen Tag – und zwar parallel zu Kaizers. Juchhe. Na ja, Southside halt. =;-)

Rock a Field, 26. Juni

Vom Rock-a-Field-Festival in Luxemburg hatte ich bisher noch nie gehört. Dieses Mal wurde ich darauf aufmerksam, weil Bullet for my Valentine dort spielen. Und woah, was ist denn das für ein Line-Up? Für EINEN Tag? Nicht schlecht, echt nicht schlecht. Die Gefahr ist natürlich, dass sich die Auftrittszeiten überschneiden und man nur die Hälfte der Bands zu sehen bekommt, aber auch das wäre noch die Anfahrt wert. Nur schade, dass es ein Sonntag ist, ein Samstag wäre praktischer; dennoch glaube ich, das kann ich mir nicht entgehen lassen!

Sonnenrot, 15.-16. Juli

Im Juli geht es dann weiter mit dem Sonnenrot. Das Line-Up des letzten Jahres war unglaublich stark – daher ist klar, dass das kaum getoppt werden kann. Bisher fehlen im Programm noch ein Headliner und ein Co-Headliner; daher ist es schwer, das diesjährige Line-Up wirklich zu beurteilen. Der erste Blick ist jedoch nicht allzu vielversprechend, zumindest was die Bands angeht. Bis auf wenige “Feier-Bands” wie Bonaparte, Russkaja und die Ting Tings (und natürlich Kettcar, für diejenigen, die mit denen etwas anfangen können – da gehöre ich nicht dazu), ist es doch eher durchwachsen. Was aber nichts heißen muss – ich habe das Sonnenrot letztes Jahr sehr positiv empfunden, da die ganze Atmosphäre sehr schön war und man wunderbar neue Bands kennenlernen konnte. Und genau DAS geht ja nur, wenn man die Bands nicht schon alle kennt!

Happiness, 15.-16. Juli

Am selben Wochenende wie das Sonnenrot findet in Schwann bei Pforzheim das Happiness-Festival statt. Die beiden Festivals sind natürlich nicht zu vergleichen, da das Happiness doch sehr viel kleiner ist. Wobei sie sich mit Sum 41 dieses Jahr aber auch einen ziemlich hochkarätigen Headliner geangelt haben! Für mich sind natürlich Disco Ensemble der Grund, da hinzuwollen, und dazu gibt’s noch Yakuzi und eine Handvoll weiterer namhafter Bands. Sehr sehr vielversprechend! Leider ist bei solch lokalen Festivals immer ein wenig die Gefahr, dass die Dorfjugend aufläuft und Alkohol viel wichtiger ist als die Musik. Mal sehen. Einmal war ich bisher dort, das war vom Programm super und vom Publikum durchaus machbar, wenn auch nicht perfekt. Ich bin gespannt, wie es sich mittlerweile entwickelt hat.

Slottsfjell, 14.-16. Juli

Und gleich noch ein Festival am selben Wochenende: das Slottsfjell-Festival in Norwegen. Ich war vor zwei Jahren dort, und das Festival ist wunderschön. Für Norwegen sehr groß, für deutsche Verhältnisse ist das aber immer noch sehr familiär. Dazu aber richtig professionell aufgezogen, was man bei kleineren norwegischen Festivals nicht immer behaupten kann. Aber es passt alles: die Lage, die Organisation, das Publikum, die Verkehrsanbindung – nur das Programm, das passt für mich dieses Jahr leider gar nicht. Kaizers Orchestra sind die einzige Band des Festivals, die mich interessiert – die spielen dafür aber auch gleich zweimal, einmal als Headliner, einmal ein “Privatkonzert” für ein Handvoll Ticketgewinner. Nettes Konzept, aber das restliche Programm reißt das leider nicht raus. =:-( Na ja, nächstes Jahr dann vielleicht wieder?

Eier mit Speck, 29.-31. Juli

Wo wir schon bei Kaizers Orchestra sind: Die spielen auch beim Eier mit Speck-Festival in Viersen. Den Namen kannte ich (den vergisst man ja nicht, wenn man ihn mal gehört hat *g*), sonst hatte ich mich mit dem Festival noch nie beschäftigt. Aber ein Blick aufs Line-Up sagt: nicht unspannend! Natürlich kann man hier kein 1A-Line-Up erwarten (ich meine, Kaizers sind Headliner =;-)), aber für ein kleines Festival kann sich das durchaus sehen lassen. Neben ein paar altbekannten Bands sind einige dabei, von denen man mal den Namen gehört hat, aber sonst noch nichts – ich erwarte hier also ein schönes “Neuentdeckungs-Festival”. Das werde ich mir sicher nicht entgehen lassen! Ich muss mich nur noch zwischen einem Tag und dem ganzen Festival entscheiden…

Mini-Rock-Festival, 5.-6. August

Das Mini-Rock hat sich im letzten Jahr zum “Mindestens Medium wenn nicht fast schon Maxi”-Rock entwickelt, ist dabei aber geblieben wie es war – sehr positiv! Dieses Jahr zeigte sich dann, dass sie den Stand vom letzten Jahr wohl nicht halten könnten. Kein Wunder, Fettes Brot als Headliner waren schon eine Nummer, die sich nicht leicht wiederholen lässt! Daher habe ich sehr skeptisch aufs Line-Up geschaut und hatte das Festival für dieses Jahr innerlich schon abgehakt. Nachdem nun aber noch Disco Ensemble und die Monsters of Liedermaching bestätigt wurden, wendete sich das Blatt… und hey, La Vela Puerca sind auch dabei, sowie ein ganzer Haufen “oh den Namen kenne ich, die wollte ich immer schon mal angucken”-Bands. Also, beide Daumen nach oben, und dabei werden sie noch ganz fest gedrückt, dass das Festival auch ohne einen Headliner wie Fettes Brot das Niveau halten kann!

Prima leben und stereo, 5.-6. August

Einziges Problemchen für mich mit dem Mini-Rock: Am selben Wochenende spielen Kaizers Orchestra in Freising bei München beim Prima leben und stereo. Von dem Festival hatte ich vorher noch nie etwas gehört, und ich muss auch gestehen, dass ich beim Line-Up mehr Fragezeichen vor Augen habe als sonst etwas. Aber auch hier gilt: Kann man nicht mit z.B. dem Mini-Rock vergleichen, da das ein völlig anderes Level ist. Mein Gefühl sagt, dass das hier wohl ein schönes, familiäres, kleines Alternativ-Festival ist. Und zwar mit Kaizers als Headliner. Was will man mehr? Also, außer Sonnenschein und guter Laune an dem Wochenende, versteht sich. =:-)

Taubertal/Open Flair/Rocco del Schlacko, 11.-14. August

Mitte August dann DAS Festivalwochenende des Jahres. Ich verwende das Taubertal jetzt einfach als Synonym für Taubertal, Open Flair und Rocco del Schlacko, obwohl sich das Line-Up der drei Festivals natürlich geringfügig unterscheidet. Das Rocco ist klar “abgeschlagen” mit weniger Bands (dafür ist es aber auch kleiner und billiger), das Open Flair hat noch ein paar Extra-Schmankerl (wie die Busters), und das Taubertal – nun ja, das ist halt das Taubertal und damit eh immer toll. =:-) Und das Line-Up? Nun ja. Draufgucken, staunen, jubeln sag ich da nur! Für mich sind wahnsinnig viele Bands dabei, die ich unbedingt sehen will. Jetzt muss ich mich nur noch für eins der drei Festivals entscheiden… wobei das Taubertal natürlich klar vorne liegt, denn: Es ist halt das Taubertal!

Open Air Gampel, 18.-21. August
Das Open Air Gampel hatte ich bisher kaum auf dem Schirm, und es ist ja auch von Süddeutschland aus nicht gerade “um die Ecke”. Das Line-Up macht die Reise allerdings wert! The Offsping und die Guano Apes sind Bands, die ich sonst noch nirgends im diesjährigen Festival-Line-Up gelesen habe, und zusätzlich gibt es noch NoFX, Skunk Anansie, Chemical Brothers, Simple Plan, Seeed und die Baseballs – von den “kleinen” Highlights, allen voran natürlich Kaizers Orchestra, aber auch Katzenjammer und Russkaja, mal ganz abgesehen. Und Schweizer Festivals sind ja sowieso immer was Tolles, ganz grundsätzlich.

Rått & Råde, 1.-3. September

Mein letztes Sommerfestival 2010 war das Rått & Råde in Stavanger, ein tolles Erlebnis. Dieses Jahr werden Kaizers dort spielen. Das restliche Programm ist zurzeit noch ziemlich unklar… ich hoffe aber auf ein paar richtig tolle Ergänzungen, denn da würde ich gerne wieder hin. Mal sehen, was sich ergibt.

Vermutlich habe ich jetzt noch das ein oder andere Festival vergessen und übersehen, was ich dieses Jahr erwähnenswert finde – das wird dann einfach im Nachhinein ergänzt. Für sachdienliche Hinweise bin ich dankbar! Fakt ist aber auf jeden Fall: Das wird ein lauter und anstrengender Sommer! Ich freu mich drauf! =:-)

02-04.09.2010 Rått og Råde (Stavanger)

Monday, September 6th, 2010
02-04.09.2010 – Photos Rått og Råde (Stavanger)

The main stageAbout 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.

The crowdAnd 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!

After the concertsSo 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.

KidApart 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!

Susanne SundførThe 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.

Karpe DiemNext 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.

Morten HarketSo 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.

Geir ZahlThe 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!

MewNext 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.

Band of HorsesOr 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 ProdigyThe 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.

Enjoying the sunThe 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.

TôgThe 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.

Purified in BloodWhile 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.

KvelertakSo 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.

OzzyFor 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.

Thank you!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. =:-)

02-04.09.2010 – Photos Rått og Råde (Stavanger)

Sunday, September 5th, 2010
02-04.09.2010 – Photos Rått og Råde (Stavanger)

03.09.2010 Skambankt (Rått og Råde, Stavanger)

Sunday, September 5th, 2010
03.09.2010 – Photos Skambankt (Rått og Råde, Stavanger)

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*

03.09.2010 – Photos Skambankt (Rått og Råde, Stavanger)

Sunday, September 5th, 2010
03.09.2010 – Photos Skambankt (Rått og Råde, Stavanger)

03.09.2010 Uncle Deadly (Rått og Råde, Stavanger)

Sunday, September 5th, 2010
03.09.2010 – Photos Uncle Deadly (Rått og Råde, Stavanger)

As conclusion to my festival season, it was time for another trip to Norway. More precisely to Stavanger for the Rått & Råde festival! You can find my report about the whole festival here.

The most interesting day for me at the festival was Friday. The first band on stage that day was Uncle Deadly – and since I hadn’t managed to see any solo concerts of Geir before (why does he always announce his concerts at the last second? *sigh*), I was really looking forward to that! A little downer just a few days before: At the same time when Uncle Deadly was scheduled to play at RxR, Skambankt were doing a presale and signing session downtown. Yeah, great… I mean, it wasn’t a hard decision for me to take (I had chosen to go to Stavanger instead of Tromsø because Geir was playing only in Stavanger), but I think it was a bit unfair, because it was obvious that some of the people who would have come out to see Uncle Deadly weren’t coming now because they were at the Skambankt signing. But well – their bad! =;-)

Uncle Deadly was the first band that played in the afternoon, and unfortunately, there were very few people there. Even though it was a perfect day, sunshine, warm, Friday… but most people didn’t arrive until later that evening.

Still, Uncle Deadly didn’t seem to be annoyed by the lack of spectators. They played a nice little set – it took a while until they seemed to catch on, but then it was really nice, and those people who had made it out on the festival in time really enjoyed it. Geir seemed a little insecure maybe, but not uncomfortable with the role as the front man. I was a bit curious whether it was right that he “only talks about the weather”, as people claimed on Facebook. And yep, he does. =;-) But hey, with this amazing weather that was absolutely allowed. And how should he know this kind of weather since he moved to Oslo? =;-) But naah, that was not the only thing he talked about. He also wondered about how Ozzy would pronounce Rått og Råde (well – he didn’t…), asked if a-ha fought on stage the day before, and tried to remember whether or not he had ever played soccer on the field where the stage now stood. Or at least that’s what I understood. Who knows what he actually said… =;-)

Anyway. He started out with lots of songs from Monkey Do but played a few songs from Nice for a change as well. Here’s the setlist: Be careful what you wish for, The game, I don’t mind, Songs about God, The subpoena girl, Nice for a change, Friday nights, Some call that love, Oh life, Sneakin’ up.

As I wrote, it took a few songs for the band to warm up. The sound wasn’t too good in the beginning, the guitars were out of tune (because of the sun), but it got better and better. But, to not be the blind and deaf fan – there were quite a few wrong notes and chords throughout the set, and nobody would have noticed some sheets with lyrics behind the monitors… better than “la la la” in every second song, to be honest. =;-)

All in all, the concert was really nice. I wasn’t amazed though – this might be due to the surroundings, because Uncle Deadly looked kinda “lost” on the enormous stage, with so few people in front of it. It might have been different on the second stage, or at a club show. I think Geir’s solo stuff would work better there – or maybe it’s just some really great music to listen to at home and just not made to be played live. Not sure. Would be a pity though, ’cause I think Geir could grow into that frontman position. Let’s see if he’ll get that chance. =:-)

03.09.2010 – Photos Uncle Deadly (Rått og Råde, Stavanger)

Sunday, September 5th, 2010
03.09.2010 – Photos Uncle Deadly (Rått og Råde, Stavanger)