The first band I ever was a fan of was Bon Jovi. That was loooong ago, and I haven’t kept up with them at all the last 25 years or so … (gosh, I’m old!). Still, when Skambankt announced they would be supporting Bon Jovi at their concert in Stavanger, there was not a doubt in my mind what I would be doing that weekend!

As a concert junkie, getting a ticket wasn’t a problem, but just for the record: I hate Golden Circles. The people who get there first should be the ones who get to stand in the front, and not the people who pay the most – which might even be the people who got their tickets last, because those hilariously expensive tickets were the last ones left … Anyways, I got to the arena in time to secure my spot in the front row of the non-Golden-Circle area, which was pretty much in the middle of the area. Thus far enough away that if Skambankt had put body-doubles on stage, I wouldn’t have noticed. *grmbl*

Add to that the fact that when Skambankt played, a lot of the Golden Circle audience hadn’t arrived yet, and there was therefore a huge gap in the audience, which totally killed the atmosphere. I mean, nothing compared to Longfield & Super Skeleton, who were the first band out – nobody cared for their show, and there was hardly anybody there yet. Such a pity! =:-( At least for Skambankt, it had filled up quite a bit, and before the show I saw quite a few Skambankt shirts and heard a lot of talk about them, so people actually wanted to see Skambankt. Still, there weren’t enough fans there to create a real buzz in the stadium while Skambankt were on stage – but as Skambankt themselves said on stage: It cannot be that easy – they have to do some work to deserve the favor of the audience!

Even though the easiest way to create a buzz in the stadium was to simply … ask for it. =;-) Which definitely worked, it sounded impressive, and Skambankt seemed to love it! What was awesome to see was how well they managed to fill the huge stage. Their setup was a lot smaller than Bon Jovi’s, of course, but they spread out to the sides whenever possible, and they used the catwalk into the audience quite a bit. Not always successfully – during Stormkast #1, both Terje and Panzer went to the front, just to simultaneously realize they wouldn’t make it back to their positions in time and start running back … which resulted in a musical mess, so after a quick band meeting on stage, they decided to start the song over. *lol*

The weather report for the evening was bad – it was supposed to rain basically all night. However, it held up until Skambankt came on, and it wasn’t until O Dessverre and “after sunshine comes the rain” that it started raining … They didn’t take the blame though, because come on, let’s get real here, “you’re all gonna be soaking wet by the end of the night anyway, so let’s just not give a damn about it”.

For the final song, Kommer snart hjem, they got some help on stage – Longfield’s guitar player (I think) and a saxophone solo (by a guy I could have sworn played a concert in Sandnes earlier that day – but hey, I was too far from the stage to really be able to tell, and I guess I’ll never know …).

The full setlist:

1. Dynasti
2. Skambankt
3. Voodoo
4. Mantra
5. Horisonten brenner
6. Vår bør
7. O dessverre
8. For en evighet
9. Malin
10. Balladen om deg
11. Stormkast #1
12. Kommer snart hjem

Definitely a fun experience to see Skambankt on such a huge stage! It could have been even better if the audience had been more into them, but well – I guess you can’t ask for that if you’re only the support band.

Half an hour later, it was time for Bon Jovi. And I was suddenly 25 years younger and surprised about how much of my brain capacity is apparently blocked by Bon Jovi lyrics … *uhem* Great fun, even though the singing especially on the old songs was quite sloppy at times. But still: two and a half hours down memory lane! And all in all, an amazing night. =:-)