It was raining in buckets, and absolutely no sign of clear skies in any direction. Yes, I’d heard about last year’s rain at Parkenfestivalen, but I was hoping for better weather this year. Oh well, I put on rainproof pants and jacket – and a borrowed sou’wester (my aunt bought it at Buktafestivalen in Tromsø, really nice one – why didn’t I think of buying one myself…?) to keep me dry and warm.

Due to the long queues outside the gates, my friend and I arrived at the park just a little bit too late to see Superfamily, we only got to hear the last song. Too bad, I believe their concert was a good one. Anyway, we had quite some time to kill before Kaizers were on – as the headliners and the last band to play on Friday. We found a tent on top of the hill (Rensåsparken is a beautiful park in two heights separated by a steep hill) where we could sit, away from the rain that was pouring down, and enjoy a meal.
As The Roots were nearing the end of their concert we moved ourselves into the crowd. Nice show by them, by the way. The rain had actually stopped by now – “it never rains at a Kaizers concert”. And (finally) it was time for Kaizers! It had been months since last time I saw them, and I got pretty excited… =:-P

The new intro didn’t work for me. I found it boring and annoying and just wanted it to be over. Russian Dance was much better, the way it encourages the audience to clap and sing and creeps up my spine – it always makes my mood better. (Please, change back!) But that’s only my opinion… The concert itself took place as you would expect a Kaizer concert. Up tempo, not much time in between songs, and not a particularly special setlist. A festival’s setlist, safe and easy – to attract new fans I guess. I couldn’t get a hold of a setlist, sorry, but I’ll do my best to remember. It was something like this: Maskineri, Di grind, Delikatessen, Veterans Klage, Bøn fra Helvete, KGB, Ompa til du dør, Blitzregn Baby, 9 mm, Apokalyps Meg, Kontroll på Kontinentet, Enden av November, Sigøynerblod, Bak et Halleluja, Resistansen, Maestro. Please don’t arrest me if I’m wrong, I might have forgotten some songs, and I might have put in a couple they didn’t actually play. And I can swear the order is incorrect – apart from the first and last song…

Several times Janove asked the audience “Are you having a good time” (yes) and “Has it started raining again” (no), just to point out that for the 580 concerts they’ve played, it has only rained once. And quite right, the rain had stopped for good. During Kontroll, there was something wrong with Geir’s presentation. He couldn’t find a towel, and pointed to his guitar as if something was wrong – and his whale fountain malfunctioned as well, he squirted out a little water, and that was it. It was actually both confusing and quite funny… *g*

And suddenly, the concert was over. And I must admit that I was a bit disappointed – although I don’t know why. It could be a combination of my bad position in the audience, my friend who seemed to wish she was anywhere else than at a Kaizer concert, people from Bodø who were constantly pushing and trying to stand in front of me (I’m only 160 cm, they should have had a good enough view from behind me…), my bad camera that left me with hardly any good pictures (I REALLY need to buy a new one soon…) and the fact that Kaizers themselves seemed to work on routine and nothing more… Or maybe I was just having a bad day.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the concert here in Tromsø tomorrow – I’m positive it will be better than the one at Parken. Oh – and forgive me for the poor quality of the pictures…