Fredrikstad

22.06.2013 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Gamlebyen, Fredrikstad)

Tuesday, June 25th, 2013
22.06.2013 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Gamlebyen, Fredrikstad)

22.06.2013 Kaizers Orchestra (Gamlebyen, Fredrikstad)

Sunday, June 23rd, 2013
22.06.2013 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Gamlebyen, Fredrikstad)

Next stop: Fredrikstad! This time it wasn’t a festival, but a Kaizers concert with several support bands (which, unfortunately, turned out to be rather boring though). Not up on a hill but in the middle of the ancient town center, and – at least according to the weather forecast – without the rain, yay! Well. Unfortunately, you should never trust Norwegian weather forecasts … which meant that it started raining again already before the Kaizers concert started. But fortunately the rain was in no way like the rain the night before – not much more than drizzle instead of downpour. Which is still annoying, but much more bearable. And like the organizer put it before the concert: Kaizers are breaking up, and the weather gods are crying …

All in all, the concert was very similar to the one in Oslo. Only a few small changes in the setlist (they added Delikatessen, Maestro was played much earlier, and the last encore was 170), an enthusiastic and loud audience, good atmosphere on stage – and still, it didn’t catch on as much as the Oslo concert, at least in my opinion. For some reason, I thought that the beginning of the concert was fantastic, but then it got a bit worse throughout the show. Some of the announcements sounded a little like the Jackal wasn’t too much into the concert. “The management says we have to ask if you’re having a good time. So: Are you having a good time??” … Which can be really funny, but in the actual context, it wasn’t really. Not bad either, just … strange.

But that isn’t supposed to mean that the concert was bad or not entertaining, not at all! Right in the beginning, the Jackal was amazed: “Wow, there’s really a lot of you by now! And we’re still six …” *g* A bit later, there were long discussions about how big Fredrikstad is and if there are more or less people living there than in Sandnes or Drammen.

At the beginning of En for orgelet, the Jackal realized that it has a perfect hip hop beat and that you can sing “ah ah” and “hey” to that beat as well. Which – what we learned later – works just as well for Evig pint. =;-)

Before they played Kontroll på kontinentet, we got a little striptease – first the jacket, which the Jackal just held out behind him until someone took it. Since the crew was busy, the “someone” turned out to be butler Killmaster. *g* Then it was time to take off the tie, same procedure of course. And later, the crew had to tape up Janove’s pants and fix the broken microphone. Pretty cool if you have people pampering you all the time. =;-)

Killmaster celebrated his solo in Kontroll på kontinentet and dragged it out a lot. Then the song “finally” continued, but the Jackal stopped it again: “Wait – Hellraizer, did you want to play a solo as well?” Hellraizer could do without though. =;-) Instead, he stepped up on the drum pedestal a bit later and started messing with Mink’s drum set, until Mink pushed him down. *g* And exactly those are the little details that make a concert really entertaining!

But the best guy on stage that night was definitely Omen! He was so in his role again – even before he entered the stage. If you were standing towards the side, you could see him make his way towards the steps up to the stage – already wearing his gas mask -, and before he actually climbed them, he checked out the stage and the area, seemingly impressed. And as always, it was really worth keeping an eye on him constantly during Delikatessen. He took up his suitcase, opened it, and found a vase that he put on the keyboard. Next he found – of course – some flowers, which he put into the vase. Then it was time to play some organ, but right after he was done, he grabbed his water bottle. First he drank a little – and then he was apparently addressed by the flowers, who also wanted some water! *rofl* But first Omen had to play again, then he could continue the discussion with the flowers and finally pour some water into the vase.

Fast forward to Svarte katter, right after Omen’s second solo. He’s completely exhausted and definitely needs something to drink. So, what are you gonna do? Right, of course you grab the vase with the flowers and drink from it! *rofl* AWESOME! And of course he filled up the water again afterwards – after another conversation with the flowers. Hach … I really want a DVD with a separate Helge cam! By the way, Omen actually came out into the aisle after the concert and wrote some autographs and took pictures with the fans. Really nice!

And as the report shows, I guess, the concert was really great, all in all – even though it wasn’t as good as the one at OverOslo, because the last little bit to turn it into the perfect concert was missing. But still amazing! =:-)

The setlist:

  • Aldri vodka, Violeta
  • Siste dans
  • Tusen dråper regn
  • Din kjole lukter bensin, mor
  • En for orgelet, en for meg
  • Forloveren
  • Støv og sand
  • Delikatessen
  • I ett med verden
  • KGB
  • Kontroll på kontinentet
  • Ompa til du dør
  • Evig pint
  • Philemon Arthur & the Dung
  • Svarte katter & flosshatter
  • Hjerteknuser
  • Maestro
    —————
  • Begravelsespolka
  • Drøm videre, Violeta
  • 170

My next concert will be next week, with my 10-year anniversary … and better weather, I hope!

25.7.2009 Kaizers Orchestra (Månefestivalen, Fredrikstad)

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

My last Kaizers concert was more than two and a half months ago – way too long, time for another concert! Even though I didn’t have the feeling lately that I really “missed” something the last weeks. But when the stage was set up for Kaizers, when the intro came on, and when Kaizers came up on stage, it did feel special. Hah… finally another Kaizers concert!
... read on!

25.7.2009 Skambankt (Månefestivalen, Fredrikstad)

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Yep, time for another festival! And this time with Skambankt AND Kaizers Orchestra, even on the same day. But I’ll keep the reports separate, so this one will probably be rather short – given that Skambankt had only about 40 minutes…
... read on!

25.07.2009 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Månefestivalen)

Saturday, July 25th, 2009
25.07.2009 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Månefestivalen)

25.07.2009 – Photos Skambankt (Månefestivalen)

Saturday, July 25th, 2009
25.07.2009 – Photos Skambankt (Månefestivalen)

24.-26.7.2009 Månefestivalen (Fredrikstad)

Friday, July 24th, 2009

After spending a few days of vacation in Kristiansand, I got on the train to Fredrikstad for yet another festival. I had been to Gamle Fredrikstad before, so I knew the surroundings – but wait, they can’t shut off this tourist place completely?!

I was a bit confused when I checked out the festival grounds – half of the festival wasn’t even separated off, so you didn’t need a ticket to get in. So what exactly did I pay 950 NOK for? Especially, as there was only one or maybe two interesting bands that played on another day but Saturday? Well, the reason was that I wanted to go with a friend and have a great weekend, but as she got sick, I was on my own. At least I got rid of the second ticket fairly easily, so then I could start to care for the music. Just that there really wasn’t a lot to care for… The first bands were just plain out boring. So after a while, I went back to the hotel and returned for Farmers Market. And they, sorry, were just awful in my opinion. Of course, that was played very well, but it’s just annoying to listen to. Except for the last song where they connected lots and lots of well-known melodies, that was really great! But the rest of the concert was boring. And I was terribly cold…

Then it finally got a bit better when I went over to the other stage to see Bøyen Beng. No clue what the lyrics were about, but the music was real old punk, and that was great fun. I was reluctant to return to the other stage – the headliner was some Swedish rapper…

But hey – it turned out the highlight of the day! I had expected something in Eminem style (or whatever), but that was more Seeed combined with The Busters and a bit of Deichkind. There’s probably more fitting comparisons, but those are the bands that came to my mind. And all of that in Swedish! Really cool. And the third Swedish band after Håkan Hellström and Bob Hund who made an impression on me this week…

Didn’t really care for the “Balkan Beats” party and the band afterwards, so I just stayed to check them out and left. All in all, the day was rather weird, I don’t even really know what I enjoyed and what not. Somehow it all felt a bit dull, even though the whole impression of the festival was pretty positive.

The Saturday started out very nice. I went by the literature scene, understood pretty much, actually, and it was quite fun. But: It was raining, so my mood was way down, of course.

I had planned to go over to Fredrikstad to find something to eat there (the choice of food on the festival ground was pretty limited), but after strolling around a bit and walking over to the supermarket and back to the hotel, it was already quite late, and I wasn’t too fond of getting on the ferry, running around desparately looking for Kebap places and jumping right back onto the ferry to go back. Plus – there might be some rockstars walking around that you might or might not want to talk to, you know…? =;-)

So I spent some more time around the festival (it wasn’t even raining anymore), discovering a great impro theater group (that I saw a few more times that weekend, they were really funny!). Then at some point in time, I settled in front of the main stage, with my book and a drink, waiting for the band before Skambankt to finish. And of course always being on the lookout for rockstars. *g*

The Skambankt concert was great (check out the report here, if you like). And this time without tunnel vision.=;-) And then it was weird fan girl time for me! Because by then, Kaizers were “in the house” and walking around, of course – which means I need to know where there are and I can think about whether to go there and talk to them or not. *rolleyes* You don’t want to know how often you can change your mind in half an hour… In the end, I did NOT talk to any of them, but that was absolutely okay. =;-)

Anyway. Then it was time for Tommy Tokyo, which I enjoyed pretty much. And after that, I bumped into the Skambankt guys and got my questions… well, not really answered, but I could ask them at least.=;-) So that was quite nice.

Then a fantastic Kaizers show (report, if you want to know more), and as I didn’t spot the people I met throughout the day after the concert, I went home right away. That’s something I’ve learned by now – don’t hang around after concerts hoping and waiting for things that are not going to happen. And it IS never going to happen that after a concert, the band comes out, points at you and says “we want to talk to you!”
(And if it WOULD happen, it would probably mean something bad, right? *g*)

So, all in all a great day. I’m used to the fact that at festivals with “my” bands, I’m more busy watching out for the band members than enjoying other concerts. It’s stupid, but that’s the way I am… and well, this time it was two great concerts, so no reason to complain.

OK, the next day. Yeah, this would be a great day! Sunshine, warm, and no rockstars to watch out for! And especially no pondering about “should I walk up to them”, “what should I say”, “did I just make a fool out of myself” etc. =;-) Just a quiet day, without thoughts that make my head explode…

I actually wanted to see the impro theater again, but obviously they had given a wrong time, at least there was nobody there (I did catch them lateron that day again though, luckily). The literature scene wouldn’t start before two hours later. So I decided to take the ferry over to Fredrikstad, walk around a bit, find something to eat and just relax with my book. I did take the ferry, I walked around a bit, found out there wasn’t really anything to see, didn’t find a Kebap place and wasn’t really hungry anyway, and decided I could relax at the festival site as well, so I went back pretty soon.

Got off the ferry, and… bumped into a Kaizer. =;-)

And yes, I AM bad at small talk, and even worse at small talk in Norwegian. And I wasn’t prepared. *g* So I spent the rest of the day thinking about how big a fool I had made out of myself, whether it was my fault or not, and what else I could/should have said. *argh* But then, it was so nice! He could have just walked by…

Anyway. I went on to the literature scene, couldn’t concentrate, walked on a bit and stumbled onto the impro theater again, yeah! =:-) Then back to the literature scene to some Swedish poet who was performing his poems to music. SO cool! And I could even understand most of it! Well, another Swedish artist…

The rest of the day was rather uneventful – first I spent some hours reading, then it was time for Katzenjammer, who were great again, and the rest of the bands were just annoying and/or boring. Which means that I went back to the hotel after the first two songs of the headliner – but there were hardly any people there anyway.

All in all, the festival was very nice – but rather small. And the band schedule was weird. Putting all good bands on the same day doesn’t really attract people for the other days. =;-) But all in all, another nice festival. Not as good as Slottsfjell though!

27.4.2007 Skambankt (Blå Grotte, Fredrikstad)

Friday, April 27th, 2007

Another weekend trip to Norway, including two Skambankt concerts, yeah! And this time, it was actually a lot more than “only” concerts, but a lot of sightseeing, sitting in the sun and… driving. Argh.
... read on!

27.4.2007 – Photos Skambankt (Blå Grotte, Fredrikstad)

Friday, April 27th, 2007
27.4.2007 – Photos Skambankt (Blå Grotte, Fredrikstad)