Jarle Bernhoft

01.04.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Manufaktur, Schorndorf)

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

Schorndorf was the concert of the tour that everybody was a bit worried about – it was announced pretty late, it’s a small place, and Kaizers had never played there before. So therefore we were busy handing out flyers before the concert! And obviously, it helped at least a bit – there were a bit over 100 people there, which of course did not fill up the venue, but it didn’t look terribly empty either.

Jarle Bernhoft worked hard to warm up the audience, and he was well received – even though the audience was rather quiet. So quiet that Jarle went down into the audience in the end and sang along there. =;-)

Kaizers played a bit of an “economy version” of a concert again, similar to the Gent show. They didn’t use the bass drum, and they didn’t do the introduction in Kontroll. The setlist was identical to the last two days, and the only encore was Bak et halleluja this time.

Unlike in Gent, Kaizers were talking a LOT throughout the concert, which of course was quite amusing. And since I’m in the car on the way to Wien right now and typing isn’t really that comfortable, here’s just some notes again. =;-)

  • According to the Jackal, there were about 100 people in the audience – just as many as in Stavanger. When they play for their friends there…
  • Well, you can sing Resistansen without a microphone as well. Who needs a PA if you have vocal cords?
  • At the end of Resistansen, the Jackal dragged out the “Ompa til du dør”. “Til! Du! Te! Du! Du! Te! Te! – – – Kaffe!” *rofl*
  • Before playing Din kjole lukter bensin, mor, the Jackal invited Hellraizer to the center of the stage. Now, how does that feel? Hellraizer: “Hmm… it’s kind of like over there…”
  • They did long breaks in the songs again, which seemed especially impressive since most of the audience didn’t know Kaizers at all. And during the breaks, Kaizers were chatting loudly on stage.
  • There were two reasons why the concert was out of the ordinary: 1. It was the first time Kaizers played in Schorndorf. 2. It was Shirin’s 100th concert! So that was special of course, and Shirin was invited to take pictures on stage during Psycho under min hatt. Congratulations for concert number 100! =:-)
  • By the way, Kaizers have the most intelligent fans (as determined by an independent survey). And who has the least intelligent fans? Not Shakira, since the Jackal himself is fan of her, and so the fans must be intelligent! And no, Hellraizer, it’s not Die Toten Hosen or Die Lebendigen Hosen either, but… right: Justin Bieber!
  • Sju bøtter tårer er nok, Beatrice was translated into several languages again. Thus “Seven buckets of tears is enough, Miss Marple” and “Sieben Eimer Tränen sind genug, Derrick”! I have no idea how to spell the Dutch version, but we got that one as well. =;-)
  • And by the way, Dave Grohl was in the audience! And Sally from Michigan, who actually knows Paul from Michigan! *lol*
  • “So, how do you like the concert so far?” Shouting from the audience: “Jævla drittbra!” The Jackal: “Oh, have you learned Finnish?” *rofl*
  • And at the end, the band didn’t just go off stage, but they walked out through the audience and waited for them at the merch stand, while the audience continued singing Bak et halleluja…

… which means that Kaizers managed to succeed again and win triumphantly! Unfortunately, there weren’t that many people there to convince, but I think that all that were there were really excited. At least that’s what all the smiling faces told me when I looked around during Bak et halleluja… so great!

26.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Paradiso, Amsterdam)

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

OK, I guess I can keep it a bit shorter today: Great show! Another amazing concert – not QUITE as awesome as the one in Cologne, because the audience didn’t move quite as much, but then the hall was about twice the size of yesterday’s venue. And almost full! It did look a bit empty in the beginning, but by the time the concert started, everyone had made it in and the place was packed. =:-)

I had expected a short support gig by Blaxtar, but it seems that the organizers didn’t want two support acts… so we got only Jarle Bernhoft. A pity, as I think that Blaxtar would have been a great addition. But since that sounds so negative: Bernhoft is definitely growing on me. It’s still not my music, but it’s really good. And it works very well as support!

The Kaizers setlist: Intro, Delikatessen, Djevelens orkester, Señor Torpedo, Veterans klage, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Philemon Arthur & The Dung, Femtakt filosofi, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro. First encore KGB and Bak et halleluja, second encore Min kvite russer.

I assume that they decided for Kvite russer because the audience was incredibly loud. Very impressive! The audience wasn’t quite as wild as in Cologne, but then they were singing along all the time, and very very loudly! Might have been due to the fact that – according to the poll – almost half of the audience was Norwegian… (but actually, I don’t really believe that. I assume that most people put up their hands because the BAND was Norwegian, not they themselves. *g*)

Some small details:

  • The Violeta logo in the back was missing this time (actually, it wasn’t there in Cologne either). Instead, the pulled up the backdrop to expose the movie screen for the Violeta part – but unfortunately, you could only see a small part of the screen beneath the backdrop, which was a pity.
  • Hellraizer was veeerrryyy nervous again before having to sing in “Din kjole lukter bensin, mor”. But actually not AS nervous as yesterday. Yesterday he actually pissed his pants because he was so nervous…
  • For “En for orgelet, en for meg”, the Jackal got a girl up on stage to pronounce the song title in Dutch. And of course she had to/was allowed to stay on stage for the rest of the song.
  • At the same time as the concert, there was a soccer match between Norway and Denmark to qualify for the European Cup. So soccer was a VERY important topic, of course! If Norway won, they’d go to the European Cup – and beat the Dutch there… Which is something you can nicely sing about (“…and we will beat the Dutch!”), which the Jackal OF COURSE did. And not only once, but every time he got a new result. *g* The final result (at least the one that was reported from the stage): 3:2 for Norway – so… “we will beat the Dutch!” *lol*
  • For the encores, the Jackal came out on stage and balanced along the edge of the stage, over everything that was in his way: mostly monitor speakers and oil barrels of course. *g*
  • And at the end, before the second encore, we got the Jackal’s tap dance again, until he was dragged off the stage. Terrific!

Conclusion: Yeah, let’s continue like that! I fear though that the concert in Gent might be a bit more quiet and standard. But we’ll see…

24.03.2011 Kaizers Orchestra (Rockhal, Esch/Alzette)

Friday, March 25th, 2011
24.03.2011 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Rockhall, Esch/Alzette)

And here it goes again! (Great – now I have Zombie Porkchop’s “History” in my head… *argh*) Kaizers made it down to Europe after the “warm up gigs” in Scandinavia. First stop: Luxembourg! Which means the tour started terribly confusing: German, English, Norwegian, Luxemburgish, French, and Portuguese (’cause I had to buy a ticket for a Portuguese band playing at Rockhal *g*) – all in one day. Argh!!

But wait, I wanted to keep my reports short, so let’s get started. Unfortunately, Rockhal was pretty empty – not much of a surprise, of course, because it was the first Kaizers Orchestra concert in Luxembourg, but a pity. On the other hand, that not too bad for the first concert of a tour, because like this, Kaizers can test their show in front of a “neutral” audience to see the reaction to the different songs.

The concert started with the local support band The Disliked, who played ska punk. Great, I liked it a lot! But very confusing language-wise… the band itself didn’t know whether to talk English, French, or Luxemburgish. *g* Next up was Jarle Bernhoft. I didn’t know him at all… and my conclusion after seeing him for the first time: Seems to work fine as support act. He uses loops to “imitate” a band, which is really fascinating. However, it’s definitely not my music; and I fear that the loop-thingy won’t be fascinating for more than a few times. But the “common” Kaizer fan won’t be seeing all concerts, so I’m not really representative here. =;-)

The setlist: Intro (“Begravelsespolka” according to drmowinckel.com), Delikatessen, Veterans klage, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Philemon Arthur & The Dung, Femtakt filosofi, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Bøn fra helvete, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro, encore Dieter Meyers Inst.

So that means that a couple of great songs didn’t make it… =:-( I’m not surprised about Hjerteknuser, and I don’t really mind that one either. =;-) But I REALLY hope that Djevelens orkester, Señor Torpedo, and Diamand til kull will make it back on the list at least once in a while!

Some remarks about the concert:

  • In the beginning, the Jackal greeted the audience in French. (I’m still waiting for a concert where he speaks _only_ French. That would be cool! *lol*)
  • The day was very nice and sunny, and they had time to enjoy it, because they had arrived the day before already. “And back home in Norway, it’s snowing!”
  • At the beginning of “Din kjole lukter bensin, mor”, the Jackal and Hellraizer are singing together. So the Jackal ordered Hellraizer to the mic and explained that Hellraizer was very very nervous. “Just don’t forget the lyrics now!” Hellraizer: “Do you think they would even notice?” =;-)
  • In “Svarte katter & flosshatter”, Omen has his 5 minutes of fame when he grabs the megaphone. And boy, was he cheered! Of course he combed back his hair dramatically afterwards, before the song continued. And after the song, he started cleaning up, and dropped the crowbar in front of Killmaster’s feet. *g*
  • The Jackal and Hellraizer also sing together in “Bøn fra helvete”. The Jackal let go of the microphone this time, so that it was swinging back and forth on its stand. And of course the two of them had to swing back and forth as well in order to sing into the mic. *lol*
  • During the introduction in “Kontroll på kontinentet”, we first got a looooong bass solo. First a normal solo, then played with a stick. Afterwards, the Jackal introduced Killmaster: “… always playing on… an electric guitar!” What, were did the Firebird go? =;-) And because of all the confusion, Killmaster’s name is Gary now. *cough* But then we can call the real Gary by his Indian name now: “He who wears a towel over his head and gives out picks willingly.” (I’m NOT gonna tell you what I understood instead of “picks” at first. *rofl*) And I’ve never seen that before, but both guitar players were throwing lots of picks into the audience this time.
  • During Maestro, the audience was singing along much louder than I would have expected, and almost everyone seemed to know the song. I have to admit though that the spontaneous new “clapping/stomping choreography” in the middle went over my head, so I couldn’t keep up. *argh*
  • The encore was dedicated to Matthieu, who was enjoying the whole concert enthusiastically and managed to ask for Dieter Meyer just when Kaizers were getting ready to play… Dieter Meyer. *g*

So, all in all this was a typical “first” concert in a new city, which means the expectations were rather low. But like (almost) always, Kaizers managed to get the audience excited and totally convince them. And even though the plan was probably more to concentrate on the music this time, they put on quite a bit of a show, and it was really entertaining!

Uhm ja. “Short”. I fear I’ll have to practice that a bit. Tune in again tomorrow to read the next episode of “Susi S. tries to report about a Kaizers concert in ten short lines!” *lol*

24.03.2011 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Rockhall, Esch/Alzette)

Friday, March 25th, 2011
24.03.2011 – Photos Kaizers Orchestra (Rockhall, Esch/Alzette)