I will never believe anything this band says again. Well, actually, I’ve always been quite skeptical about their statements (I mean, didn’t they say a few months ago that “sure, the new album will contain official translations into German and English”? *g*). But I did believe them when they said the show would be ALL new, TOTALLY different from before. They said it all the time, so there must be something about it!

And yes – the show IS different. And great! Did I say “great”? Of course I mean absolutely awesometerrificfabulousfantasticwithcreamontop! =:-D I love this band, no matter how much hot air they blow. *gg*

So the show is different, but not that totally and “never before seen” kind of different as they claimed before. So, here’s a spoiler warning for you – if you don’t want to know the differences between the “old” and the current show, don’t read on. But actually, I don’t think you’d loose anything by reading on – ’cause the concerts are a whole lot of fun in any case!

The stage looks just as it used to, except for Thunder’s foot organ (which he played by hand though, at least as far as I could see?). And the microphone cord isn’t red anymore, but I think it hasn’t been for a while anyway. *g* As backdrop, they used the Violeta-carriage-logo. At least in the beginning – and now we finally get to the differences!

The concert was made up of three “acts”. The 1st act was dedicated to gypsy music. Then, the Violeta logo in the back disappeared and revealed a white movie screen. The 2nd act presented the new album – almost completely even! And then for the 3rd act, the old, round gas mask Kaizers logo appeared again, and they continued with a wild mixture of rock songs.

But back to the start again. The intro was some piano plink-plonk, which is probably part of the album as well in some form. Hmm, I didn’t think that really worked; plus, it just wasn’t loud enough (or the audience was too loud *g*), so that you couldn’t clap along (or really hear it – I wouldn’t swear that it was a piano…). Then the band went on and played a gypsy-style intro, let’s just call it “Ho ho ho”, ’cause that was the only thing they were singing. *g* The Jackal joined them, and then they started right into the gypsy music with Katastrofen. I wasn’t really sure how to interpret the fact that the Jackal seemed groggy and out of breath during the first song already – hey, how’s he gonna do the rest of the concert?! But I guess that was just because of the song (Katastrofen IS really strenuous…), probably paired with excitement and tension, and starting with the second song, everything was like it’s supposed to be.

And we got our share of gypsy: Delikatessen, Djevelens Orkester, Senor Torpedo, Sigøynerblod, and Restistansen! Uh – waaaah?! Didn’t they say a while ago that they would NEVER ever play Djevelens Orkester again, and now it seems it’s got a fast place in the set again? And Mr. Torpedo? *gasp* Yay! I know for sure already that I will be able to listen to this part over and over and over again, I will still love it. ‘Cause yes, I still like Resistansen. Even after hearing it more than a hundred times… =:-)

Then it was time for act II – and the NEW concert. The video screen (canvas, not digital) was used in a really nice and impressive way, showing different animations, all related to the Violeta story. Together with the way of singing this created a real “show”. It had a slight impression of a musical, and in a way, it was even more intense than usual! Which probably was also, in a large way, due to the fact that the Jackal gave all he had under the singing; often it didn’t seem like it was “the Jackal” on stage, but Beatrice, Violeta, or Kenneth. Just… awesome! Sorry, I lack the words to say it any differently…

Part two started with Philemon Arthur & The Dung – of course. And the audience went _completely_ crazy! The atmosphere was great before that, but then it went up a few more notches, and they sang along EVERY word. Next up was Femtakt filosofi, which has been played live before, and then Din kjole lukter bensin, mor. This one worked out just great as well, with Jackal and Hellraizer singing together in the beginning. And the audience took over the counting in the end, of course directed by the Jackal. Worked like a charm!

And then the song that turned into my favorite at once: En for orgelet, en for meg. Honestly: I have no clue if/how they did the whistling in the beginning. I just didn’t pay attention to it – I was busy celebrating. *g* But they solved the “problem” with the Violeta rap part in the middle the best possible way, by having… Hellraizer do it. *rofl* And he did it perfectly! I guess I would have stood there admiring that part – if I hadn’t been rolling on the floor laughing, that is, uhem. *lol* And if that wasn’t enough for that song, they took it up another notch at the end, when the Jackal took a big marching bass drum (which actually was a concert bass drum if I saw it correctly, but… does anybody care? No? I figured… *g*) and climbed the oil barrel with it. Yes. You read correctly. And of course the drumming started once he was up there. Madness? Madness!

Then the next song would be the new radio single (and my secret favorite on the album – call me mainstream-girl… *g*): Diamant til kull. Waah, so nice! That of course could only be topped with Psycho under min hatt, right? =:-D

Well, and then they had obviously played all songs of the new album that could be played live… or so you’d think. ‘Cause then they actually played Svarte katter og flosshatter! It works without the Bond-brass in the beginning, and after the intro, Omen picked up a megaphone and screamed the first lines. And of course he did the same again later on… before he put down the megaphone, found a comb, dipped it into his (beer?-)glass, combed his hair in theatrical fashion and plunged the comb back into the glass. Uh, yeah. Psycho under min gas mask? *gg*

Finally, they played Hjerteknuser, of course, and the audience was singing along at the top of their lungs. Hach, concerts in Norway are just amazing! =:-D

And then it was time for act 3! So now, the “normal” Kaizers concert was about to start. First up was Ompa til du dør, followed by Bøn fra helvete and KGB. So everything “like it used to be” – and still: I hadn’t seen it for a year, and even though I didn’t really know I missed it, I obviously did. It was soooo great to get to see this again now, finally!

Not surprisingly, the next song was Kontroll på kontinentet. And now we reach the point were I decided that “I will never believe anything this band says”: They actually used the old band introduction, word by word the same as it used to be! The only exception was when the Jackal presented Thunder’s new hat. But even Hellraizer’s towel (and of course the fountain) was back. Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE this introduction, and if I were to decide, they could do this without changing anything for the next decades. And Kontroll without the introduction just feels weird anyway. But if they talk for months about how DIFFERENT the new show will be and that they will do EVERYTHING in a new way, then they just can’t dig up the ancient introduction again?! That they never even buried anyway… No, sorry, I just don’t get it. But then, I’ll just stop believing them and enjoy the old introduction. =:-)

On a side-note: After Killmaster was introduced, he didn’t want to leave the spotlight – as we’ve seen before. Comment by the Jackal: “Well, if you want to play more guitar, you should maybe found your own band.” *rofl*

Slowly but steadily the concert was coming to an end. The last song was Maestro, but yes, of course there were encores! Namely Enden av November and Dieter Meyers Inst (yay!). Before the last one, Kaizers started talking about how they have only great songs and no bad ones… well, okay, maybe Til depotet would qualify as not soooo great. Basically, if you sort all songs by quality, there might actually be a Postgirobygget song between Til depotet and all the rest of the Kaizers songs… Self-confident? Hell yeah!

And that was it – some bowing and good-bye, but of course the audience didn’t want to go home yet, so they had to play a final encore: 170. I gotta admit that I don’t really like the song, but then: It just works perfectly well as concluding song.

And that was really the end. An euphoric audience found their way downstairs, stormed the merch stand, and whoever did not get away in time found herself in front of a local TV camera…

Next concert: tomorrow! And the Kaizers fever is back in full strength… =:-)