Skambankt release their new album, and of course they celebrate it with a release concert at Mono in Oslo. It took me about five seconds to decide I want to be there. =;-) And it was the right decision, the concert was amazing!

The stage in the corner of Mono was tiny, but impressive, with Marshall walls on both sides and camouflage backdrop. Skambankt came on, dressed in black of course, and started with Dynasti.

They rocked from the first second, but it was also obvious that they were a bit tense and under pressure. Not that it mattered – they delivered. Perfectly. Sure there were songs or parts of songs that were not "perfect", where you could see that it wasn’t perfectly clear how that was supposed to go or where things went wrong. Like the end of Tyster for example, where it was obvious it was planned differently. Or not planned at all? =;-) But that’s just the way it has to be. And of course they still need some room for improvement during the tour. =;-)

The only problem was that the stage was just too small. Hardly any room to move, but well, they did it anyway and ran into each another all the time. *g* So after a while they seemed to decide to do the action off stage. Panzer suddenly jumped on the box to the side of the stage, kicking off all the jackets and beer glasses and shocking poor little Dutch girls. =;-) Fist walked around in the audience and ended up on the side of the counter for the bass intro of Skamania, drinking beer from the audience. Well, if you don’t get any beer otherwise… =;-) They only had water on stage in the beginning, which resulted in some really disgusted view from Mr. Winters and the plea "This is a release _party_, you’re supposed to have beer there!"

The audience was kind of quiet, but I guess that’s just the way it is at release concerts like this. The question who had seen Skambankt before and who hadn’t resulted in "seems like most don’t remember…". But it got better and better during the concert – if Skambankt had played for another hour, I’m sure everybody would have been screaming and jumping by then. =;-) And it was a Monday night, of course. But people even clapped along, and this even though "Mono doesn’t clap on Mondays!".

Oh, and that reminds me, I forgot the disclaimer. I only understood parts of the announcement, the rest is a rough guess. So don’t blame me if I write bullshit because I got something wrong. =;-)

Skambankt played not only songs from the new album, but also their "big hits". They started with Dynasti, then Stormkast #1, before it was time for the first old song Skambankt. Then the big radiohit – "yes, we have become commercial now!" – Tyster.

After that, another big old hit: Me sa nei. And here the audience really woke up (well, at least the part that hadn’t woken up during Tyster already *g*). And of course we had to sing the chorus – "det blei en del eksplosjona…" The first line was okay, but somehow, there weren’t enough people who knew the lyrics after the first line. *g* So the singing kind of "died". But it was funny. =;-) Then Truls had to count up for the end of the song.

Skambankt continued with Ordets gud. Really cool, with the choirs in the chorus. Well, guess that’s the same with the other songs, but there it really hit me. Just great.

And they continued with the old hits – first KKK, then Alarm. "We really have a lot of big hits!" Then the new song Angst ("This is about… Angst." Duuh.), and as conclusion Skamania.

After that, they went off stage for a moment. When they came back, Winters had a bag with merchandise and CDs that he dealt out among the audience, making some people really happy. And the new merch definitely looks promising – a very cool jacket, black with the stitched logo, red and black shirts with the new logo, and underwear. Which actually looks quite nice, but still unwearable. =;-)

Then we got to hear the cool bell intro, followed by Nok et offer, of course. As last song Min eliksir, and that was it.

It was an amazing concert. It was much too short of course, and not everything was as tight and perfect as it could be, but it gave a good impression of what we can expect on tour. And I am so looking forward…!

Thanks a lot to Linda for the great company and a perfect (but cold… *g*) weekend, greetings to all the DMA guys, and sorry to everybody I chose as victim for practicing my Norwegian. =;-) Only a month till the tour will start for me – can’t wait!