Actually, I expected not to see Kaizers at all this year – but suddenly, in February, they announced the album Våre Demoner and the corresponding tour! First thought: Naaaah… that’s way too complicated, four days, four concerts, travelling to another Norwegian town every day… second thought: I CAN’T miss out on that!
So, first stop Bergen, Garage! Earlier that day, there was a signing session at a record store – but the store didn’t have any CDs left… kinda stupid. But then (after they actually sold the VERY last CD, the one that was playing when we entered the shop…), they just took down the posters from the walls and we could get signatures on the poster instead of a CD.
Then we had to kill some time until the concert started. We were at Garage right after ten p.m. – and the concert place was really tiny! And crowded… This was the only bad part about the concert… Except for the first few rows, nobody could really SEE anything. =:-( But then, that’s just what I had expected, and the atmosphere was cooking from the very beginning anyway! What surprised me was that Kaizers didn’t have any oil barrels on stage this time. OK, there was no room left where they could have put them… and instead, they were placed in front of the stage, where Kaizers could get them up when needed (which means: during exactly one song *g*).
Kaizers came on pretty late, but the fans passed the time singing – impressive! Then Omen walked through the crowd and came on. He started playing “Mr. Kaizer, hans Constanze og meg”, and of course everbody started singing along right away. A GREAT beginning! Directly afterwards, Kaizers started playing the new old songs. First Kavaler (and of course the Jackal greeted us afterwards… “Er dere klare for å redde noen liv?” Uhm, ja… *g*), then Medisin & Psykiatri (which I would have expected as first song of the night – but without the intro part, it fit very well here also), then Fanden hakk i hel. Of course there was a lot of talk and explanation about the tour, the album, and the songs and obviously Kaizers enjoyed being “back home”. So much that they actually started talking about repeating this regularly. Maybe every ten years? Or every year? How about every week? Maybe on Wednesday? Because Hellraizer is busy on Mondays. Oh, and wait, Wednesday won’t work either, because this is Killmaster’s Bridge time. So, how about Thursdays? Thursday every week, at Garage Bergen. =;-) Yap, that sounds good, would love to be there. *g*
The next song was their “oldest demon”: Prosessen They didn’t want to release it back then, because it was too much “pop”. But by now, that doesn’t matter anymore. =;-) And we were supposed to sing along to the “annoying melodie” in the beginning. *g* As expected, the song worked out really great live, and everybody was having the best time.
Then – in the middle of the concert – they played “Die Polizei”. Pretty unusual, and I would have expected that they would play this song as encore – but well, that’s just the way Kaizers are. They always do what is NOT logical and what nobody expects. =;-) And it fit very well, I think, and what I found perfect was that the next song was “Senor Torpedo”. First the quiet and nice singing during Die Polizei, then the brute “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10” in Senor Torpedo. And of course, the Jackal took off his jacket at exactly the right moment… =;-)
All in all, Kaizers were a bit unsure about how they should go about this concet and the whole tour, and if it was really worth doing it. But yes, that was definitely the right decision! The next song up was “Våre Demoner” (where they ended up in at least two different keys… *uhem*), followed by Den Sjette Sansen.
Then the big surprise: “The next song is about two men, and friendship, and the old times. And a woman. The next song is Du og meg Lou, og din fru!” Waaah! So great! And Terje singing the duet part, roaring into the mike in Swedish. *g* They dedicated the whole song to ex bass-player Jon – because during this song, Terje did not play guitar. And years ago, right after Killmaster’s first concert with Kaizers, Jon threatened that he would leave the band if Kaizers would base their sound too much on guitars. Well, by now, it is Thunder who plays bass in Kaizers… =;-)
And then yet another song about old men. And this song was actually one of the reasons why Kaizers decided to do the album and tour: Sonny. Very impressive!
That was the last one of the new old songs – I would neve have expected that Kaizers start out playing almost all songs of the new album (with two exceptions: Gruvene på 16 and Stormfull vals – I would have LOVED to hear at least the latter one). The audience kept shouting for Bastard, but the Jackal was honest and pointed out that they just don’t know how to do that.
Afterwards, Kaizers asked for permission to play some songs that they as a band like a lot. Of course they were allowed to, and so they played KGB, Apokalpys meg and Ompa til du dør (which was the first and only song for which they needed an oil barrel).
At the very end, the Jackal asked Hellraizer: “Do you want to say something? Do you love them???” And Hellraizer, obviously a bit slower than the Jackal: “No! …. Uh, I mean, YES!” *lol*
And that was it, they went off stage – just to fight their way back through the crowd a few minutes later. The very last song was “Under månen”. “This song is for the fans. And there is a nice story again, about a man who… yes, yes, I know. Hold kjeft og spill!” *gg* And Mink played the organ during that song! Very nice, even though I didn’t know the lyrics at all… =;-)
So that was the concert. Pretty short, actually – but then, very intense. And very warm. I definitely didn’t miss a thing, and I was ABSOLUTELY amazed! On to Stavanger now…
Tags: Bergen, Garage/Bergen, Kaizers Orchestra, Review