Okay, where to start? With a “yeah, finally Kaizers again!”? With the mud? With a cheer for the sun gods?

Or maybe better with the disclaimer: Generally, I just don’t like festivals. However, since I attend quite a few (being a concert junkie brings that with it…), I feel like I have a pretty good overview over festivals and their organisation. And one thing is crystal clear: Even though Southside is one of the largest festivals in Germany, it’s also the one that is worst organized. Security seems to be a foreign concept; during my last visits, I’ve seen a few situations where it was pure luck that no-one was crushed or otherwise seriously injured. This year, I didn’t see situations like that, luckily; but then I was there for only about five hours.

This year (just like last year, by the way), the problem was the mud. It had been raining all day Friday, and so the ground was soaked, of course. And the organizers didn’t do ANYTHING. No, I don’t expect a mud-free festival, not at all. Yes, I had wellies, and I definitely looked worse after other festivals. But obviously the organizers just don’t care at all about their visitors… if they don’t even try to do anything to spare everyone from walking through ankle-deep mud on all the main paths. There’s straw, mats, boards – none of these will be sufficient to keep a whole festival area mud-free, but at least the organizers could show that they care and TRY to do at least a bit. Or that they don’t.

Anyway, enough complaining. But a Southside report without complaining is just impossible… *sigh* Well, at least our whole visit to the festival was really funny and relaxed this time, nothing like our last, “will we get out of here alive?”

So, Kaizers! After two and a half months, I finally got to see them on stage again! It filled up quite well in the front – at least on the left side of the stage. On the right, there was a… lake. (Well, I’ve seen trees in the front row before, I don’t wonder about anything anymore. *g*)

As intro, they used the Russian Dance again. Nice that they are using that one for the festivals again. I was a bit overwhelmed in the beginning by the switch back from club shows to festival concerts; you just can’t compare these two. During the intro, the audience was just dead, and even when Omen entered the stage, with his gas mask on, there was hardly any reaction. A bit of applause of course, but that was it, and during the first two songs (Ompa til du dør and Bøn fra helvete), that didn’t really change much. The audience was really quiet and reserved. I was getting a bit afraid, I have to admit…

But then Kaizers played Delikatessen, and the audience started to wake up. Slowly, but steadily! And then – the sun came out! So Kaizers lived up to their reputation of being the sun gods, yeah! First reaction on stage: “Oh, I’m so sorry, now the sun is out… it’s so stupid if you have to look into the sun all the time…” But later in the concert, the Jackal explained that actually, they had brought the sun down with them from Norway, just for us. “Oh, don’t mention it, it’s nothing. You can keep it!” Uh… thanks! I’ll bring it back with me at Øya festival then, okay? =;-)

Kaizers continued with a couple of new songs, first “Din kjole lukter bensin, mor”, then “En for orgelet, en for meg” – or rather “Eins für das Orgel und eins für mich” (which got an AWESOME reception!), and finally “Svarte katter & flosshatter”. The atmosphere was just great, the audience extremely loud, and it filled up more and more. I was standing pretty much in the front, so I couldn’t really see the area; but judging by the loudness, a LOT of people obviously got stuck on the way to the other stage… =:-D

Next up was Kontroll på kontinentet with a vast band introduction and a lot (loud!) singing, before it was time for gypsy music. And it was obvious that people (at least in the front) had been waiting for just that. So accordingly, Sigøynerblod and Bak et halleluja were met with enthusiasm, and there were lots of clapping, singing, and of course mud pogo! As conclusion for the concert we got Maestro, which made people dance and sing as well, of course, and 170.

Yeah! And they conquered another festival, without any doubt. I’m really looking forward to the press reports here!

Hmm… not much talking during the concert, actually, mostly about the weather. And of course the question who had seen Kaizers before, but not a lot to report here. But there wasn’t any need for more. I was glad and happy about once again seeing Kaizers conquering a new audience in less than an hour, from zero to hero. And they did that, without any doubt! Oh, wait, I remember one thing that was quite sad, actually: During Svarte Katter, in Omen’s “I just shouted into the microphone and now I’ll have to comb my hair before I can continue playing the organ” break, the cameras were SO off. The pictures on the video walls changed all the time, but they didn’t manage to show Omen at all until he had sat down again. Messed up the effect completely… =:-/

But nobody noticed. =;-) Just like the “… sold a few horses, got a decent name”. *lol* And before I start giving away all the mini failures now, I’ll rather stress again how nice it was to see Kaizers gain and conquer the audience so quickly through hard work (’cause it can’t have been easy in the beginning…). Well, they just have it!

And finally, a huge THANK YOU to the nice stranger who helped us get out of the mud in the parking lot. And uhm… a shout-out to all the poor souls who have to spend another day in the mess… =:-/