What? A blog post? Here, on this site? 😮

Well, I guess it’s about time to write a bit about my move to Norway. Or to finally blog about my “Concerts 2014”. Or plan the summer festivals for 2015. Or … uhm.
Nope, I wasn’t much into blogging lately. I should pick it up again, and – maybe I will. I think I might. But I’m not promising anything. =;-)

This post, however, is not about any of those topics. It’s about – surprise surprise! -: Kaizers Orchestra. Who woulda thunk? *gg*

I saw the new Kaizers movie yesterday. I really liked it – but then, I don’t think I can really judge it. OF COURSE I liked it, since it is about Kaizers, and it actually contains new interviews and both old and new unseen footage. So it is, without a doubt, a must-see for Kaizer fans.

In one scene in the movie, Helge mentions that towards the end of Kaizers, in the last months and weeks, the friendship and the bonds between the members grew stronger. I found that really interesting, because (in a completely different context) I’ve experienced that once an “end” is decided, everything kind of falls apart, because there is no need to fix things and keep them together anymore. It’s awesome to hear that this worked out so well for Kaizers and they did not break apart in the end.

But it also got me thinking … From a fan perspective, looking back now, I have the feeling that while the bonds in the band apparently grew stronger, the “fan community”, the huge Kaizer family, started falling apart. While there was one group of “Kaizer fans” in the past, it turned more and more into one faction here, one faction there, oldtimers, newbies, Hjerteknuser fans, “everything was better in 2001” fans, …

Of course, this isn’t surprising. The number of fans grew so much that there was just no way to have one family. And just to make that clear right away, I’m not putting the blame on anyone. I’m sure I’m just as much to blame as everyone else. While in my early fan days, I wanted to meet EVERY other Kaizers fans out there, I’ve gotten less and less interested in talking to fourteen-year-olds, I tend to look down on fans that tour for festival shows (why don’t you wait for REAL concerts?!), and I just don’t understand fans that queue hours before a show.

Years ago, there were surely also some fans that kept separate from the rest. But all in all, it felt much more like “family”. I met one of the old DMA family at the screening yesterday, and while we couldn’t even remember the other’s name, we remembered “the old days” right away. Lots of great memories – and I feel that years from now, ALL my Kaizers memories will be from the old days. Violeta? Well, yes, sure. Siste Dans? Yep, I was there. But the good times were back then, long before Violeta.

Lots of people “dropped out” of the Kaizers universe since then. That’s totally fine, everybody got their own reasons for that. I just hope that people will remember the times we had, instead of ridiculing them. Just a short while ago I was told “well, SOME of us are over Kaizers now …” Hmm. Should I congratulate you now? Because you’re over the stupidities of your youth? Or should I rather pity you because it seems you don’t see that even though this part of your life is over, we were part of something huge and we should keep it in our hearts?

OK, I might be getting a bit melodramatic now. 😉 In any case, it’s a fact that for me (other fans might be at different stages in their fandom, of course) the time of one big Kaizers family is over. Finding people to meet up with for Kaizers events is getting harder and harder, and while years ago, I was looking forward to every concert because I knew that – even without arranging anything – I would meet awesome fellow fans, I now hardly care anymore because there are only very few of those people left. And those I can meet without organized events as well.

Of course it was great to see that it’s still possible to “unite” fans without too much effort (with a few kilos of confetti or some hundred balloons – even though nobody knew how that would turn out, almost everyone was in). But there are so many fans by now that there is not one community anymore. But one of oldtimers, one of newbies, one of Hjerteknuser fans, … And I hope that all the “everything was better in 2001” fans will manage to find their way to the cinema in the upcoming weeks, to be reminded of what we had.

It might be over. Life moves on. But I’m still proud and happy about the times we had. Me går langt tilbake til de gamle dager …