I hate big festivals. Actually, I should know that by now, but well… somehow I fall for it over and over again. And I just couldn’t say no when I saw this line-up, I just had to go there, and probably I would have gone there even without Kaizers playing at Frequency. Which would have been a bad idea though, because Kaizers were one of the big highlights of the festival for me – and without them, probably I would have hated the whole festival. The way it was, I just hated it “in general”, but there were some really great concert, mostly the Kaizers show (of course *g*), plus the concerts of Wir sind Helden, Art Brut and Fettes Brot.

But let’s start with the Kaizers concert, I can still complain about the rest of the festival lateron, otherwise everything will sound so negative here. =;-)

Kaizers only had 40 minutes – much too little time for a good concert, actually. But no problem, they managed to deliver a complete and full show in the short time they had! Basically a Kaizers concert on Speed, or whatever. *gg*

The setlist was typical for a festival – and very short: Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Hevnervals, Container, Mann mot mann, Sigøynerblod, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro. I was really impressed by the fact how they managed to grab the audience during the first two songs, and getting them from a “what the heck is that?!?”-attitude to euphoria in just a few minutes. In the beginning, everybody was just standing around and watching, but during Hevnervals at the latest, everybody was jumping and screaming. Apparently it looked different from the stage, like the audience was hot and cooking from the very beginning, but at least where I was standing it was a little quiet at the beginning. But only for two songs. It’s amazing to see how they can take over the audience so completely and so quickly!

There’s not much special to report here – the time was too short for that. But all the typical elements of a Kaizers show were there, very compressed of course, but there was nothing missing at all! The Jackal made the audience sing along, several times he asked us to “Say yeah! Say hell yeah! Say hallelujah!” – and the audience obeyed enthusiastically, of course. And after he practiced this a few times with us, it worked without problems when the Jackal asked us: “Say what? And then you say what? And finally?” *rofl* Already at the end of Hevnervals, the Jackal took a short trip down from the stage, jumping into the audience. And unlike the singer of Art Brut (who looked at the fairly high stage a little desperate and then took the stairs at the back of the stage *gg*), the Jackal managed to get up again very elegantly afterwards. =;-)
As I said, everything you know from Kaizer shows was there. You name it: the lifting of the shirt during Container, the “say hallelujah!” (with an astonished: “Now THAT is an audience!” afterwards *g*), the “But YOU can call me Kaizer! Say my name! – I said SAY it, not scream it. Say my name! Now scream it! Now MEAN it! And now love it…”, crawling on stage during Kontroll på kontinentet, or playing with the applause at the very end – nothing was missing. Amazing.

Or wait, yes, there was something missing. *g* They left out the “faster, Minken!” part during Sigøynerblod and just played on without a break. In the beginning of the song, it took a little while to get everybody to lift up the hands. Or well, it was very easy with the people in the front of course. The people in the back lifted there hands after the Jackal said so as well. Only the people sitting on the gras to the side of the stage needed an extra call for it. *gg*
But then the obeyed, and they got a little recompensation for it a song later when Killmaster took a short trip from the stage and checked out the atmosphere over there. *lol*

He he, I also found it funny when the Jackal announced that they would now play their big hit in Europe (namely Kontroll på kontinentet) and Elvis got a laughing fit at the side of the stage (only accidently at just that time, I assume *lol*). But the real big hit came one song later with Maestro anyway.

Oh yes, another thing I should probably mention… the oil barrels. They were truely original. *lol* Killmaster’s barrel was plain grey and rusty and a little shaky, it seemed. He only dared to stand on it once and it didn’t appear to be very stable. Hellraizer’s was – and it was spray-painted in all colors of the rainbow… *rofl* What did I write a while ago, Kaizers on Speed? *gg*

Well, in any case, the 32 hours on the road for Kaizers were definitely worth it. I really liked the show. I was a little afraid beforehand that I would not be very impressed by the show, just because I had hated the festival even before it started, but there was no reason to worry – Kaizers made it without problems and delivered a too short, but really great concert. Thanks a lot for that!

After the Kaizers show, there was a little break for me, and after that Kettcar were playing (and actually, I quite enjoyed their show this time and wasn’t as bored as normally!), and then Eagles of Death Metal (who weren’t in the best mood apparently and had to play on loaned guitars – anybody who recognizes the guitar in the picture? *g* – but it was a fun concert nevertheless). Less than Jake never manage to get me excited, very weird, ’cause it is just the kind of music I like. Don’t know what the problem is… But Wir sind Helden were as great as always. Just that it is somehow scaring for me to see a band I first saw as support for Readymade (who nobody knows anymore, I guess) in front of about 30 people just three years ago, play at a festival where you can’t get any closer than maybe 200 meters to the stage, just because there’s so damned many people around. I’m really happy they have so many fans, they deserve it, but still – it’s not much fun for me. Even though the concert was great. =:-( Morrissey and Muse didn’t impress me as much as I had expected, but the shows were fine.

The next day started with an extremely hurried concert of Tomte (who this time did not manage what Kaizers did, to deliver a complete show in only half of the time), a few minutes of Arctic Monkeys (I didn’t like it – looked like wannabes to me, sorry…) and after that, my second highlight of the festival: Art Brut. Waaah, they are just amazing – top of the pops, in any case! =:-) Then Fettes Brot played one hit after the other and were a lot of fun as well, and Prodigy were terribly (but I had to listen to them while waiting for autographs from Tomte – and now I need to find out what that thing the Tomte drummer painted on my jacket is supposed to be *g*). Franz Ferdinand were okay, but not much of a surprise.

To sum it up: Big festivals are stupid. The concerts that really got me were the small ones, with only few people present. The big concerts on the main stage were just too big, I was only annoyed by all the other people who were there, you couldn’t go anywhere without bumping into someone, you couldn’t see anything, and it just wasn’t any fun. Sure, everybody got a different opinion about that, but maybe I should finally accept the fact that I can have a lot more fun at club shows than during festivals – even though I can get five bands for the price of one, but well, what’s the reason for that if you’re only annoyed.
If I had seen a “real” Kaizers show and a real Art Brut show instead of the festival, I would have been as excited about it – but it was great the way it was as well, even though the surroundings were annoying.