2009 is almost over, and it’s time to look back at the concerts of the year! Quite a lot again, so I won’t mention all of them but just remember the highlights and “lowlights”. Much more highlights than lowlights, fortunately!

As always, the year started with some Busters concerts. And actually with my last Busters concert at Substage in Karlsruhe! They will play there again in 2010, for the last time before the old Substage closes, but I’ll be on vacation and so I’ll miss out on that. Too bad! Busters are always a great way to start the concert year.

Then Itchy Poopzkid were on tour, and I had planned to see the first and the last show on the tour. But the first one got me hooked, and I squeezed in another concert. Great fun! They are just different from other bands. Feels a bit like a normal concert in fast forward mode… =;-)

And yep, I have to admit that the Itchy Poopzkid album, which came out in the same week as Skambankt’s Hardt Regn, beat the Skambankt album. It was a close draw, but Itchy Poopzkid’s album sounds better, which made the difference, I guess.

Anyway, I loved the Skambankt album, so I HAD TO go to the first concerts of the tour in Bergen and Haugesund. And it was possible and cheap to get there! In the end, the concerts were amazing, but the trip was hell…

Luckily, the next trip to see some Skambankt was booked already, otherwise I might not have dared. But so I got to see some amazing concerts in Oslo, Hamar, and Drammen again, in great company. Big fun! =:-)

And then, the surprise of the year – Kaizers Orchestra, who had announced they would take a break this year, played a four-show club tour in Norway. When I first heard about it, I was annoyed and didn’t really wanna go. My friends wanted to go, and okay, we can always try to get tickets… so we all sat there and waited for the tickets. Bergen was first, then Stavanger and Oslo (for both of these concerts, there were only about 80-100 tickets on sale!), then Trondheim. We got all of them, and so I had to go there, right? *g* And no doubt, this was the best tour of the year! Tiny clubs, a band that was keen on playing, a completely different set list, great audiences and, best of all, the best group of friends to travel around with! =:-D And the last concert was the best, just the way it’s gotta be!

After a few rather “usual” concert (including a freezing cold open air show in Munich) and another concert of Die Toten Hosen, which was just as amazing as the one at the end of 2008, it was time for Die Ärzte. The first concert was the fanclub concert in Hamburg. It involved a lot of work – we were answering tons of e-mails between April and June, and the concert day started around 2 pm already and ended about 12 hours later – without breaks, without food, without really sitting down… but it was great fun, it was amazing to see how people enjoyed the day, how they longed to buy our t-shirts, and how everything just worked out very well. Oh, and I loved the concert as well! DÄ had won in the first second, when they stood on stage differently than usual. Perfect! =:-)

Two (working…) days later, we drove down to Southside festival to see Die Ärzte again. The concert was fun, but the festival is as shitty as ever. A reason for me to not go there again on Sunday, even though the bands were interesting.

After a short intermezzo of Farin Urlaub solo (which, by the way, I liked much better than last year – probably because the concerts were on festivals and thus shorter…), the last two Die Ärzte concerts of the year for me in Linz. They didn’t quite convince me – I was rather late and far in the back the first day, and the next day it was raining. And Linz is way too far… Still, it was a nice weekend!

Then it was time for my summer vacation: Two festivals in Norway, and a few quiet days in Kristiansand inbetween. It was great fun! Slottsfjellfestival is a nearly perfect festival! The weather on the last day sucked, but apart from this, it was amazing. Great area, great line-up, great people! And if it fits in, I’ll be back next year! Månefestival was a bit too small in my opinion, and the highlights were cluttered to one day, with Skambankt and Kaizers playing on the same day, while the last day of the festival was plain out boring. But the atmosphere was very nice, and there were a lot of other things to do.

And actually, I loved the Kaizers concert at Månefestival so much that I decided I had to see them once more that year. And the best option was Verketfestival in Mo i Rana (just south of the polar circle…). And yes, it was great! I actually got in for free because of my website (pretty cool to get a press accreditation because of konzertjunkie.de *g*), and both days were amazing. Great area, great bands. Just freezing cold and kinda far away for one weekend… =;-)

Before that festival, I paid a short visit to Taubertal festival again to see Farin Urlaub and Die Toten Hosen. I still like that festival, even though it’s getting bigger and bigger.

Towards the end of the year, Katzenjammer (who I’d seen at all festivals in Norway already *g*) came to Germany for the first time. I was amazed to see that their shows were crowded and people knew and loved the band! Yeah! Great fun. Also, Skambankt were touring again (but in Norway, of course), and I went first to Bergen and then to Moss and Sarpsborg. And again, I loved it. Can’t wait for the next album and another tour! =:-)

I had bought a ticket for the Virginia Jetzt! concert in Stuttgart when they announced the tour. But somehow, I didn’t care and didn’t really want to go at all.. But I had the ticket, so of course I DID go. And: WOW! This was like a trip in time. I knew all the old songs, I could sing along, it was just like four, five year ago! Except the place was basically empty. =:-( Still, I enjoyed it so much that I went to the concert in Würzburg two weeks later. Which was also fun, but Würzburg is just not a town to go to when you want to enjoy a concert… *sigh*

And then, the second highlight of the year: Bela B y Los Helmstedt! I loved his first solo tour, missed the second, and this time I still had some vacation left and planned on ten concerts right from the beginning. They were all amazing, getting better and better from show to show, and I decided to conclude the tour with a trip to Hamburg and two concerts there. Just great! And my first trip to Vienna as well, so now I can go there for concerts whenever I want to, he he… *g*

The last concert of the year was Itchy Poopzkid – a nice concert. Didn’t really fulfill my expectations, but probably they were just too high. =;-) I saw them also in the middle of the Bela tour, and that concert seemed so different and so special that I expected that same feeling again at the last show, but as that one was two weeks after my last concert, I didn’t have the direct comparison and it felt like a “normal” concert. Big fun anyway!

No real “lowlights” this year, actually. The only one I can think of mentioning is actually Jennifer Rostock in Tübingen – I plain out HATE that band, okay? That girl is so annoying. And I only went there anyway because Mintzkov were playing. Unfortunately, nobody cared about them… *sigh*

If I had to choose a best concert of the year, I would have to decide between Bela in Zürich and Kaizers Orchestra in Trondheim, followed by quite a few other concerts.

So, all in all: 59 concerts total, 12x Bela B, 11x Skambankt, 6x Kaizers Orchestra, 6x Itchy Poopzkid, 5x Katzenjammer, 4x Die Ärzte, 4x Farin Urlaub, 3x Art Brut, 3x Die Toten Hosen. All the concerts spread from Vienna in the east, Cologne in the west (not counting Norway which is actually further west, but naah, that doesn’t count *g*), Mo i Rana in the north and Solothurn in the south. 16 concerts in Norway, and each three in Austria and Switzerland.

And next year? In contrary to this year, the list is already fairly long. The Busters of course (even though it will be only Tübingen this year, because I’m on vacation in January), Dúné and Katzenjammer are coming again, Kaizers will play a few shows to finance their new album (I’m only gonna see two of those though *g*). In summer, I want to go to Tromsø and Bukta festival – just hoping for a good line up! The same for Slottsfjell, ’cause I wanna go there again. Oh, and I just saw they are on the same weekend… *grr* OK, let’s wait for the line-ups then and take that weekend off. =;-) Rock am See with Wizo and Die Toten Hosen is also in the plan. And then Skambankt will hopefully tour again in fall, and I’m gonna be there! And another Bela tour would be great as well, but if it’s only festivals, that’s fine with me as well… Looks like 2010 is gonna be another great concert year!