Kaizers played Salt & Pepper tonight. Which is awesome … for everyone who was there. For me (who was not) it just makes me panic. A little bit at least. Or well, honestly enough to write a blog post in the middle of the night …

So, let’s back up. I started following Kaizers over ten years ago. Obviously, they played a lot of different songs back then than they do now. Some songs stayed, some went, some returned. The three songs that they played a lot when I first got into Kaizers and then suddenly stopped playing were Djevelens Orkester, På ditt skift, and Salt & Pepper. Of course there were more than that – songs like Mann mot Mann or Død manns tango or, for quite a while, 170. I didn’t care that these songs were missing. But the other three, I dearly missed.

I remember asking Rune about Djevelens Orkester one night, at Internasjonalen in Oslo (don’t ask me though after what concert that was and how we ended up at Internasjonalen and why the band was there as well?! But I remember Tor/Elvis was also there and explained to me that Internasjonalen has so “reasonably priced drinks”. In Norway. “Reasonably priced”. Muahaha … *gg*). Rune explained they just didn’t feel like playing the song at the time, but “who knows, maybe it’ll suddenly turn up again”. A few concerts later, they started playing it again. 😀

I just LOVED the original version of På ditt skift that they played before the song was actually released. After the album was out, they played it differently and not quite as energetic, and at some point in time, it completely disappeared from the set. Even though the song had changed, I wished to get to hear it again for a loooong time. And yes, they started playing it again; not very often, but I caught it a few times. It wasn’t as good as the original version. They left out the ending – and instead of starting it up again after the quiet part (which was THE BEST!), they transitioned into Fra sjåfør til passasjer. Which is another awesome song, so I really cannot complain, even though I’ll never get to hear the original version live again.

Salt & Pepper. They played it a lot during my first concerts. So much that at some point in time, we came up with the idea to pick up those little packages of Salt & Pepper that they have at McDonald’s etc. and throw them on stage during the song. That’s when they stopped playing it. (BEFORE we actually did that, just to make that clear! 😉 )

Since then, I’ve been wishing to hear that song live again, just once more. They did actually play it again. At one of those concerts in Norway where Øyvind painted a picture during the show. I wasn’t there, but of course I hoped they would play it at one of the European shows as well, since they had actually practiced it. But no, only at that one show in Norway … I asked Helge about it after a show in Zürich, but he was very clear: “Janove doesn’t like it, so it’s very unlikely we’ll play it again.” Right then, I hated Janove (a bit). They haven’t played it since. I wished for it for my 100th concert – didn’t get it.

Now they played it again. One time. At a concert that I missed. And I am so frickin’ afraid that history will repeat itself and they play it ONE TIME and then Janove decides he doesn’t like it and drops it from the setlist. And I will never get to hear it live again.

Yes, I know, it’s just a song. But it’s Salt & Pepper …