As conclusion to my festival season, it was time for another trip to Norway. More precisely to Stavanger for the Rått & Råde festival! You can find my report about the whole festival here.

The most interesting day for me at the festival was Friday. The first band on stage that day was Uncle Deadly – and since I hadn’t managed to see any solo concerts of Geir before (why does he always announce his concerts at the last second? *sigh*), I was really looking forward to that! A little downer just a few days before: At the same time when Uncle Deadly was scheduled to play at RxR, Skambankt were doing a presale and signing session downtown. Yeah, great… I mean, it wasn’t a hard decision for me to take (I had chosen to go to Stavanger instead of Tromsø because Geir was playing only in Stavanger), but I think it was a bit unfair, because it was obvious that some of the people who would have come out to see Uncle Deadly weren’t coming now because they were at the Skambankt signing. But well – their bad! =;-)

Uncle Deadly was the first band that played in the afternoon, and unfortunately, there were very few people there. Even though it was a perfect day, sunshine, warm, Friday… but most people didn’t arrive until later that evening.

Still, Uncle Deadly didn’t seem to be annoyed by the lack of spectators. They played a nice little set – it took a while until they seemed to catch on, but then it was really nice, and those people who had made it out on the festival in time really enjoyed it. Geir seemed a little insecure maybe, but not uncomfortable with the role as the front man. I was a bit curious whether it was right that he “only talks about the weather”, as people claimed on Facebook. And yep, he does. =;-) But hey, with this amazing weather that was absolutely allowed. And how should he know this kind of weather since he moved to Oslo? =;-) But naah, that was not the only thing he talked about. He also wondered about how Ozzy would pronounce Rått og Råde (well – he didn’t…), asked if a-ha fought on stage the day before, and tried to remember whether or not he had ever played soccer on the field where the stage now stood. Or at least that’s what I understood. Who knows what he actually said… =;-)

Anyway. He started out with lots of songs from Monkey Do but played a few songs from Nice for a change as well. Here’s the setlist: Be careful what you wish for, The game, I don’t mind, Songs about God, The subpoena girl, Nice for a change, Friday nights, Some call that love, Oh life, Sneakin’ up.

As I wrote, it took a few songs for the band to warm up. The sound wasn’t too good in the beginning, the guitars were out of tune (because of the sun), but it got better and better. But, to not be the blind and deaf fan – there were quite a few wrong notes and chords throughout the set, and nobody would have noticed some sheets with lyrics behind the monitors… better than “la la la” in every second song, to be honest. =;-)

All in all, the concert was really nice. I wasn’t amazed though – this might be due to the surroundings, because Uncle Deadly looked kinda “lost” on the enormous stage, with so few people in front of it. It might have been different on the second stage, or at a club show. I think Geir’s solo stuff would work better there – or maybe it’s just some really great music to listen to at home and just not made to be played live. Not sure. Would be a pity though, ’cause I think Geir could grow into that frontman position. Let’s see if he’ll get that chance. =:-)