I thought moving to Norway would make it easier to catch more Skambankt concerts – but this year, Skambankt focused on Denmark and “anywhere but Trøndelag”, it seemed. =;-) But after checking their festival list, it wasn’t hard to decide on Brønnøysund and Rootsfestivalen! A great line-up, and a nice little town in beautiful landscape. And the festival turned out to be a great choice: Awesome concerts, sold out and a big crowd, and with a lot of free activities during the day the organizers managed to get the local audience involved. Thus a really nice festival!

But: Who the hell came up with the idea to have Skambankt play between Marit Larsen (pop) and Gabrielle (pop)? I mean, nothing against those two ladies, their concerts were fun, but Skambankt had a really hard time between these shows. Hardly anybody seemed to even know them – except for a handful of people in the front row. Or wait, I did see someone singing along during Malin, I think … but that was it.

So Skambankt came on to basically no reaction from probably the smallest crowd of the whole weekend … and an hour or so later, they went off after huge applause of at least twice the crowd. Yay! =:-D

They seemed a bit uncomfortable at the beginning of the concert – and it certainly didn’t help that Tollak broke a bass string during the third song … But “Skambankt” as first song worked great (“Nå vet dokke i hvert fall ka me heite!”), and while the first songs got a “polite” reaction, the audience clearly started enjoying themselves when Skambankt played “Vår bør”. With artists like Gabrielle (for kids) and Roger Hodgson (from Supertramp) at the festival, the audience was very very mixed, with an average way older than at other festivals. Terje knew how to deal with that though: “Is there anyone here who used to listen to punk music when they were young? And who maybe still likes it?” – sure, that appealed to the inner rebel of course. =;-) So with “Me sa nei!” they really got the audience, and from then on, the concert was great fun and less work for Skambankt, I assume. =;-) Even though there were still a few slightly awkward “I need to say something now, but what?” announcements between the songs … Like when we were supposed to count down from 25 in “Me sa nei!” and Terje asked if Brønnøysund can count … which they surely can, because of the register. Uhem. (For the Germans: Brønnøysund = Flensburg. No idea what the respective towns are in other countries. *gg*) Or when Terje started talking about Morten Abel, who played the night before: “Men me har viktigere ting å gjøre nå enn å snakke om Morten Abel. Som å spille Skambankt-konsert!”

But Børge saved the day with an awesome drum solo (even though drum solos aren’t really allowed at festivals, but if the drummer is from Hammerfest, it is okay). And the audience loved it! They got more and more into the show, and again, it was a heard-earned victory for Skambankt, and a great and fun show!

Of course festival shows are in no way comparable to “real” Skambankt shows, but they are definitely a great way to bridge the time between tours. =:-)

The setlist:

• Skambankt
• Voodoo
• Dynasti
• Vår bør
• Me sa nei
• Mantra
• Alarm
• Som en sirene
• Desertør
• O dessverre
• Malin
• Stormkast #1