Nostalgia! I’ve seen a Kaizers concert at Melkweg in Amsterdam before – that was in 2004. Nine years later I was back at the same venue, and somehow … it was like back then!

I’ll try to keep my report a little shorter than usual because I don’t have much time for writing. But I’ll have to bring this to paper (or rather electrons) anyway: Kaizers seem to go “back to the roots” a bit for this European tour. While, during the latest tours, they’ve always played a somewhat “downsized” version of their Norwegian playlist, it seemed that they really targeted the songs for a European audience this time. For me, who has seen them so many times, that is a little annoying at first glance – oh no, not all the oldies and hits again, I want new stuff and songs that they don’t play that often! – but it worked perfectly.

Here’s the setlist:

• Aldri vodka, Violeta
• Det polaroide liv
• Tusen dråper regn
• Ompa til du dør
• Bøn fra helvete
• Di grind
• Din kjole lukter bensin, mor
• En for orgelet, en for meg
• I ett med verden
• Sigøynerblod
• Kontroll på kontinentet
• Forloveren
• Maestro
• Svarte katter & flosshatter
• Dieter Meyers Inst.
  ——–
• KGB
• Begravelsespolka
  ——–
• Min kvite russer

The Jackal didn’t wear a tuxedo tonight, and everything else seemed a bit more “casual” as well. As was to be expected, the audience was very quiet in the beginning – but already during the second song, Det polaroide liv, Kaizers started to animate the crowd in “old fashion”, and they drew them along. In Ompa til du dør, the audience took over the singing – something that proved that it was absolutely the right thing to do to play all the old hits! ‘Cause those are the ones that the Europeans know and love, and they get the audience excited. So Di grind fit perfectly well as next song, even though the audience wanted a bit too much when singing along and was singing much more than they were actually “supposed to”. *g*

During En for orgelet, Killmaster did a little dance again, before the Jackal climbed the oil barrel, bass drum in front of him, and had the audience in his hands. During Sigøynerblod, the Jackal “did the Moses”, divided the crowd, jumped off stage, and sang a verse down in the audience – before he climbed back on stage and sat in front of the monitor box, singing intensively just to the monitor. Ridiculously funny!

“The old songs are just the best” – so next up was Kontroll på kontinentet. But the new ones are great as well! Of course, the response to Forloveren was a bit more quiet, but to make up for that, the Jackal made us sing “tsk-ch tsk-ch” in the middle. Well, there’s nothing like audience interaction! Yes, that’s how it used to be, that’s what was sometimes missing during the last tours, and that’s what was back this time. Yay! =:-)

During Svarte katter, Omen had to take some (or actually quite a few!) notes after his megaphone solo, before they could continue – the Jackal didn’t like that, but the audience did! *g*

What I found very interesting was the Begravelsespolka … in the beginning, the audience didn’t really seem to care. It seemed to me like everyone on stage was getting a little worried, ’cause hey – their best live-song, but hardly any reaction?! Well … they could definitely stop worrying after the tap dance! By then, the audience was totally into it!

As final conclusion, we got Min kvite russer – yes, that is a great song, and I was really impressed by how loud the audience was singing. But damn it: the first concert of the tour, and my voice is ruined. *grmbl* I really vote for switching the roles in the future and have the men squeak around. =;-)

What else? There were fans from China and the USA at the concert. The audience was incredibly loud for the hall, considering that it wasn’t sold out and the audience seemed very very quiet and lazy in the beginning, especially compared to Norwegian audiences. And as soon as Omen did anything strange, there were grinning faces all around – okay, the grins did look a little confused, but definitely entertained!

Hach – a great start of the tour, even though I would wish for a bit more variation in the setlist for the remaining concerts. =;-)