Suddenly deciding to book a short trip for the weekend isn’t always bad. Especially not if it’s a short trip to go and see a Kaizers concert. And even more especially not if you notice after booking that the release concert of Das Kriegsensemble happens on the same day and you can get to see that one as well … two birds with one stone! Add in fantastic summer weather in Trondheim, and you just have to have a perfect day. =:-)

First up was the Kriegsensemble concert. I have to admit that somehow, I had expected something entirely different – though I’m not really sure WHAT I had expected. But I was really confused in the beginning. And don’t get me wrong; it was splendid right from the start! Six really solemn (well, at least at the beginning *g*), serious musicians in suits, stand-up bass/cello/viola/violin/piano/accordion, and they started out with an overture. Which sounded quite “kaizeresque”, true, but that was all. And then they announced that this was supposed to be Resistansen – uh, whut? When they played the song again as encore (“Those were all the songs that are on the album. But we’ll just play the first one again, it’s been a while already …” *g*), I did recognize a few references to Resistansen. But I had expected something different when I heard they’d play cover versions – namely what they did in the following song, the “Siste Maestro Dans”. A clear mixture of Maestro and Siste Dans. =;-) But I thought the songs were supposed to be in German? Up until then, there weren’t any vocals at all, in no language. In 170, they had a “Ja ja, wir kommen ja zurück” at least, but Die Polizei consisted purely of humming. Anyhow, that was slowly but surely the point of the concert where they “had” me. This was so absurd, you could not NOT grin. =;-) And all of this presented in such a sincere way! And that’s how it continued, and I thought that the adaptation of the songs got better and better. Prosessen, with the lyrics read in form of a speech, was awesome, and Ompa til du dør finally made the audience sing along and dance. As I said – that whole concert was really absurd and abstruse. But awesome and entertaining at the same time! The only thing I found a bit of a pity was that the songs weren’t really sung in German; except for Ompa til du dør, which therefore was maybe a bit misleading as first and only pre-taste of the album. But on the other hand, it maybe wasn’t that bad to be spared more of the rather awful German. =;-)

Some hours later, the fun continued under open skies at the gigantic Borggården – fully sold out with 6000 people in the audience. When the support Peevish Penfriend played, it wasn’t that crowded yet, but while we all waited for Kaizers, it really filled up. Also in the front, towards the side … in my opinion, it got way too crowded already before the concert, but surprisingly, it was really okay during the show – except for two girls whose only plan it apparently was to ruin at least parts of the concert for some people around me. Why are they always a few of those idiots? But well, I managed to keep them off my back and could enjoy the whole show.

To keep it short: It was awesome! A great atmosphere on both sides, and … well, what else? After the concert we noticed that there really wasn’t anything worth mentioning in the report. Hmm … “Janove dropped the microphone and pulled it up on stage again?” Well, that’s not really THAT spectacular. During Bøn fra helvete, Omen directed the singing of Hellraizer and Jackal, he was obviously bored during most parts of the concert, and as he was missing a vase this time, he saved the flowers by wrapping them into a wet towel. His soap bubble performance in Svarte katter didn’t quite work out (he was blowing and blowing, but no bubbles *g*), and when he finally managed a few bubbles, Mink destroyed them with his drum stick. =;-) Then the whole band had to tell Omen to sit back down, and afterwards, the Jackal dragged out the pause forever, while the audience was screaming and cheering.

The beginning of Hjerteknuser was really funny when the Jackal wanted to “jump-start” the song once again. He got up on the barrel and looked like he was about to do a back-flip, but of course he ended up doing a very cautious hop down. *gg* Oh right, and during Støv og sand, he wanted the audience to sing in three voices at the end. But maybe it would have been smarter to explain what he wanted … as it was, it was quite confusing. First, he asked one side of the audience to sing “like that” – but of course everyone sang the “normal” tune and not the one the Jackal had asked them to sing. The second part of the audience had to sing as usual, and by the time it was time for my side, most people had understood what the Jackal wanted, so that we managed to sing the intended note. However, the Jackal just sang the first note and not the full tune, so that was a bit too much to ask. Consequently, there was only one try for the audience. I guess that was “planned” to sound a bit differently. *g*

Okay, seems like there was actually a bit to report after all. =;-) But the concert was a great example that an awesome concert doesn’t need a lot of clownery on stage. Just the right chemistry between band and audience – and with such a polite and well-mannered audience with a ratio of 60% women and 40% men, that works our perfectly, of course. =;-)

As conclusion, we got Die Polizei – and the audience continued singing loudly for at least ten minutes after Kaizers disappeared from stage. The perfect finish for a wonderful concert.

The setlist:

• Aldri vodka, Violeta
• Siste dans
• Delikatessen
• Bøn fra helvete
• Tusen dråper regn
• Din kjole lukter bensin, mor
• En for orgelet, en for meg
• Forloveren
• Støv og sand
• I ett med verden
• KGB
• Kontroll på kontinentet
• Tokyo Ice til Clementine
• Philemon Arthur & The Dung
• Evig pint
• Resistansen
• Svarte katter & flosshatter
• Hjerteknuser
• Maestro
  ———-
• Begravelsespolka
• Drøm videre, Violeta
• Die Polizei