Yay, wohoo, jippieh!!! Sorry, first things first. =:-D

After the fantastic concerts at the Opera I realized that somehow, I had to squeeze in another concert in Norway before the start of the European tour. Concerts in Norway are just so different from those in Europe, and of course I needed to find out how the concerts in Europe fare in comparison to those in Norway. And … well, I just had to. =;-)

So I actually made my way to Bergen on very short notice. And with some mixed feelings, actually, because I have seen a few so-so concerts in Bergen; and in addition to that, I was traveling alone and hadn’t really arrange anything with anyone. The latter turned out to be no problem at all – I was in great company right away – and the concert … may I quote myself? “Yay, wohoo, jippieh!!!”

The support, DJ Ralph Myerz, was totally unspectacular. Someone playing records, wow. Uhem. He left at nine sharp, ten minutes after nine the lights went out, the Russian Dance came on, and the audience went wild. Omen entered the stage and started with Aldri vodka, Violeta – and within seconds I knew that deciding for a first concert of the tour in Norway was the right thing to do. Aldri vodka will surely work as first song in Europe as well – but it will be entirely different. Here, everyone was into it from the first second. Everyone sang along, screamed along, waved their arms in the quiet part and started headbanging in the rock part. And at that time, Kaizers had been on stage for only a couple of minutes. Incredible!

All in all, I was amazed by the reaction and the loudness of the audience. Very impressive. Hach! I already described it for Aldri vodka; then at the end of Din kjole lukter bensin mor, where the audience kept singing all alone for minutes; the screeching when Hjerteknuser was announced (even though that was a bit over the top, I thought – nothing against Hjerteknuser, and nothing against fans that started their fandom with Hjerteknuser, but there’s actually more than just THIS ONE song?!). The Jackal explained right away that Bergen is definitely the best audience – “and those who were there yesterday know that I didn’t say that in Øystese!” *g*

In the beginning, they played song after song pretty tightly – a great solo in Det polaroide liv (not covered up by the orchestra this time *g*), no Kvite Russer before I ett med verden, En for orgelet with the big bass drum and a spontaneous background dance by Killmaster (probably I shouldn’t mention that, at first, I thought he got a shock from his beat machine or something. *lol* But it seemed to have been intended.)

It was extremely hot – according to the Jackal, it was just as warm as years ago in Berlin: “Let’s see how this ends …” And yes, at least in the audience the temperatures weren’t much below those at the legendary Kato concert … puuuh! So the Jackal wondered whether it was allowed to undress – Killmaster gave permission (to the Jackal and the audience), so off went the jacket and the Jackal continued in a soaking wet shirt. Until he saw someone in the audience that was dripping wet – “What idiot are you? How do you look like? You’re all wet! Just like … uhem … me.” But well, it’s their own fault: They could have decided to wear jump suits on stage like Datarock! But no, it had to be tuxedos …

The Jackal was so amazed by the audience that he invited us to his garden. “But not now – next year! We have to get to know one another a bit first!” (Hey, absolutely fine with me, next year sounds great! *gg*) And no need to worry, he’s got space for 10.000 people – since he’s living right next to Viking stadium … … “BUUUUUUUH!” Ooops. Someone hit a nerve there. The Jackal tried to explain himself and told us in all detail why it is okay that he’s a Viking fan and that his son (wonder if the son is really about a meter high at the age of 14, like the Jackal motioned *rofl*) plays there and and and … “oh oh, soon they will cast eggs and tomatoes at us!” *lol* And to distract us, he started telling a story about how someone cast bananas on stage during a concert at the opera in Oslo. (Uh, what?!)

Talking about eggs: During Støv og sand, Omen was busy first peeling and then eating an egg. And of course he was orderly and put all the eggshells into … the helmet. *rofl*

During Philemon Arther & the Dung it was time for another “Wow!” moment: the Jackal like a priest in front of the audience screaming along every single word. Goose bumps! Just like in Svarte katter, where we got another elaborately celebrated megaphone solo of Helge (who, as the “local guy”, was in the center of attention anyway).

And then it was time for Satan i halsen – totally unexpected for me, because I didn’t think they would play that song live without an orchestra. But yes, they did, yay! Even though it was probably the first and the last time, uhem … No, unfortunately it just didn’t work. The main background melody didn’t really get through and therefore it sounded quite “empty” at times. In the beginning of the “devil part”, there was no reverb on the vocals. And the audience didn’t really know what to do during the song. Such a pity! I love that song, and I want to hear it live, but I fear that this was a one-time and sadly unfortunate attempt. =:-( But they managed to save it by claiming: “And that was our beautiful single that we sent out to P3, but they didn’t want to play it, bad P3!” *lol*

They concluded with Forloveren including an introduction of the band. One by one, they started playing again and were introduced. Seems like this was fully spontaneous, because Mink missed his spot and the Jackal had to tell him to start again. But it fit in perfectly! And then, the Jackal stabbed Hellraizer with his microphone, and Hellraizer started to tumble across the stage … seems like the opera caught on. Drama baby, drama! =;-)

The encores started with the Begravelsespolka, which is just as awesome without the orchestra. I just don’t have the slightest clue how the Jackal and Omen managed to get the energy for the tap dance. =;-) Drøm videre Violeta and 170 and off they went – or no, actually the Jackal disappeared before the ending of 170 already, and Hellraizer got to give the final beating to the barrel.

However, that would have been a very weird ending – I already had the Berlin gig in the back of my mind – but it turned out that it wasn’t the ending after all! They did come out once more and played Ompa til du dør. So that was the final song then. And you definitely can’t complain about that after more than two hours and 15 minutes!

Hach … that was awesome! So now we’ll just need the exact same energy in Europe, both on stage and in front, and then I guess I won’t be able to stop grinning for the next weeks! =:-)

The full setlist:

Aldri Vodka, Violeta
Siste Dans
Det polaroide liv
Diamant til kull
I ett med verden
Tusen dråper regn
En for orgelet, en for meg
Kontroll på kontinentet
Din kjole lukter bensin, mor
KGB
Maestro
Tvilling
Tokyo Ice til Clementine
Støv og sand
Djevelens orkester
Philemon Arthur & the Dung
Svarte katter & flosshatter
Satan i halsen
Hjerteknuser
Forloveren
—
Begravelsespolka
Drøm videre, Violeta
170
—
Ompa til du dør