Just one flight, a short bus ride to Bergen, two hours walking around town in bright sunshine, and another two-hour bus ride later, it was time for my second concert of the weekend!
Øystese is a small town in the middle of nowhere – middle of very picturesque nowhere, to be precise -, and it had hosted a gigantic Kaizers concert last year. The plan was to repeat that success this year, but then … Skambankt are not Kaizers, and neither are Grand Island (the headliner of the first night of the festival), so that meant that the concert took place in a huge hall in front of a few people. =:-/ You’d think that such a concert is doomed to be rather … slow? boring? awful? Something like that …
The support bands were okay, but nothing I’ll remember in any way. The audience … well, hadn’t arrived yet, was outside smoking, or didn’t really care. Really bad signs for a good concert … but no reason to despair, because as long as the band delivers, you can still have great fun at a concert even if the audience sucks. Or is not there. =;-) But then it’s of course terribly difficult for a band to deliver without feedback from the audience.
I didn’t check how the crowd looked when Skambankt came on. From the front it seemed that there were a few more people than for the other two bands, but it was still very far from crowded. The first three rows were into the concert, the rest … hmm, not sure. However, I felt like the audience was quite loud, when chanting for encores and screaming hey and so on. Maybe I only heard the first three rows, not sure, but still it was great to hear them joining in! Even though it did seem like the majority of the people in attendance were of the “that’s one of the Kaizers guys’ new band, no idea what they do, but let’s go there” kind who had maybe heard Voodoo and Malin but nothing else. Still, better than not going at all!
And the band? Delivered. Wait, I meant DELIVERED! Honestly: The concert, thus what happened on stage, was just as awesome as the one in Copenhagen. The energy was there, the sound was great, and you couldn’t hear or see the apparent Märkbar disaster. *gg* Of course, all in all the Copenhagen concert was much better than this one, but I didn’t regret at all traveling all the way for this show.
The setlist was exactly the same as in Copenhagen. The only noteworthy details I remember (oh come on, who am I fooling – I don’t remember, but I’m smart enough to take notes during the concert *g*) were that we had to count down from 28 (!!) in Me sa nei this time, which took quite a while … but funnily, that worked out great and seemed to involve the audience. It got so much louder towards the end, and it got people engaged. Also, we got a bit of an explanation this time in Dynasti: “First I say hei and then you say hei – that’s just politeness!” And when it worked and Ted applauded us, the audience started clapping along very fast which didn’t fit at all. *lol* Did I say the audience was a bit weird? =;-) But willing to join in, and that was great.
And I just gotta say how much I love it when I’m going to a concert alone, without having arranged anything before, and find great company all around for the whole night. And morning. *uhem* Thanks guys, it was a pleasure, and … guess I should check the flight prices for Stavanger … =;-)
Addendum: Gosh, how could I forget mentioning the nice birthday wishes from stage? Thank you! And obviously the common way to congratulate someone on their birthday in Øystese is fistbumping. =;-) OK, honestly I prefer that over hugging if the person congratulating is drunk and I’ve never seen them before. *gg*