Konzertjunkie

Godwin's law is well-known.

Can we please introduce a law that says that a discussion about something an artist does ends right at the moment when somebody says "well, you are a fan, of course you like it"?

Don't worry, I'm sane enough to judge things and decide for myself whether I like them or not. And no, I don't love everything just because it's my favorite band that does it.

But: My favorite band happens to do things once in a while that I love. And I want to be able to say so, without anybody telling me that well, I can't judge anyway, because I'm a fan and fans love everything.

How about... Susi's law?


Oh, and by the way - THIS is what I love:


And I love it because it brings back the memories of a fantastic tour. Not because the video was perfect, not because it's Kaizers.

But this video really sums up the tour perfectly - you have this little band from Bryne that is NEVER gonna make it. No way. Anyway, they have their dreams about how they will make it, how they will become BIG, everything's just a little piece of the process, a little step forward. They sing about it.

Ten years later, they play a tour. The tour is nothing but a triumph, from the first to the last concert. Everywhere, people go crazy, sing along every word, and the song they celebrate most is the one about the little band and their dream of making it. And yes, they made it.

You can see all that in the video. And: It shows WHY they were able to make it.
Enkelte reagerer, andre applauderer - og det er sånne som oss!

Gnaah. Now I'm back from vacation, relaxed, not too much on my mind (especially as I just decided to neglect a big source of work for a while), and what do I do?

Think about re-organizing www.konzertjunkie.de. Again. As I've done several times before.
No, I'm definitely not satisfied with that site, and I've basically given it up quite a few times already. I do have a new idea now how I could maybe get it going - but most probably, I'll just spend several weekends working on it, just to be annoyed again afterwards because it's not as I wanted it. *grmbl*

But well, let's see. Maybe I'll be smart and give up on the idea. Or I'll finally be satisfied with the site afterwards...

Prolog: OK, it's no news that I am a weird kind of fan. Somehow, I always want to be around "my" bands - well, that of course is not the weird part. But generally, I'm very reluctant to talk to them, unless I've really got something to talk about. Otherwise, it's just awkward. So basically, seeing them around is great, going by and saying hi would be great (if I knew I could leave again right away and would thus dare), really getting into a conversation would be fantastic (and utopic, given my small talk skills ), starting to talk to them and not having anything to talk about is a desaster.

So, back to Månefestivalen. The Saturday started out very nice. I went by the literature scene, understood pretty much, actually, and it was quite fun. But: It was raining, so my mood was way down, of course.

I had planned to go over to Fredrikstad to find something to eat there (the choice of food on the festival ground was pretty limited), but after strolling around a bit and walking over to the supermarket and back to the hotel, it was already quite late, and I wasn't too fond of getting on the ferry, running around desparately looking for Kebap places and jumping right back onto the ferry to go back. Plus - there might be some rockstars walking around that you might or might not want to talk to, you know...?

So I spent some more time around the festival (it wasn't even raining anymore), discovering a great impro theater group (that I saw a few more times that weekend, they were really funny!). Then at some point in time, I settled in front of the main stage, with my book and a drink, waiting for the band before Skambankt to finish. And of course always being on the lookout for rockstars. *g*

The Skambankt concert was great (check out the report on http://skambankt.konzertjunkie.de, if you like). And this time without tunnel vision. And then it was weird fan girl time! Because by then, Kaizers were "in the house" and walking around, of course. Or well, mostly running around, so there was no way to walk by anyway. Good. *gg* Except for one exception - so I spent the next half hour deciding whether I wanted to go by and say hi or not... You don't want to know how often you can change your mind in half an hour... In the end, I did NOT say hi, but mostly because I was too late and didn't want to ruin the groupie hunt... *cough* Some people COULD do that a bit less obviously, I think. Uhem...

Anyway. Then it was time for Tommy Tokyo, which I enjoyed pretty much. And after that, I bumped into the Skambankt guys and got my questions... well, not really answered, but I could ask them at least. So that was quite nice.

Then a fantastic Kaizers show (http://kaizers.konzertjunkie.de, if you want to know more), and as I didn't spot the people I met throughout the day after the concert, I went home right away. That's something I've learned by now - don't hang around after concerts hoping and waiting for things that are not going to happen. And it IS never going to happen that after a concert, the band comes out, points at you and says "we want to talk to you!"
(And if it WOULD happen, it would probably mean something bad, right? )

So, all in all a great day. I'm used to the fact that at festivals with "my" bands, I'm more busy watching out for the band members than enjoying other concerts. It's stupid, but that's the way I am... and well, this time it was two great concerts, so no reason to complain.

OK, the next day. Yeah, this would be a great day! Sunshine, warm, and no rockstars to watch out for! And especially no pondering about "should I walk up to them", "what should I say", "did I just make a fool out of myself" etc. Just a quiet day, without thoughts that make my head explode...

I actually wanted to see the impro theater again, but obviously they had given a wrong time, at least there was nobody there (I did catch them lateron that day again though, luckily ). The literature scene wouldn't start before two hours later. So I decided to take the ferry over to Fredrikstad, walk around a bit, find something to eat and just relax with my book. I did take the ferry, I walked around a bit, found out there wasn't really anything to see, didn't find a Kebap place and wasn't really hungry anyway, and decided I could relax at the festival site as well, so I went back pretty soon.

Got off the ferry, and... bumped into Terje + wife.

In a way, that made my day. 'Cause that was what had been missing a bit the day before (even though it hadn't really been missing, everybody was so nice the day before as well, but you can never get enough friendly smiles, right? *g*). And at the same time, it ruined it. Why? Well - back to being on the lookout for rockstars. Back to pondering "argh, did I just make a fool out of myself???" - yep, of course I did. But then, it wasn't my fault, it wasn't me who started the small talk. _I_ would have turned around and run away. But that would have looked even more foolish, I guess...

And yes, I AM bad at small talk, and even worse at small talk in Norwegian. And I wasn't prepared. *g* So I spent the rest of the day thinking about how big a fool I had made out of myself, whether it was my fault or not, and what else I could/should have said. *argh* But then, it was so nice! He could have just walked by...

Anyway. I went on to the literature scene, couldn't concentrate, walked on a bit and stumbled onto the impro theater again, yeah! =:-) Then back to the literature scene to some Swedish poet who was performing his poems to music. SO cool! And I could even understand most of it! Well, another Swedish artist...

The rest of the day was rather uneventful - first I spent some hours reading, then it was time for Katzenjammer, who were great again, and the rest of the bands were just annoying and/or boring. Which means that I went back to the hotel after the first two songs of the headliner - but there were hardly any people there anyway.

So that was it - 12 days in Norway! Now I gotta go home again. I don't want to, but I'll be back.

Yep, now I spent five great and relaxing days in Kristiansand. A nice and cozy town, not too big, not too small, very logically and practically built (just impossible to get lost there - look it up on a map and you'll know what I mean... *g*).

I arrived on Sunday night, after lots of trouble with the "train" - they had too few cars on the train, so everybody who wanted to go to Kristiansand was put on a bus instead. Well, thank you very much, why exactly do you think I booked a TRAIN instead of a BUS? *grr* Anyway, we arrived only half an hour late, so it was still acceptable. The accommodation was easy to find, the hosts very friendly, and after checking out the room I went to find something to eat. Which turned out to be VERY difficult. Most restaurants were out of question - okay, I knew that Kristiansand is a vacation town for Norwegians, but I didn't expect that it is impossible to find a reasonably priced restaurant... Well, so I looked out for Kebap places... Without much success! Lots of hairdressers (that was incredible - every third or fourth store was a hairdresser, at least that's how it seemed!), lots of bookstores, but no Kebap places. OK, by now I found them in another part of town, and I was even lucky that night and discovered a Kebap place in the center of the city. But that was kinda strange...

The next day I started out discovering the city and surroundings. A bit of shopping, and then out to Odderøya for a walk. Very nice, and it wasn't until the very end that I noticed that this is actually the place of Quart festival. *g* That night, I went to the cinema to see the new Harry Potter. And this was really confusing - I'm very bad at understanding British, but I didn't worry about that, because there would be subtitles. Uhm, yes, there were subtitles. But it took me a while to figure out who Wiltersen, Slur, Galtvort, or Vensters are supposed to be... or worst of all Gulla. I expected it to be some Norwegian word I never heard before. What it actually meant, was "Ginny"... *argh*
Wasn't really impressed by the movie anyway, I gotta say. They should have turned it into two parts...

The next day, I went on discovering the city. First Christiansholmen, the castle, then the city beach (too cold for bathing though), then Baneheia & Ravnedalen (woods for walking), all very nice. As a conclusion, I took part in a (free!) guided tour through the city. The idea is great, I'm really impressed - what other cities do tourist walks for free? It could have been a lot better though - the guide was obviously very new to this, he was terribly nervous and didn't really know what to say. So that wasn't really a must-do... When the guide ends with something like "OK, we have over an hour left, but there's not really anything else to see here in this town, so let's keep it with that"...

Wednesday, I went out to Lindesnes, the southern-most place in Norway. It was a bit of an adventure to get out there, but it was also very nice. Wet and cold and rainy though - but well, after three days of almost constant sunshine I'm not gonna complain about that! Then a stop in Mandal and a bit of shopping and strolling around there. Then the weather got way too bad, so back to Kristiansand, where I spent the night in my room, rather annoyed and not really knowing what I should plan for today.

The original idea was to take the badebåt (bathing boat) out to two little islands and spend some time there. But would I really want to walk around on some island for hours waiting for the boat to return? And then drive around on the sea for hours in whatever weather? And get up early for that?

This last question was answered quickly when my alarm rang in the morning: It was gray and rainy outside, so I just turned off the alarm. "I can take the next boat and only do one stop." I did get up in time for the second boat - but I just didn't want to go. So I decided on visiting the open air museum instead... A good idea! Even though I've seen lots of such museums before, it wasn't special at all, but the weather was nice again and so I had a great and quiet afternoon outside. Then, after getting back to the city, there was another free town walk - and this time, it was just like I had expected the first time as well. An old and experienced guide, who managed to include everybody on the tour and who talked exactly two hours about Kristiansand and its inhabitants. Very exciting and interesting. So that was a great experience!

And now it's time for packing - tomorrow, I'll get on my way to Fredrikstad for another festival. Seems I'll have to go there alone after all... That's really sad, would have loved to see Lena again and have a great time together, but at least some other people will be there on Saturday. Hope the festival is as nice as Slottsfjell!