Konzertjunkie

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, that's just the way it is - some days of sun, some days of rain... It just sucks if the rainy days are at a festival. Or well - a bit of rain is okay. But if the "bit of rain" means hours and hours of constant pouring, it sucks.

Well, but I knew right along that a summer vacation in Norway wouldn't mean only sunshine, so I decided to not mind and went out into the rain. I was back at the festival grounds right in time for The Captain & Me - a very good decision! Not only because the rain had stopped for half an hour by then, but mostly because this really is a great band, and the concert was big fun. Then I wandered over to the other stage and watched the concert of The Chap - a very weird band, totally crazy, but it was pretty funny. Didn't stay until the end though, 'cause it started raining again and they didn't "blow me away" so much that I would have cared enough. Instead, I decided to go back to the hotel for a bit, because the next interesting bands wouldn't come on until two hours later.

Not sure if that was a smart decision or not - in any case I was soaked until I was back at the hotel. *grr* OK, I had some time to get dry again, but I was soaked wet again when I arrived back at the festival grounds lateron.

But: The evening was worth it! First Bob Hund (and yes, I understand why he's compared to Janove Kaizer *g*), then Ash up on the hill (and the way up was not too bad, actually, even though I had expected to slide more than to walk - but I guess Chucks ARE better than Docs in this respect. They get soaked sooner though...), and even though I would have loved to see all of their show, I decided to go down again in time for Katzenjammer - a very good decision, because they were just amazing. And: The rain stopped! The last band of the night and of the festival were the Kaiser Chiefs - a nice conclusion for me, but obviously a lot of people didn't really care for them. Guess Norwegians are too patriotic in this respect. Or maybe their English DOES get worse with too much alcohol after all? I mean, if a band says "we stopped the rain for you!" and there is NO reaction at all? Or when they ask the guy with the laserpointer to point into the sky, and everybody raises their hands? *lol* It was funny though.

And a big applause to the festival organizers - up to now, I never experienced a festival that reacted so quickly to the weather. As soon as the ground became muddy in some place, it was covered with mats. Very effective, very quick, thanks!

So even though the weather was terrible the last day, the festival in itself was just great. I'll be back next year!

Hmm, okay... if a festival got "fjell" in the name, don't go there. 'Cause "fjell" means hill, and thus you have to walk uphill forever to get to the festival grounds... And once you are up there, you walk up and down all the time. *argh*

But: If the organizers are smart, you also have a great view at the stage from everwhere, because the area slopes towards the stage. And it's not gonna be so crowded anywhere, because you got a good view at the stage from everywhere!

And yes, the Slottsfjell organizers seem to be smart. At least my first impression of the festival was very positive, even though it is gigantic (for Norway ). But part of that good feeling about the festival was probably also the weather. 25°C and sunshine until 10:00 pm - pretty good, right? Especially when the forecast said "gray and wet". So let's just hope that it'll stay like that!

So, who did I see today? Started with the Wombats - nice, but I thought I'd know more songs. Then some food (the first after breakfast, argh) and then Håkan Hellström - never heard of him, but I liked it. Then to the other stage to see Motorpsycho. And I noticed that I had confused them with - all Norwegians will probably kill me for that? - Dreamtheater. Don't ask me why, I don't know more than the name of both bands, and I have a rough idea about the music they play. And Motorpsycho played exactly the kind of music I had associated with them, and I liked it a LOT, so it was good that it wasn't Dreamtheater. *gg* Then I had planned to go by the other stage and down to see Big Bang, but on the other stage, a WEIRD band called Peachcake was playing, and it was incredibly fun. So I stayed - I had been bored by Big Bang before, so I knew I wouldn't miss anything. And Peachcake just blew me away... Then, to conclude, the last few songs of Big Bang were okay, but rather boring. But from far away, the singer reminded me quite a lot of Thees Uhlmann, which made it fun to watch. *g*

OK - I know I didn't post here for ages, but maybe I'll keep it up as a kind of "vacation diary". Or maybe not. Let's wait and see, I won't promise anything...

Imagine the following dialogue on stage:

- It's so good to be back on tour. We haven't played live for months now!
- Well, they can probably hear that...
- Come on, it's not that bad, is it???

And the reaction was: None. No reaction at all. Which is probably the worst answer you can get.

I mean, getting a "No, it's not bad" would be the perfect answer of course. A "Yes, it's obvious, but hey,who cares?" would also be acceptable. But no answer at all probably means something like "Actually, it's not bad, it is terrible. But I can't say that this bluntly, so I'll rather say nothing at all."

And yep, in the beginning it WAS bad. But then the sound got better and better, and after a while the band managed to coordinate moving, playing, singing, and breathing again.

So in the end it was a perfect concert, it just took them a bit to get into it again. But it was the tour start, so I'm not gonna blame them.

And then, it was funny as always. The best part was probably when we had to clap along, only one of the band was playing and singing, and suddenly he stopped in the middle of the line and yelled at the audience: "You've never heard of keeping the beat, right?"

Looking forward to the final concert of the tour now...