After a lot of festivals in Norway, it’s now time for some festival dates in Europe again. First one was Eier mit Speck festival in Viersen. Not really right around the corner for me, but well, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? =;-)

Even though traffic was bad this weekend, I made it to the festival grounds in time for the German band Phrasenmäher, and that was absolutely worth it – a very entertaining concert, and a very promising audience! And it continued like that throughout the evening with the bands Motorjesus and Betontod; the festival was nice and cozy, and there was a great atmosphere in front of the stage. And in the back, people seemed also interested in what was happening – so all in all, very promising!

Unfortunately, the band before Kaizers Orchestra, Triggerfinger, was a bit of a letdown, and it was obvious that quite a few people left the festival at that time. A pity! Luckiliy, however, it got more crowded again before Kaizers came on stage. They were about 15 minutes late; not much of a surprise, as the changeover time was very short with only 20 minutes. It had worked for the other bands, but it was just too short for Kaizers.

They had the Russian Dance as intro again. All afternoon it had been obvious that the audience did not or hardly know Kaizers – you could count the Kaizers T-shirts in the audience on the fingers of one hand, and beforehand, a lot of festivalgoers were asking “what kind of headliner is that?” Anyway, in time for the concert, the fans were gathering in the front!

But the rest of the audience had to be convinced first – according to the Jackal’s poll, at least three fourth of the audience were seeing Kaizers for the first time. And to cut it short: The concert was strange. It was fun, the audience participated willingly, but it didn’t quite catch on. One reason might have been missing communication… the Jackal hardly talked at all between the songs, and when he did, it was just the usual “hello” and “thank you” and “who has seen Kaizers before”. As soon as he did some more, like for example when the audience was cheering in Resistansen, the audience was totally into it. But it happened way too rarely… it seemed to me as if the audience was ready to play along and do anything and just needed a spark, but Kaizers didn’t give that spark. The concert was good, but it missed just a bit to be great. Of course you could argue that this spark should have been given by the audience, not the band – but then, if the major part of the audience has never seen a band, I don’t think you can expect that. Then it’s the band that needs to convince the audience, and that’s what I was missing. I’m kinda curious for feedback from people who’ve seen Kaizers for the first time at that festival.

The setlist: Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Delikatessen, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, Veterans klage, Sigøynerblod, Resistansen, Diamant til kull, Psycho under min hatt, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Hjerteknuser, Kontroll på kontinentet, Maestro.

There were no encores, even though the audience (including me) had absolutely expected them, and they were written on the setlist as well. Seemed like the audience didn’t call Kaizers back on stage enthusiastically enough. It really didn’t look and sound that quiet to me, as the audience response was good (at least in the front and considering that the audience didn’t know Kaizers), and so the end was rather abrupt and sudden. That’s not the way to gain new fans, I fear… And I have no clue why they didn’t play En for orgelet this time (which was clearly the best-known and most popular song at Southside festival).
Well, “de slutter aldri å overraske deg” – “They never stop to surprise you.” Right!

So there’s not a lot to report from the concert, since there was almost no talk, as mentioned. I was surprised by the middle part of Veterans klage, where there was some kind of strange sound effect on the organ – sounded funny. Then there were a few song announcements à la “if you know only one Kaizers song, then it’s this one” and “you’ve probably never heard that song before, but it’s a huge hit single in Norway”. The latter was Hjerteknuser of course, and it starts “like this” – just that, unlike at other concerts, “this” was just the Jackal pointing to start the song; not him jumping off the barrel or dropping a towel.

Towards the end of the concert, there were lots of crowd surfers coming in, and Hellraizer was complimenting the security guys because they were doing a good job. “It’ good to be nice to the kids! It wasn’t like that in Norway a few days ago.” Hmm.

But to finish on a more positive note: Whenever there was some audience interaction, everyone had lots of fun, and the atmosphere was awesome at least in the front. And they played Diamant til kull, yeah! =:-D