2007/3/1: Skambankt, Aalborg

(Photos)

Three concerts in a row, fairly close together. Starting on my birthday. It didn’t take long to decide which concerts of the tour I definitely wanted to see! Plus, I had heard a lot of praise about the concerts in Denmark, and now I wanted to see it for myself.

Of course, we are talking about Skambankt concerts here… So things started going wrong from the very beginning. The B&B we had booked realized they didn’t have a free room left after all, so we ended up in a tiny hotel room stinking of cigarettes. But well, we survived. And we got to watch a bit of TV in the afternoon and thus heard about the riots that were going on in Copenhagen… Sure. If the concert is not cancelled a few days before it’s supposed to happen, if there is no snow chaos (anymore) – then we get street fights in the city instead to make up for it. Gotta expect that. =;-)

Anyway. We were really eager for the concert – I had loved the release party and all the other concerts I’ve seen so far, but how would this tour be like? And is Skambankt a band I can see live over and over again, or is it gonna be boring if I see them too often?

Mixed feelings when we came in: a really big hall, a gigantic stage (well, at least if you compare it to Mono =;-) Naah, just kidding, it really was big.) – and oil barrels spread all around, even directly in front of the stage. Nicely decorated with candles. Wait – ain’t that dangerous if there is a crowd in front of the stage going crazy??? Hmm. And where exactly WAS that crowd, by the way?

Cutting it short, there were a lot less people than I expected. OK, of course we were there much too early as well and it filled up a bit after a while, but you really couldn’t call that crowded. Basically, you had two or three rows in front and then a gap of a few meters and the “old people” in the back. =;-) Still, no reason to complain, ’cause people were having fun! And I definitely don’t mind having enough space for dancing and not being crushed in the front, even though I expected that I’d have to endure that.

Marvel, the support band, was okay. The music was fine, but the band was boring. And I didn’t really get why they had to wear masks and hats throughout the whole gig, especially as the hats kept falling off… but well. I don’t need to understand everything. =;-)

And then it was time for Skambankt! The stage was impressive, with the camouflage backdrop, the drum podest and the amp walls. Just the logo in the back was a bit too small – it’s not good if the support band got a bigger logo… =;-)

It started with the intro of the new album of course, followed by Nok et offer. The rest of the setlist: Me sa nei, Stormkast #1, Dynasti, Revolusjonens aggregat, Desertør, Tyster, Min eliksir, Fritt fall, Alarm, Skamania. Encores KKK, Angst and Poltistat.

Before Me sa nei, Ted explained that this song would fit the things going on in Copenhagen at the moment. And a bit later in the set, announcing Revolusjonens aggregat, he told us that they had already been in the middle of the “revolution” – as they had spent the night in Copenhagen, and exactly in the house that had been on TV all day in all reports about the riots… So this was also the reason why they played Poltistat as last song. They hadn’t planned on playing that song, but if fit perfectly, so they played it – even though Ted admitted that the others probably are “not prepared at all”. And yes, they needed a few minutes to figure out how to play that song, as they hadn’t played it for years. But it worked out fine!

No idea when Ted was talking Norwegian and when he was talking Danish (I remember some talk about “lille bit” or whatever though, no idea what that was about, but it had something to do with Danish – and lateron the question “how do you like my Danish?” out of nowhere *g*), but actually, I understood a lot. So I could write now that he talked about the concert they did in the school cantine at a high school close to Copenhagen the day before, playing for class 5 A of the schoool. Or that they were proud of their “first big radio hit” Tyster. Or that there is nothing like “progressive punk rock on a Thursday night!” And of course that Ted countered the “Oh oh oh – I got erection” shouts during the encore break with a tight “wrong band, wrong concert!”.

But somehow, that’s not what I want to write. It’s not what it is about. The concert was just amazing! Originally, I had some small doubts if it was good to convince people that they need to come to Denmark to see a band they’ve never seen live before, playing just a short concert, talking in Norwegian between the songs – but those doubts were gone from the first second. Skambankt just ROCK. They know exactly how to move and how to pose. They know how to get the audience excited in seconds. There is no way you could go to a concert and not be captured right from the beginning.

It’s hard to put the finger on why Skambankt concerts are so great. But I think it’s mostly the fact that there’s action all the time. No pauses, no breaks, always movement. Everybody is running around on stage, not standing still. To the front of the stage, posing with the guitar, screaming, running into one another. And this infects the audience. This makes them scream “Skambankt! Skambankt!” all the time. This makes them go along with whatever happens on stage.

Of course, not everything goes the way it’s supposed to go. The sound was really bad in the beginning (but it got better after a while). There were some technical problems. The music itself wasn’t perfect. But if I want perfect music, I listen to the CD. If I go to a concert, I want entertainment. And I got that, hell yeah.

In the middle of the show, they got a guy up on stage with a Skambankt tattoo on the arm. The old logo, but without the flames (and honestly, hopefully it wasn’t finished yet…). Ted was impressed, and told the guy he would get in for free at all Skambankt concerts from now on. So, whoever wants to get in for free – just get a Skambankt tattoo! *gg*

So, all in all, a terrific concert. The only annoying thing was that in the beginning, there actually were some people shouting for Kaizers. Uhm – hello? Anybody home? *rolleyes* But well.

A great start. And more concerts to come, yeah!

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