The atmosphere is electric, just like before an intense summer storm is about to unleash its forces upon the dusty, hot nature.
People are gathering fast, the concert was sold out many days before and Kilden is ready to host another incredible event.
The audience knows, they know they will be carried away by brilliant musicians, far away from trivial problems and existential issues. They expect with little electric frizzles on the top of their fingers the opening of the concert: Kaizers Orchestra is, once again, in Kristiansand.
Rhythms from some old forgotten village in the Balkans are filling the air with sweet anticipation. I look at the scene and I can see all those small details that make it more like a theatrical décor: the old tube radio, a lamp brought back from immemorial times, red curtains and small visual flashbacks from times when Gatsby and his times were in vogue.
The piano player with his well-known gas mask walks on the stage and looks around confused while caring a vintage looking suitcase. It was like he had some business to do in the abandoned buildings of Chernobyl. The other members of the band join him shortly in an avalanche of lights and music.
The show starts and I have changed my mind: this is not just a concert, this is an amazing spectacle of lights and sounds and visual moments. I feel all my senses stimulated in an incredible harmony and I can feel the tension raising fast in the whole room.
The music is bizarre, a bit surrealistic even, but you can see the audience singing along with the band, becoming a beautiful voice that completes the whole play, an audience that breathes the same rhythms and vibrates in the same tone. Dancing!
The songs roll one after the other one and each has a special flavor to it. This is, in my opinion, a great feature for a band: diversity. Being able to reach a large area of styles and being able to do that with the same talent and charisma. This is the case for Kaizers Orchestra. Tango, polka, jazz, gypsy rhythms, circus music and even Iron Maiden guitar duets.
The concert starts around 19.30 and ends 2 hours later. An incredible performance that has everything: good music, step dancing, barrel-hitting, dialogues with the audience, great light shows and a publicum that was left with a great feeling, like we just participated in something that was slightly bigger than us, taken individually.
The performance was a delight, it was brave and eccentric, exaggerated and imperfect, with a band that will soon take a break and enjoy the small pleasures in life but a band that has left behind 10 years since birth and 8 colorful and spicy albums.
Until we shall hear from them again:
Drown your sorrow in a bucket of water
and fold your hands as hard as you can
The entire ocean rises and looks towards the land
and towards you and your castle of sand .
- when? April 11th
- where? Kilden
- what? Kaizers Orchestra concert
Text: Erika Erdos – red@unikumnett.no
Photo: Martin Hagen Aakre – red@unikumnett.no
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