Great Live: Phoenix Live. 30 Days Ago

Great live, indeed.

Sometimes one can be extremely lucky when it comes to buying records. In around 2006 I had this kind of look. I was a avid Phoenix fan all ready and outside a record shop, in the very cheep cd-s section; about 300 copies of a Phoenix live album that I hadn't even heard about. Price: 20 kr (About 2£). Of course I bought it, thinking that it had to be quite good, since it's a good band and after all it only costed 20 kr.
I went home, put it into my CD player and by golly! Firstly, a few of the songs are recorded in Oslo at Rockefeller, secondly it has turned out to be probably my favourite live albums of all time. It is tight, entertaining, and brilliant and you can feel the intensity of the crowd and what an amazing experience and energy the band is sending out. Makes me want to headband next to the stereo. They are playing, and it's beautiful. I saw them live a few years later, and it was exactly as brilliant if not even greater. Class, first-class.

Listen to it on Spotify

Live: Phoenix, Rockefeller, Oslo

I suppose I should not be shocked, but I really am. I expected to wake up this morning with reviews in papers, videos on YouTube or at least one photo somewhere, but none! It's like no one went to see Phoenix last night. But I did, and I know about 1000 others did to. I know people took photos, and I would have too, but I wisely positioned myself in the back after reading a big poster with "This concert will contain strobe lights!!" as I entered the venue. I haven't really had any problem with strobe lights for a lot of years, but the two times I passed out from them in the late 90's are still fresh in my mind :) And yepp, there were strobe lights for sure in this one. I was fine though..

ANYWAYS.. back to the concert. If it hadn't been for the Blur concert in Hyde Park this summer. (I am not sure anything will ever top that), this would have been the concert of the year for me for sure. Part of it can of course be due to the fact that I have wanted to see Phoenix for 5 years now, but it was all I expected. They started off the show with "Lizstomania" and "Long distance call". Very wise moves. We were all putty in their hands by then. What I like about Phoenix and have always thought was what makes their distinct sound is elegance. I mean these people grew up in the same city as the worlds most elaborate and luxury castle was ever built, Versailles. Some of the has to have rubbed off on them over the years. There is no mistakes in Phoneix music. The arrangements are amazing, every musician plays like it's the last night of his life playing, and behind it all this elegant little touch that I think must be french. I have no other description for it. It doesn't even matter that Thomas Mars (vocals) as usual in his blue shirt, have a slight little french accent. It just makes it better and more distinct. The music hits you like a wall of excitement, joy and bliss, before they stop for a perfect second and than goes straight back onto it. Amazing stuff. A statement more than anything is that I that was in the total back clinging to a bar disk and jumping up every now and them to catch a glimpse felt the excitement to the very last nerve. Of course I know the music and so on too, but I was not the only one that felt that way. I am sure.

Oh, yes, and Noah and the Whale did warm ups! It was very very good too. The same perfect balance between quiet and loud and made you just flow away at times

By the time we came to the encore the whole audience were more or less grooving around. Strobe light, yes, but man so many other good light effects too. At one point the light flashes in red stripes over the scene, the next light flows slowly out in a cable that is wired around the edges of all the amplifiers. Beautiful and powerful.

I had read the setlists from the former concerts this tour, because I was so curious, and I had noted to my delight that they played almost all my favorite songs, and they did :) "Funky Square Dance", "Consolation prizes" and "Napoleon says". In the former set lists I had seen that they usually have played two songs as encore, but this concert must have been as special as I thought. They did 5 encore songs including two great acoustic versions of "Everything is Everything" and "Love for Granted". At the end they just kept playing "1901" and it all ended up with about 40 audience members rocking along on stage. It's been a long time since I have felt such joy in one place :) Sigh, it was a good concert. I have a feeling we will see them on a bigger stage the next time :)

The soundtrack of this blog has been this clip from P3-sessions about 5 years ago. It gives you a bit of the energy of them: http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/45821 Yepp there are a lot of clapping at Phoenix concerts :) hehe And they have only gotten better since then.

Here is Mr Mars running around in the audience in Stockholm. I think he did that in Oslo too :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93OrBFnoN_E


Here is a good one from New York this summer that really gives you a feel of the atmosphere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2HCf_CLMl0

Live: Travis at Rockefeller, Oslo

Photos by stormy at http://www.travisonline.com

So, here we go again, me and Travis. Just as I walked out from Rockefeller last night I realized that I now have seen Travis 7 times in 6 different venues. It must be only in Norway and in UK that you can have done that. As I am sure all of you have realized by now, the story of Helene and Travis go back quite far. I am not sure if they know that I exist and to be quite honest, I kind of like that. Well, I always tend to be out of the heap of people that jump around and instead jump around at the side like a freak among people standing still, so maybe... hehe.. During Turn last night I did a quite psycho "bend-back-and-the-throw-my-arms-forward" and I am quite mr Dunlup cought that one..

Anyways,.. I got to Rockefeller around 8.30 and my friend was passing outside and said they just passed her. For me and her it was just so great to be back at Rockefeller together and to see a band that we also have such good memories of seeing together. The highlight was when it started raining during "Why does it always rain on me". That was an amazing moment for anyone I think. But Rockefeller is Rockefeller. It's a quite small venue and quite intimate, so the concerts there are NEVER bad. I just love the place. So great memories and such a great atmosphere.

To our slight surprise, the place was not full. We knew that the concert wasn't sold out and we spent some time there thinking "why, people must be crazy to don't see this". We took our places at the right side, the Andy-side. This time it was quite randomly, but as a guitarist I love to see what he does and also there is a chance that great things might happen during "All I wanna do is rock", like stage diving, climbing and whatever he feels like.

The concert started up with lots of new songs from the new album and they were just amazing live... And as I listen to them now, they of course sound even better having seen them live. I haven't seen the boys so filled with energy for years... Everything was just flowing and there were extrem amounts of jumping, running, hugging during songs and smiling up there. I ended up at about the 5th row so really really close and me and my friend kept laughing about Dougie. He just stands there beaming at the audience and it kind of feels like he sees you everytime... hehe.

During "Love will come through" it really started to get crazy. Fran ordered everyone to be a metronome with swinging their hands back and forth, before he song and we kept it going. I think he was a bit surpised, because in the middle of the song he said something like it must be hurting our arms and said we could just move from side to side instead. So we did, but of course raised our hands again a little later. We can take that pain for such a great band.

Around this time Fran told a very cute story about his son Clay. Last time in Norway he had brought back a bottle of Norwegian bottled water. Clay was somehow totally crazy for this water and called it Norway water. So when his father had asked him earlier that day what he wanted from Norway, the answer was "NORWAY WATER". It turned out that the backstage had a whole fridge of Imsdal Norwegian Water, so you can imagine Clays reaction to a whole fridge of Norway water. Apparently he almost lost his marbles.. hehe

"Sing" and "Side" was great as always and "Side" even had an extra long and rocky solo amazing. Then came "Falling Down" and Fran jumped into the audience and song the whole song from there. That basically meant that he was gone in the middle of the crowd duing the whole song as there is no way he can be taller than Norwegians. But a beautiful stunt and gave the whole song a lot of extra feeling. (see photo above, thanks to "stormy" on the Travis homepage, he was clooser than me.:)

Then there was time for the legendary U16 girls, and I jumped around like a crazy person and you could see who had been Travis fans for a long time and not.

At the end of the set it was time for "All I wanna do is rock" and it was amazing as always. Andy did the climb this time and I can not understand how he don't break bones or fall down. Great showmanship... hehehe. "Before you where young" was amazing.. It was something really passionate about it that really got to me.. And Turn (one of my favorites, and maybe the lyrics that has ment to much to me) I was basically going totally crazy.

After that it was time for a little break. I was getting tiered and I can only imagine how the boys felt. Exspecially Dougie in a very very cool-looking, but must be very hot coat.
Fran and Andy emerged back on stage and did the dumbfoundingly good cover of Kate Perrys, "I kissed a girl" where they even shared a mic just to make fun of the lyrics. That guitarriff makes the song so so much better. I have to sit down and learn that. I have done great success with Hit me baby for a few years now ;)

The concert ended in familiar fashion. All the boys linded up with the arms around each other at the front of the stage and did "Flowers in the window" and it's always quite cute. I realized that Neil had really big problems hiting the tambourine at the right places.. hmm.. ;)

The whole thing ended, not surprisingly with "Why does it always rain on me?". And we even did the jump to the whole last courus thing with Fran ordering everyone to stand up... Very good, as I can't belive how people can sit on a concert like that.

I went home beaming, bought a bottle of Norway water on the way and was really happy with a heart filled with THANK YOU.

It's hard to descirbe.. I can write words as amazing, good feeling, very electric performance, but it's one of thoose events that your really had to be there, so make sure you are next time won't you. To me, it seams that they are just getting better and better.. They seam more and more sure of themselves, and as for me, I hope for more rock albums and that they keep going a lot longer.

And oh, I have from a reliable source that Neils timing was due to severe drunkeness and that he wasn't the only one.. hehe... Well, that kind of just makes it better in a way.. I mean.. All I wanna do is rock ;)

Great songs & great live: U16 girls - Travis

On Monday I am going off to see one of my favorite bands Travis again. This time I am so lucky as to see them on a really small stage (but very legendary) stage in Oslo: Rockefeller. It should be an unforgetable experience as it's very intimate and they are amazing live. To celebrate this joyful event and to bring out more Travis fans, since there are still tickets left, I give you the legendary "U16 girls" from a live show in 2001 where Travis played live in their hometown Glasgow. Must be the peak of the career so far. I love the how direct the lyrics are, though they have been joking the last years that they think it's a bit weird to sing about that underage girls now that their are so much older... hehe.. It's that kind of song that makes you jump up and down and sing along... A great rock song and I am glad they are back to a bit more rock songs at their last album and back to their roots somehow and the days when they warmed up for Oasis. Here you go.

I met a girl in l a
The million dollar kind
She was all for all or nothing
She was open all the time
But when I called her number
Her mothers on the line sayin
Youve no business
As gods my witness
With a child as young as mine
So make sure that shes old enough
Before you blow your mind
She may look like she knows enough
But look in her eye
And if so
Let her go
Youll let her down in style
I met a girl in paris
She talked like vera lynn
And her eyes were full of dew drop
The moment I walked in
She was awfully nice
The kind that likes to win
But if Id been wiser
A whole lot wiser
Then I might have thought again
Chorus
Chorus