Live: Oasis in Oslo Spektrum

photo from Dresen by Colawarkid

In 1998 i attended the scariest concert of my life. I was quite new to the whole concert thing and somehow ended up about 5 meters from stage on Oasis. I am pretty tall so I usually never get afraid to get lost in the mush pit, but this time I was cought between really tall and really crazy boys that was jumping like maniacs. We managed to get to the side of the crowd and it was better for a while. BUT it was so so so damn loud that my ears started ringing so bad that i couldn't even hear the music any more. We ended up leaving way before the Walrus.

Today it was time to attend my second Oasis concert - ten years later. I ended up right next to the sound guy and that is always good. supposedly it should be the best sound in the whole arena though it's no always so. But this time it was.

I really can't believe that you can go to an Oasis concert and buy seats where you have to sit down. The whole thrill is to jump to songs like "Cigarettes and Alcohol" and "Slide Away". I was a little to prepared about the set list. I have to stop unwrapping the Christmas presents to early or in this case read to many set lists from the current tour before I attend the concert. Lovely blend though between the old and the new though. For me the classics where the greatest because it's during this last ten years that I have loved more and more songs like "supersonic" "Morning Glory" and "Rock'n'roll star". Maybe I am just idealizing my youth ;) Noel kept joking that it had to be several school classes on school trips in the audience cause there were so many young people there. Apparently it's been a long time since they played to such a young audience. Cool though.. recruit them young.. he he

Oasis is also quite fun to watch and you think to yourself "What the *** is Liam doing now" when you watch them. He just stands around a lot, and it's very very cool but also makes you wonder. And his legendary singing pose is always stellar. I was especially happy to hear him sing really well and do all the long tones.. I have been watching some live from the earlier parts of the tour and he seam to have been really struggling. Very happy :)


During "Wonderwall" something very strange happened by the way. Liam for some reason stopped the whole song shouting "just a second... just a second" and strolled of to the side of the stage. I bet he had a chat to the sound guy about something cause something was "too loud" apparently.. Maybe it was us or the drums. Thanks to YouTube though, you can watch it here. What the ''' is he saying?



There are tons of live clips from the concert on YouTube. Just search for "Oslo Oasis 2009" :)

This one of the really great ones and gives you a lot of the atmosphere of the place. "Don't look back in anger" is such a classic.




Some heroes from the teenage years live forever. Some heros even get better when you get older and they have changed half the band to legendary musicians from other dead bands and made a kind of brit-pop super-group. (Yes, Gem and Andy has a very great past). I think they might become the new Rolling Stones and are gonna be around a lot longer and maybe we'll have a second age of brit-pop war now that Blur is back. That would be something, ha? ;)Can't wait til July! Co-coci-choo and yooohooo :)

And as I write the last words of this post I found an interview where Noel talks about doing solo stuff, so great things ahead for sure.

Live: Coldplay

confetti!!!

green laser!

One of two screens and one of 5 balls. The videoscreens where perfect for us at the sides.
The balls was beautifully lit with patters, lights, videos etc.

I am sitting here wondering to myself: "What is it with Coldplay live?"....

In 2003 I saw Coldplay live at the Quart festival in Kristiansand. I had never seen them live, and quite liked their music, so I was a bit excited. I was no huge fan, but a fan. Oh MAN! They blew me away! I was totally Coldplay-hyped for a great time after.

Now 5 years have passed and still remember that the concert was great and still have their albums and like their songs but it was back to ok. They are good, but what's all the fuzz about.. That kind of feeling. By a very lucky furn of events I got to go and see them in Oslo Spectrum tonight. I wasn't even keen enough to sit in line and wait for the tickets when they were first sold, so I wasn't that crazy about it. Since then though I have listened to the new album a lot (as you can tell from this blogg) and I really liked a lot of it. So when my friend called today and asked if I wanted to come, I said: "Yes!! Please!!".

I was feeling like a cold was coming on so I put on practical clothes and thought that I might have to sit down from time to time, so I was actually quite happy when I found out that the tickets where to seats not to stand in front of the stage. I like the new record, but not THAT much, it would be ok to sit.

So we found our seats quite high up and at the side of the stage but the good thing was that the stage was open so we could see all from the side. Excitedly we waited and tried not to fall of the seats and into the great beyond. That is steap.

Anyways, finally they came on. And my oh my.... They started the whole show playing "And den schönen blauen Donau". Just that is quite amazing. And then it all started. Dear lord.. that Chris Martin, he knows how to hold an audience going... Even though I was that far away I could almost feel his presece. He sprints around stage, talks and screams and waves and might be the only man I have ever seen (except Bono maybe) who can make 8000 clapp just by looking at them and stop... "It's nice clapping but stricktly not necissery" I don't know. It's hard to describe. There is some kind of magic. You get sucked into it. I kind of get how people can become cult members. When Chris Marting tells you to sing, you sing! I think this clip from Oslo in 2005 says a lot:



During the whole Quart show, Chris actually spoke only Norwegian. It was amazing. Tonight he just kept talking about how sorry he was for not talking Norwegian, very sweet. His love of Norway at least seams genuine, though you have a sneaking suspision that he might have "other lovers" or rather "a different lover" each night. It just seams like he love the audiences and love being on stage. Even though if he said: "Ah you are the Norweigans, the great singers!".

As the concert progressed on they moved out to an "island" in the middle of the audience and did a techno version kind of thing of "God put a smile upon your face" and "Talk". Then they moved up into the seated audience and played a few songs from there. Chris saying how sorry he is for not being able to play harmonica the way he should. Sounded quite good though. He also actually showed that he is a quite good piano player. He did some wonderful classical stuff between songs.

At the end they showered the audience with confetti and by then we just keeps standing and clapping ans screaming oohohooooooooooo... ohohoooooh (As in Viva La Vida) after doing that for a few minutes Chris returned with Magne Furuholmen of A-ha explaing what a huge A-ha fan they are and Mags played piano while Chris sang. Amazing. The whole concert ended with an amazing version of Yellow. I am really glad they didn't do a lot of the old songs though and did all the more rocked one and a lot of the new ones :) I almost wanted to sing "hoooow long must she wait for iiit" when we reached the refrain of Yellow though. Those two songs must be very similar somehow.

All in all... It was amazing. The lights and show as a whole was also very very great. And the rest of the band was of course amazing to, but they are kind of just being shadowed by mister Martin. Oh, he got a big hole in his pants by the way. "You Norwegians have such nice legs, this could be fatal, you don't want to see our legs, trust me".

Sigh.

Riders

Stuff that Foo Fighters want... Read more on the page

As most of you might know, bands often have a rider that gives the arranger of the concert certain instructions to what the band want them to provide. I love to read that stuff and just found an amazing site with lots of riders of famous bands and artists. I also remember reading somewhere else (I think in Norwegian news papers) that Janet Jackson requested a new toilet that no one had used ever before when she visited Oslo Spektrum a few years beack, now that is a real star. Foo Fighters want stuff like socks, lots of beer and stinky cheese. Anyways, enjoy!!

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/index.html

Musical Memories: Kent

More photos here

My relation to Kent started all the way back in about 1997. I must have heard the single "If you where here /Om du vär her" somewhere and on our class trip to Praha we drove through Sweden. The song somehow summed up the whole feeling of being away from someone you love. I had a long-distance-byfriend at the time, so I really identified with it. On a gass station somewhere in Sweden I bought my first Kent record "Isola". I listened to the cd all the way to Praha and back and was utterly hooked on all the great guitar melodies, the lovely vocal of Jocke and his great lyrics and what I have found out later is that special Kent rhytm. it's the same in all their songs and very very Kent, and makes it good no matter what they do. It's a kind of slow groovy 4/4. Kent later released the album in english and I still can't belive that such a great album can sound that horrible in just another language. No sir, Kent it English does not work at all for me.

In 1999 came Hagnesta Hill with some, if not the, greatest lyrics of Kent. At the same time, I started University and at some point in 2000 I was standing outside the institute of theatre and music and started talking to a girl. In a few minutes we realized that we both loved both Kent and The Wannadies and was utterly thrilled that there were someone else in the world that knew about this great music and loved it at much. This became the foundation of a great friendship that still has a strong flavor of the common love of great music.

I saw Kent for the frist time in this periode somehow... I do not really remember when, and in might even have been later. I was just a few meters awway from the stage and it was great. Mew also did the warm-ups so we also discovered another great rock-band that night. Ah,.. I found it now... May 2002. I also saw them again the same summer when I was at the Quart festival. This turned out to be the greatest year so far when it comes to sucess for Kent in Norway. In October 2002 they actually played the biggst stage in Oslo , Spektrum, for 8000 people. At this time the hype started to kill my Kent-feeling, because half of the people there was just there to sing along with the monster-hits from the album that was released that year "Vapen & Ammunition". I was quite happy when they said "Let's play some old rock'n'roll" and did the song " Kräm". Then you could see all the "new-comers" get shocked and all of us "oldies" jumping violently.

Here is Kräm (it's still one of my favorite songs):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py9c079V3Dg

That whole hype of 2002 killed my Kent interesst for some time. I just couldn't help it. I know it's very stuck up and posh and anything to not like things when they are to hyped, but I am just like that. When people has to many opinions on what I should think of a certain song or band or cd I can't listen to it... I just have to wait...

So ... I haven't actually really listened to the two latest Kent Albums... The fact that one of the bands to guitarplayers left the band also contributed to me not wanna listen to them because I have always love the guitars of Kent so.. It has been a bit sad, but I just couldn't. About a few weeks ago though my friend sendt me a great link. It was a summer calender of Kent clips from their new studio, so I had to watch, and the more I watch them I realize that I have missed them, so now I think it's about time to really dig into those two last albums that I haven't really listened to.... I think it might be time now to refind old long lost love... hehe ;)


Om du var här (with english subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAKCjZ4AkM

Vinter 02 (One of the greatest music videoes and greatest guitar-tunes of all time): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uYa8gWs2rE

Kärleken väntar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veew6nzWDCU


Kents channel on YouTube where you can see and listen to a lot about them :
http://www.youtube.com/kentchannel

Kent's official homepage : http://www.kent.nu/