A Slow Ride with the Kaizers
Yesterday on a cold but sunny afternoon I almost spontaneously (heard about it the night before) went to a Kaizers Orchestra gig at Nytorv in relation to the upcoming national fund-raising show for Africa. A lot of bands have been playing, but Kaizers were the only band of relevance to me. The gig took place outside at a stage set up under a pavilion and was also a project by the people behind Roskilde Festival.
Kaizers Orchestra is a band that has been with me for a really long time and even though I often forget to play their records, their songs never stop being catchy, clever and impeccably unique, when I do. I must admit that I did not fall head over heels in love with their (totally decent, by the way!) recent albums, Maestro and Maskineri, in the same wasy as I did with the first to releases, Ompa til du dør og Evig pint and that their even newer records, Våre demoner and the soon-to-hit-the-stores album Violeta, Violeta Vol 1's existence until this day were completely unknown to me . I see I have some catching up to do with this band!
However. As great as their records may be, Kaizers always were and always will be a live band to me. Live is where they start the party, make you dance with strangers and sing songs about wounded soldiers and the KGB on the top of your lungs. My memories of Kaizers are my very young self bursting out of Vega, packed with happy concert goers, soaked in sweat and water, running around the streets of Vesterbro, drunk and happy with my friends. For a long time a yearly concert with Kaizers at Vega was as natural to me as coffee is with my cake. Just look at their entry in my gig list:
Live - A list by Flue
Kaizers Orchestra:
09/09-04 Vega
05/10-05 Vega
30/06-06 Orange Scene (roskilde festival)
07/12-06 Vega
18/04-08 Vega
Well. Now it's time for another entry on my list. Yesterday's concert was very different from my previous Kaizers experiences. The show was short (half an hour), acoustic and with only Janove (lead singer and yesterday piano as well) and Øyvind (bass) strutting their stuff. It worked well, although Geir- the band's adorable squirrel-like guitarist - was dearly missed. The set consisted mostly of more quiet, or quiet versions of-, songs from their catalogue.
It was obvious that the crowd on this not-so-warm January day outside in Copenhagen may have wished for some more dance friendly songs, but I actually liked to see the band in this more stripped-down version and they seemed very peaceful and happy to be there, Janove joking around with the crowd about the freezing weather: - In norway we don't say "cold", we just call it "fresh".
Janove had also taken the time to fix his the dreadful emo hairdo he sported last time I saw him for a fitting short mohawky do with flattering dashes of grizzled hair in the sideburn area. Yay for a grown-up Janove, reborn as the sex symbol he was always meant to be!
This is what it looked like! I am sorry for the very short clip - my friend on Facebook has an entire track recorded, but it being a facebook video I can not import it here :c
All in all a really nice and chilled out show to start the day off with. But the set was too short, man. An awaiting plane kept the band from doing an encore and even though it was a charity concert meant to be short, I expected them to keep the fire going for longer than that.
However! I am not too down on this, after all. The Kaizers are coming back! My boyfriend got me and him tickets for a Kaizers gig at Vega later this year. More specifically on the 9th of March. Several of my friends are going as well and I expect nothing less than a nostalgic acid trip down memory lane! I think there might yet be tickets for sale, so go treat yourself to one and stay tuned for my review of Kaizers as you usually get them: Out of control and nothing like your average gypsy punk band!
Here are a few of my favourite Kaizers Orchestra songs:
I wished they'd played this yesterday!
Kaizers Orchestra live @ Nytorv, 27/01-11
