Árstíðir – Hard Rock Cafe, Reykjavík; October 18th, 2019
Seven years on the road, nearly 200 concerts, living through many changes and I still can’t get enough of Árstíðir. Granted, it hasn’t always been easy – for either of us, but despite the sometimes bumpy roller coaster ride, the good memories remain and one day, when they guys are as old and grey as I sometimes already feel, we’ll hopefully be sharing stories of the good times we had. Their recent concert in Reykjvavík was one of those good times. It was absolutely everything I had hoped for and filled my heart with joy. This was exactly the kind of concert I keep coming back for time and time again. <3
Árstíðir’s first album is still very close to my heart, not only because it has one of my all time favorite songs on it, but also because I love the unpolished sound of the band in its infancy, before I’d even heard about them, before they knew where they were going with all this and before all the adventures we shared. It has a sort of playful innocence about it that is no longer present on the later releases and that gives it a very special charm. Thus, it really made me happy when they announced a concert to celebrate the album’s 10th anniversary, especially because they promised to play all the songs in order and there were two I had never heard live. The announcement also left my slightly anxious, because the Nivalis release show had been such a disappointment for me. They had picked a different venue though and I trusted them to make it right.
I was supposed to land in Reykjavík on show day, but then the band moved the date and I was just happy that I had not booked my flight back for the following day. In the end it made the entire trip very relaxing because I arrived in the morning and had all day to explore and enjoy the perfect weather. Checked in to my hotel, relaxed a bit, had food and met up with C. in the early afternoon, which turned into evening and from a long walk to a movie. We had a great day and I got a good night’s sleep to boot.
The day of the show was just as relaxed and we met up at the venue around 8, an hour before the doors opened, had a drink, stood in line and easily scored a spot at the front. I said a quick hello to Gunnar and Ragnar before the show. Some people asked to be seated and the venue actually pulled out a bunch of chairs so we got to sit down as well – fine with me. 🙂 It wasn’t what either of us had expected, but we could not remain standing while everyone behind us was seated now, could we? It fit with the music we were about to hear and made the whole thing more relaxing than I’d thought it would be.
It was supposed to start at 10 pm and by Icelandic standards they started early when they stepped onto the stage only ten minutes after the scheduled time. 😉 They had invited Guillaume and Jean-Samuel for this concert so it was the tour formation of the band. Without further ado or introduction they started with playing ‘Ages’. The sound was perfect and everything was beautiful right from the start. It made me so happy. Then Gunnar said a few things, but he was speaking Icelandic so I did not get all of it. He definitely said that this was an anniversary concert for their first album. Then he spoke about ‘Heiðin’, probably telling the story of how that one had been written. For a while I had felt they were playing that song too much, but right then and there, in the original context and album order, it was simply wonderful. I especially loved the strings, even though there was never a violin on the original recording. It really moved me and my smile grew even bigger.
Gunnar introduced Jean-Samuel and Guillaume then discussed with Daníel, which I think was about not having played the next song since their CD release concert for the album. They were also speaking about guitars. I remember them telling me that the guitar needs different tuning for ‘Distance’ so it might have been about that. It was indeed the first time I heard that song live. 🙂 Finally Daníel asked how many English speakers were in the room and after a few of us raised our hands he continued in English, mentioning how these songs are innocent and it was before they had a record label and just wrote for fun, so it felt different and was just enjoyable to go back to, while these days it felt more like a job. “Not a bad one,” Gunnar added and pointing out that their lives might be weird, but also great. He then told us about being in a car together when the radio station announced that ‘Sunday Morning’ was number one in the charts and their reaction to it. The song was gorgeous – it will always have a special place in my heart. <3
‘Látum okkur sjá’ followed and reminded me of many good tour moments. Sometimes I forget just how much I love their first album. This concert was a good reminder. They gathered around the double microphone in the center and switched back to speaking Icelandic, then said they were going to do ‘Kill us’ the way it was recorded, so no extra strings, just three guys gathered around a microphone with their guitars. Awesome! The band stayed, playing their cover of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s ‘Helplessly Hoping’, ‘Með hallandi höfði’. I loved it. Strings were back for ‘You just have to know of me’ with a great intro. It is also one of those songs I never grow tired of and I sighed happily. What a great night this was.
The album contains another song I had never heard live, ‘Vonarneisti’. Daníel explained that they had not played that one since the release concert and that it is actually a cover song from a movie. It is so good, why do they never play this? ‘Næturylur’ followed. It used to be in English and called ‘Struggle’. That was a new piece of information to me. I love this little tidbits. 🙂 After that, Gunnar wanted to know if we needed a break already. It didn’t make sense to me, because there was only one song left of the album, if the longest song. Ragnar joked that the second set was going to be “best of a-ha”. In the end we all decided to finish of the album first so to speak. ‘Siðasta Kveðjan’ was as gorgeous as it always is. It always makes me happy when they put it on the setlist and I’d been looking forward to hearing it that night. I had the feeling Gunnar was a bit nervous about it, because he’d screwed it up a few times. It all went fine though and got stuck in my head during the break. I love all the drama and changes in it and still think it is one of the best songs they have ever written. <3
Now we had a little time until the second set to get drinks and stuff. Funnily enough their own music was played during the break. They were back on stage soon, starting with ‘Ljóð í sand’, another one of those songs that felt a bit overplayed at times, but was just perfect that night. From there we moved on to the newer albums with ‘Things you said’. The sound was still great, which made me happy and everyone else was enjoying it too, judging by the cheering. From then on, they jumped right into Nivalis with ‘Þar sem enginn fer’ – hell yes! 😀 It has some of the same dramatic elements that I love in ‘Siðasta Kveðjan’, yet is so very different.
Next up was ‘While this way’, one of my all time favorites. I got so emotional I had to remind myself to breathe, singing along with all of my heart. Ragnar talked about their latest album a bit and mentioned the independent music award they had won for Nivalis. ‘Lover’ followed, another song I love very much. Gunnar talked about Toppstöðin, so I am guessing it was about the video they had just made the previous day for ‘Passion’, which was the next song they played – great! Then, they had already reached the end of their set and thanked us for coming. The last song was of course the always brilliant ‘Shades’.
We cheered and clapped them back to the stage and all five of them gathered around the microphone for ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’, with Gunnar pointing out that the French guys can sing Icelandic too. Yes they can! Finally, they gave us ‘Nú gleymist ég’ as well and for me the concert could not have ended any better. It is another favorite of mine. Once again they thanked us and their string players before they launched into the song. With that it was over, no matter how much we cheered and they got a well deserved a break and a drink then.
I stuck around for hugs and goodbyes, telling everyone how much I had loved it. It was so worth the trip to Reykjavik. Hopefully we can repeat something similar for ‘Svefns og vöku skil’ in a few years. 🙂
Setlist
Ages
Heiðin
Distance
Sunday Morning
Látum okkur sjá
Kill us
Með hallandi höfði
You just have to know of me
Vonarneisti
Næturylur
Siðasta Kveðjan
Ljóð í sand
Things you said
Þar sem enginn fer
While this Way
Lover
Passion
Shades
Góða veislu gjöra skal
Nú gleymist ég