Árstíðir – Schloss Landestrot, Neustadt am Rübenberge; September 13th, 2013
This concert was listed as taking place in Hannover on Árstíðir’s homepage, but actually Neustadt am Rübenberge is abot 30 km outside the city, near the Steinhuder Meer. Seeing them play in a castle sounded good though and I was looking forward to my 3rd concert on this tour, especially because I would not have to go back to worjk the following morning.
The day had started in Hamburg with too little sleep and an early taxi ride to the train station, work and back on the road again. Of course my trains were late and I arrived at the hotel with about 1 hour to spare before the doors open. Tired, hungry and in bad need of a shower I quickly said hello to my friend B. before getting ready. While waiting for her I talked to the receptionist and learned that the guys were staying at the same hotel, but had not arrived yet. The things you learn…
We left, grabbed a quick bite to eat and arrived before the doors opened. A guestlist was not in place, but we bumped into Karl so he took care of things for me. <3 We had drinks and walked a little in the garden, ran into Ragnar who asked me if I could film one song for him. Sure thing. 🙂 We got nice front row spots, but I was standing up mostly to take pictures.
For B. this was the first concert since Rudolstadt and she had not sen Myrra live yet. The place filled quickly, including many people with Pain of Salvation T-Shirts. It was a nice venue with great lights and lots of space on stage. As soon as Myrra started, we found out the sound was good as well. It was going to be a nice night.
Every night I enjoy her songs a little more and every night I remember a little more of the lyrics. There is something enchanting about Myrra’s clear and strong voice filling the room. I find it hard to not be drawn right into the music. As with Árstíðir he makes me wish I understood Icelandic to be able to follow all of her lyrics. As it is, I can only enjoy the sound of some of them and try to imagine what they may be about. She joked about the night wolf from the title song of her album being a fairy tale creature in the fairy tale Icelandic woods. 🙂 She won over a few hearts that night and B. liked it so much she went and bought the album during the break.
The guys, Linda and Masha were in a great mood, telling me how amazing the catering was and how they liked the venue. I agreed to the latter, it suited them well and there even was a grand piano – a Steinway, no less. Jón was certainly happy about that. Everyone enjoyed the great sound and the attentive audience. It felt as if they played an exceptionally good show just because of the surroundings. All songs were just right.
I love how they mix up the setlist every time. Even if they eep the same songs the order slightly changes and it never gets boring. Having most of the English songs in there makes me happy too – once in a while I do like to understand something. 🙂 Ragnar had told me ‘Land mins föður’ was my cue – the last song before ‘Nú gleymist ég’. Thus, when he started announcing the song that was once voted the Icelandic national anthem and then didn’t become it, I got ready, only to find out he was wrong. What followed was some joking about their modern setlist on a iPad that not all of them could read. When Ragnar realized he was wrong he laughed and told us “Forget everything I just said.” and asked Jón to tell the story of ‘Heyr himna smiður’.
After ‘You just have to know of me’ things were back on track and I got ready again. Filmed the song, but felt it was a complete failure, because I didn’t quite manage to move quickly enough and the song ended before I had reached the other side of the stage. Oh well, worth a try. For ‘Shades’ and ‘Tárin’ I sat down to listen. The audience didn’t manage to keep still after ‘Shades’ though. We got two encores. No ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’ this time, but that was OK too. ‘And so it goes’ is a nice song to end things. 🙂
Setlist (possibly out of order)
Sunday Morning
Heiðin
Á meðan jörðin sefur
þér ég unni
Lost in you
Orð að eigin vali
Day and Nights
Við dagsins hnig
Heyr himna smiður
You just have to know of me
Land mins föður
Nú gleymist ég
Shades/Tárin
Til hennar
And so it goes
Outside was the usual bunch of people wanting to chat and get CDs signed. I stayed in the back and when most people left had a nice chat with Jón, afetr showing him my tattoo. He pretty much thought it’s crazy so I told him he’s in good company. When everyone else had left he told B. and me to just go backstage while he returned to the piano and played a little more before packing his stuff. Thus we sat there with a cup of tea, quietly talking and watching the guys get ready to leave. We accompanied them to their car and joked about racing back to the hotel. They beat us by a mile though, we could not walk fast enough. 😀 My night ended with a chat and bubbly wine in B.’s room before we both went to bed.
Árstíðir Germany tour fall 2013 – 3 concerts down, 7 to go. Next stop: Esslingen