Árstíðir – Auster Club, Berlin; April 26th, 2016
The last time Árstíðir had played in Berlin I could not go and sent K. instead. She had liked it and came back this time around. Of course I had to go too and even dragged A. along as well. Everything was a bit hectic, since I went there straight from work, but as usual the Berlin audience arrived late and despite the small stage I easily got a spot in front row. A. chose to stay further back and enjoy the concert seated on a couch. It was a fun show with the guys in a great mood and the audience loving it. The venue was small, but nice and had a good sound guy.
Shortly after arrival I met T., O. and L. from Prague and we chatted a bit. Chatted with A. and K. as well, passing the time until the show started. To get to stage, Kyle had to walk through the audience and warned us that some people might be coming through to join him later: “They are not trying to take your place.” Already with the second song, Karl joined him and soon the rest of Árstíðir did. I was lovely.
Kyle joked how he made Karl learn some of his songs and generally chatted a lot. He always makes me laugh and he can always make me feel better. Listening to him is just thoroughly enjoyable. The rest of the audience seemed to agree and cheered him on. He played a shorter set this time, but a powerful one. Still, I would have liked hearing more.
Setlist:
Blurry
Minnesota Part 1
Occupy Anchorage
Fools rush in
Vancouver
After a short break the guys had to squeeze past us again to get back on stage and Guillaume had a bit of trouble getting past me (read: I stood in the way) – eventually he managed though. 😉 They started with ‘Someone who cares’ again and not the usual ‘Himinhvel’ and I immediately loved the sound – it was just as good as it had been for Kyle and much better than I would have expected from a small basement venue like this.
Before ‘Sunday Morning’ Gunnar told the story of his neighbor who was crying endlessly and could be heard through the walls. She does not know he wrote a song about her though. Despite the sadness the song talks about it will always be a song of hope for me. It felt like all of my favorite songs were great that night. ‘Þér ég unni’ was really beautiful and among the best renditions I have heard, ‘Nú gleymist ég’ was as powerful as ever.
Before ‘Shine’ Ragnar explained about how he thought it might be traveling to space and having to “”ay goodbye to everything: friends, nature, local German beer”. It made me smile, because there had been one concert where the order wasn’t quite like that and the beer mentioned first. 😀 After that Daníel told us about everything going wrong on the US tour and being stuck in Toronto while Karl and Kyle prepared a show together. That was supposed to be Kyle’S cue, but he didn’t show up and Karl led us in calling out for him: “Kyle Woolard, wher are you”. They started ‘Systir’, but when Kyle appeared they stopped it and played ‘Ljoð í sand’.
Before ‘Moonlight’ Gunnar mentioned the abandoned power plant they use for rehearsals and said that in the song “you can hear that it was cold, dark and the moon was shining”. ‘Shades’ and ‘Silfurskin’ made me happy as they always do and ‘Himinhvel’ paired with ‘Things you said’ brought the show to a close. It was short but powerful and of course they came back for an encore which they sang amongst the audience. 🙂
I spent quite some time chatting with them after until they packed up and left. Goodnight, see you tomorrow!
Setlist:
Someone who cares
Við dagsins hnig
Sunday Morning
Þér ég unni
Á meðan jörðin sjefur
Nú gleymist ég
Shine
Ljoð í sand
Moonlight
You again
Shades
Silfurskin
Himinhvel
Things you said
Góða veislu gjöra skal
Árstíðir spring tour: 8 concerts down, 12 to go, next stop: Bordesholm