Famous venue, rude audience and an OK main act

Árstíðir / Rome – Sticky Fingers, Gothenburg; March 2nd, 2019

Gothenburg was the next to last stop on my “winter into spring and back to winter” – tour with Árstíðir and sadly, it wasn’t really a good one. I have to admit that I only planned this gig, because at that time I did not know they were the support act and I wanted to see the last shows of the tour. When I found out that the main act was a band called “Rome” it was too late and everything was booked already. Thus, I did not have a great feeling about it and it only improved a little when I heard they’d get a full hour to play. With a shorter set than usual the band did their best and performed beautifully, but the audience just sucked, at least where I stood and that largely spoiled my enjoyment of the show.

As usual, I had an early start with a morning flight to Gothenburg that got delayed for two hours. I was in no hurry though and when I finally arrived at my hotel I could not even check in yet. Thus, I went for lunch. Felt like a burger so I opted for Hard Rock Café. Bad idea. In hindsight I think I might have gotten a better burger at Burger King, certainly a cheaper one. 😉 Checked in, rested and left for the venue a bit after 5 pm. The ticket said 19:00 and I assumed that was the start time so doors should open about one hour before that and it was a 20 minute walk. Wrong again, but by the time I found out 7 was the time the doors would open it was already 6:30. Meh. Walked around in circles a lot, froze and desperately wanted a tea. Finally got in and they only had coffee. *sigh*

Settled for a coke, kept my jacket on to get warm and because the stage was rather high and I wanted to take pictures, I opted for a spot at the back, close to the bar. There was also a balcony upstairs, but that was closed and it did not occur to me to ask permission to go up there. A guy in his 20ies struck up a conversation with me. He was nice and stopped hitting on me after he asked my age and realized I was only two ears younger than his mother. 😉 We had a good conversation about music though. 🙂

Eventually a few more people arrived and the venue filled up a bit. Sticky Fingers is quite well know, at least I have seen it on many tour schedules, so I was excited to be there at first. People around me were chatting and drinking and that was fine until the concert started. unfortunately, they did not stop when it did. 🙁 The guys walked out and hardly anyone in the back even paid attention to it. That was the point when I should have juts left m spot and gone to the front, but I was on a mission to take pictures, so I stayed.

The music was a bit louder than usual, so for a while it drowned out the talking. I still found it rude, but I guess that’s what you get when you stay near the bar *eyeroll*. I did my best not to let it bother me and sang along to the songs I loved. And by this point in the tour I loved each one of them. 🙂 Since they only had one hour instead of 90 minutes I assumed they’d play the setlist they did at Nordklang festival. They did pretty much, but switched ‘Passion’ and ‘Shades’.

For the third time this tour I got to see the projections on the screen behind them. It was nice and made for some interesting pictures. It still felt fresh to me, because they had not used it all that much during the tour. They guys played well and at least the people in the front were paying attention and cheering for them between songs. Maybe a few people had come to hear them after all.

WhileI loved seeing the guys I didn’t fully enjoy the concert thanks to all the talkers around me. It reminded me of the gig at Polar Jazz a few years ago and was especially bad during the more quiet songs. When they did not even shut up for ‘Kill Us’ I actually turned around and yelled at them to “Shut up for five seconds” – not that it helped, but at least I tried. The guys noticed too, because they asked for quiet at the start of  the song and Gunnar even talked about the advantage of having high voices that carry far. True that, but they were still hard to hear. Luckily some of the people kept quiet some of the time.

It was notably that Ragnar talked in Swedish most of the night so I had no idea what he was saying. More or less the same as other nights I guess. 😉 Even Daníel tried some Swedish at one point. 🙂 The concert as such was a good one and I was glad I’d decided to come. Got some nice pictures too and in the end I was happy with what I had seen and heard. None of the guys came out to sign things, but I got a chance to hug and talk to a few of them anyway. <3

I was curious to hear Rome now and they were pretty good. I liked the music, but must admit I did not pay much attention to the lyrics. Three was a nice variety of sounds and soon I gave up my spot at the back and move to the front for a while. Somehow did not feel like standing still though and eventually went upstairs to shoot some pictures through the balcony gate. To my surprise, the venue staff let me in. Dang! Wish I’d tried that earlier. There were a few people up there, all quietly listening and I stayed for a while, enjoying the view. Eventually I had enough though and left before the show was over. Said goodbye to Krys on the way and was happy to have my bed waiting for me. One more show to go.

pictures of this concert

Setlist

While this Way
Lover
Ljóð í sand
In the Wake of You
Mute
Þar sem enginn fer
Passion
Kill Us (acoustic)
Like Snow
Friðþægingin
Himinhvel
Things You Said
Shades

Nivalis winter tour: 17 gigs down, 1 to go. Next stop: Stockholm

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