Árstíðir – Kirchenruine Wachau, Markkleeberg; May 1st 2022
The concert near Leipzig brought us to the most beautiful venue on the tour, an old church ruin and Árstíðir made great use of the acoustics with a slightly different setlist. It was the perfect concert for the sunny day and I enjoyed it very much.
It was a long trip to Leipzig and I had to start early, from different train station than the one I had arrived at. Luckily the bus that took me there stopped right outside my hotel and the whole trip went smoothly. I made it to Leipzig, picked up some postcards at the train station and took a taxi to my hotel. just on the outskirts of Leipzig. It was and open air show and therefore started rather early. Still, I had time to spare when I arrived and even managed to play some ukulele before I went to the venue for the gig. Met C. when I got there and sat with the guys for a while before they retreated. I even showed Ragnar and Gunnar a video of me playing ‘Sunday Morning’ on ukulele and thy liked it.
The venue was a beautiful church ruin without a roof and the light shining in from all sides. Slowly it filled up and shortly before showstart, L. arrived. I had not seen her in years. She brought her boyfriend I., who knew C. funnily enough. Small world. We caught up briefly before it was time for Platon Karataev.
After Bratislava they looked a bit lost for a moment on the much bigger stage. Just as they got ready to play, the bells of the church clock rang out the time – it was very fitting. They started with ‘Csak befelé’ as usual and their harmony singing sounded amazing in this place. I had been wondering if their rockier sounds would fit, but everything sounded great. The old church just had good acoustics.
As usual, I liked ‘Aphelion’ best. That song just draws me in. Otherwise, I like the Hungarian songs just as much as the English ones and love hearing and seeing the band perform. This concert was no exception. I had hoped they might adopt their setlist a little and maybe play more slower songs, but they didn’t and that was OK. I definitely enjoyed everything they played. 🙂
Setlist
Csak befelé
Valaki Jár A Fák Hegyén
Partért kiáltó
Elmerül
Aphlion
Atoms
Wide Eyes
Tágul / Ex Nihilo
Vízből van
VHK
Ocean
Wolf Throats
I spent the break between bands chatting with my friends and soon we were ready for Árstíðir. They started with ‘Ísland farsældafrón’ and it was perfect for the surroundings. Ragnar greeted us and said they played that one to check out the acoustics and there might be more of that sort. First it was time for ‘While this Way’ though and I loved how it sounded. I had great expectations of the venue and they were all fulfilled. There was less reverb than expected, because the church didn’t have a roof, but it as still great.
They continued with ‘Things you said’ and went straight into ‘Ljóð i sand’ after, apparently not feeling very talkative. The audience loved the music and cheered loudly after each song. Gunnar told us about the two albums they wrote during the pandemic and how good it felt to be back in front of an audience. ‘Hvenær kemur sól’ was beautiful, followed directly by the amazing ‘Týndur’. These two really make a good combination. Ragnar explained how this was the first album with only Icelandic lyrics and how they write different song sand channel different emotions when they write in Icelandic. To proof the point of these songs being heavier, they played ‘Endatafl’. In the end the choir of “oooohoooo” rang out through the church, with me and C. singing along.❤️
Next they all gathered around the double mic to make more use of the church acoustics. We learned that the church had a resident falcon that had already interrupted them during rehearsals, singing in D# while the next song was in a different key. It was ‘Heyr, himna smiður’ and could not have been any better. 🙂 Of course we wanted to hear ‘Glitsky’ and not ‘All is well’ next – gorgeous. ‘Kill us’ was brilliant of course.
Ragnar did a small poll, asking who had seen them before and who spoke Icelandic – there were even a few hands raised for the second question so he told us we should as them what the lyrics to the next song are about. It was ‘Þar sem enginn fer’ and just before they started the church bells rang again so Gunnar explained the song while we waited. I loved it and loved ‘Bringing back the Feel’ even more. If the rest of ‘Blik’ is anywhere near the perfection of this song it is going to be absolutely amazing. ❤️
Just so we would not think they are a feel good-band, they followed that with ‘Lifsins Pendúll’. I liked the new order of songs, it was better than having all the heavy ones next to each other. Daníel introduced it as being “about the afterlife”. Despite being so dramatic, it always leaves me happy. 🙂 Now there was only one song left and I could not believe we were there already. ‘Shades’ was amazing of course.
We soon cheered them back to the stage and before ‘Heiðin’ Gunnar talked about the long break being difficult and thanked us for making it easier. Before his speech could get too dramatic, Guillaume, Jean-Samuel and Ragnar improvised some music over it. 😀 The song was lovely and they did not lave us with only one encore, but stepped into the audience to sings ‘And so it goes’. Funnily enough Guillaume started with ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’ first, but that was the final encore. I loved having ‘And so it goes’ back – their version is absolute perfection. ❤️
Afterwards we chatted a bit and I told them everything I had enjoyed about the concert. C. and I talked with Ragnar about his upcoming solo tour and I did some more catching up with L. before it was time to say goodbye.
Setlist
Ísland farsældafrón
While this way
Things you said
Ljóð i sand
Hvenær kemur sól
Týndur
Endatafl
Heyr, himna smiður
Glitsky
Kill us
Þar sem enginn fer
Bringing back the Feel
Lifsins Pendúll
Shades
Heiðin
And so it goes
Góða veislu gjöra skal
Moments in Time tour: Four gigs down, three to go – next stop: Hamburg