Without being able to speak, put on silent mode

Árstíðir – Melkweg, Amsterdam; May 3rd, 2022

Seeing Árstíðir at the famous Melkweg was definitely an enjoyable evening. Despite Daníels voice still being AWOL, the guys put on a great show and left me with a happy smile on my face. Oh, how I love touring with them.

It was an early-ish start in Hamburg, but an easy trip and I made it to Amsterdam in good time. My hotel room was more than disappointing so I was happy to get out of it and go on a walk towards the venue. Ran into Jean-Samuel on the way and had a nice chat.

Once at the venue I saw a huge line and momentarily panicked until I realized there were two concerts at the venue that evening. Met Zoltan, said hello, caught up with M. and M. and got a good spot at the front. Even had a fancy photo pass. Hugged Ragnar before the show and talked for a bit. Ran into L., whom I had not seen since one Christmas concert in Reykjavik 2016 or 2018. A long time ago. Nice to see people again. There were other familiar faces in the audience – it was gonna be a good show. 🙂

By now, I was really looking forward to seeing Platon Karataev every night. They are truly a great fit or Árstíðir and watching them is just pure fun. They bring great energy to the stage and always go all in. Loved the singing and by now I know where in the set my favorites were, even though I still could not remember names. They were great from start to finish.

Setlist

Csak Befelé
Valaki jár a fák hegyén
Parteért Kiáltó
Elmerül
Intro + Aphelion
Atoms
Wide Eyes
Tágul/ Ex Nihilo
Vízböl van
VHK
Ocean
Wolf

The venue wasn’t sold out, but the people who had come made lots of noise. The Melkweg is a great old rock venue, so it had good sound. The lights, however, were a bit too bright and always in my eyes. Nothing could spoil my enjoyment of the music though. 🙂 Daníel voice was still gone, so they stuck with the rearranged setlist and started with ‘Ljóð i sand’. It was lovely.

Ragnar introduced them and said they didn’t know who they were any more, needed to remember and that it was nice to be back. Gunnar added that they had missed audiences and tours in their lives, then continues with ‘While this way’. what can I say? The song always makes me happy. ❤️

They told us it would be a special show, with a modified setlist, because they had left Daníel’s voice on the road. Gunnar spoke about the rough winter and the storms in Iceland and how fitting it was to write a song about the sun coming out, then sang ‘Hvenær kemur sól’ for us. To my surprise they added ‘Shine’ and it could not have made me happier. It sounded amazing too.

We heard about all the songs they had written during the pandemic and the first one being all Icelandic. Gunnar told us that ‘Týndur’ means lost, but didn’t explain anything about it, just played. It sounded so good. Every song did. Having ‘Endatafl’ next was the perfect contrast, being so much more melancholic. The acoustic songs sounded different without Daníel, but worked well. They didn’t ask anymore if we wanted to hear the Icelandic or English version. The vote for ‘Glitsky’ had always been overwhelming so far. They told us about the time they were just three guys with guitars and gave us ‘Kill us’.

When the string players came back, they told us a bit of their history together and joked they brought some culture to the band, training them “in life and wine”. ‘Ages’ was lovely and afterwards Gunnar mused about it being 14 years old already. Before ‘Mute’ he told us how he had visited Japan and how strange it had been not to get far with English and being excluded, because he was with people who spoke Japanese. So basically he spent two weeks without speaking and put that experience into the song. I really enjoyed it. Then, just like the previous night, he did an amazing job on ‘Þar sem enginn fer’.

Ragnar spoke about being by lingual and how Icelandic brings forth different emotions than English when they write songs. There was laughter when he said “sometimes we write happy music”. 🙂 ‘Bringing back the Feel’ was brilliant again. I was in awe of Gunnar just taking over. After ‘Lover’ he announced that thy wre down to their last song. We “awww”-ed and he said he had missed this the most, the reactions of and interactions with the people and how going back to normal was not as easy as one might think. This time, nobody underlined his words and it felt right that way. He thanked us and we thanked them in turn with great cheers.

‘Shades’ lead to more cheers and of course an encore. It was ‘Heiðin’ and they told us they hadn’t thought all that much of it when they wrote it. It has certainly aged well. This time, thy did not go into the crowd and the show ended there. It had been fun.

I said hello and goodbye to the guys, talked a little bit and ended up having a nice chat with Pieter, who had designed the artwork for their albums. He told me a little more about it and I loved haring details. Can’t wait to see Blik finally and will have to take a closer look at Pendúll now.

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Ljóð i sand
While this way
Hvenær kemur sól
Shine
Týndur
Endatafl
Glitsky
Kill us
Ages
Mute
Þar sem enginn fer
Bringing back the Feel
Lover
Shades

Heiðin

Moments in time tour: Six gigs down, one to go. Next stop: Bochum

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