Árstíðir – Kiff, Aarau; December 14th, 2022
The final show of Árstíðir’s Vetrarsól tour was one great surprise for me. I hadn’t planned on being there originally and while I had been looking forward to Thun I went into this one with no expectations whatsoever. After the previous day’s highlight, how good could it be? It turned out to be beautiful and a fitting last show for one amazing tour.
For once on this tour it was only a short trip to get to the next city so spent the morning exploring Thun before getting on the train. Ran into most of the guys on their way to the local Christmas market and enjoyed the nice weather for a bit. Unfortunately I left it behind and arrived to pouring rain in Aarau. Spent the rest of the day mostly inside, editing pictures until it was time to go to the venue. When I got there I was surprised by the number of people already waiting. It was still an hour to go until they opened and the previous day there had been nobody at this time. Guess not all cities in Switzerland are the same. 😉
Either way, once we got in, most people aimed for the seats on the side and I got my usual spot at the front. The stage was very much like a box, much smaller than the rest of the room and I wondered if this venue had had a different purpose at one time. Ran into Raggi while getting a drink a got a big hug from him. 🙂
Once the show started it got even better, because the lights were a lot better than I had expected from a small venue. I loved it already. They explained how the Christmas show was a tradition they took on the road and everyone agreed that a two part show sounded like a good plan. They guys seemed in a good mood right away and ‘Ljóð í sand’ already sounded brilliant – bright and clear. 🙂
Daníel introduced ‘Hvenær kemur sól’ and talked about waiting for the sun to come back after the long winter. On a day like this I could relate even more than usual.Already then every song seemed to touch me more than usual and I liked it. During ‘Endatafl’ I noticed that Ragnar was singing a bit lower than usual – tired vocal chords at the end of the tour? either way, it sounded great.
Gunnar joked that they had nothing better to do during the pandemic than writing s songs and introduced ‘Later On’ as one of the already released singles from the upcoming album. “Later on, we’ll deal with it all later on…” seemed to sum up so much of how I felt during the two years of the pandemic and the whole song still hits home with me.
Once again (after Vienna) someone in the audience seemed to be especially happy when thy introduced ‘Passion’. It always makes me smile when people have such a strong favorite. (And yes, I do the same at times 😉 ). The words in this song surely can be applied to any kind of passion – I can definitely relate.
At the beginning ‘Shine’ did not seem as strong as it usually is for me, but gained a lot of power towards the end. It is one of the songs I will always enjoy. ‘Þar sem enginn fer’ did not have an introduction this time and didn’t need one either. Afterwards there was a brief discussion among the band because they had heard some sound in their in-ears and tried to find where it came from. The amazing ‘While this way’ and the powerful ‘Shades’ brought the set to an end.
They had joked about spending the break drinking Glühwein and Jean-Samuel continued along the same lined when he and Guillaume were back on stage. ‘Heyr, hymna smiður’ sounded amazing. The strings only version definitely works for me. Guillaume and Jean-Samuel got well deserved cheers afterwards.
Ragnar joked they were gonna start the Christmas songs with some “Swedish meatballs” and brought us a lovely version of ‘Gläns över sjö och strand’. ‘Jólin alls staðar’ followed and it did feel like “Christmas everywhere”. The a capella bit of the show with ‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’, ‘Ísland farsældafrón’ and ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’ sounded great and was a lot of fun thanks to the way the guys talk about Icelandic musical traditions compared to what the rest of the world did. It has to be mentioned here that the French guys did one hell of a job singing in Icelandic and Faroese every night!
‘Allt er hljótt’ was beautiful as always. It may be young compared to the other Christmas songs they are playing, but it fits right in there with them. Who said Christmas songs had to always be traditional? ‘Ró’ was great as well and I enjoyed it especially knowing that Guillaume would not be with them at the final concert in Reykjavik. Daníel joked that it was one of the hardest songs to play and the speed of the songs is actually 13/8 – info for the music nerds right there. Ragnar added that it is also their most popular song on Spotify – ironic for a band that got together for singing vocal harmonies.
We got lots of vocals for the last two song, a great rendition of ‘Things you said’ and finally ‘Heims um ból’, where they invited us to sing with them on the third verse in German. We did and we sounded good too, even without support of the instruments. 😉
We asked for more and got it, first having fun with their latest single ‘Bringing back the Feel’. It is just so good! Gunnar told us that everyone should try once in their lives to be part of a touring band and talked about how great it was to be touring and how it takes a toll after 15 nights in a row, the announced ‘Heiðin’ as the final song. What a lovely surprise. 🙂 Then, when it was over, we cheered so much that they came back and played ‘And so it goes’ too. Wow! It was the perfect end to a perfect show. 😀
I went and had a drink with Ragnar who told me his voice hadn’t been the best and therefore they had not wanted to do ‘And so it goes’ originally. I hugged him and everyone else goodbye (those who wanted a hug anyway) and thanked them all. I could not stop smiling and told Gunnar that I was just so happy to have the Christmas sows back. I truly was, especially after last year’s tour was cancelled short notice. What was left to say was wishing them a merry Christmas. I’ll see you in Reykjavik!
Setlist
Ljóð í sand
Hvenær kemur sól
Endatafl
Later On
Passion
Shine
Þar sem enginn fer
While this way
Shades
Heyr, hymna smiður – strings only
Gläns över sjö och strand
Jólin alls staðar
Hátið fer að höndum ein
Ísland farsældafrón
Góða veislu gjöra skal
Allt er hljótt
Ró
Things you said
Heims um ból
Bringing back the feel
Heiðin
And so it goes
Vetrarsól tour 2022 – nine gigs down, one to go. Next stop: Reykjavík