Árstíðir – CK Muza, Lubin; November 18th, 2023

With the concert in Lubin we reached the fourth country on Árstíðir’s Blik tour. This time they played at a theater of a culture center and it was wonderful. Completely different vibes from the two previous gigs, but just as great. I absolutely love this tour.

It was a surprisingly easy trip, just a three hour train ride from Berlin with no changes. It was raining when I arrived so all I did was check in to my hotel and relax util it was time to go. The venue was just a few minutes down the road and I could wait inside. There were even some comfy sofas to sit on. Assuming the doors would open about an hour before gig time, I’d arrived way to early and sat around reading while the guys soudchecked. Said hello as they walked out, got a hug from Ragnar and chatted with him briefly.

Closer to the gig, many people arrived and I met A., who I know rom POTF, but had not expected here. Once inside, I tried the front row, but it was too low, so I moved to the fourth one which was about level with the stage. As more people filed in, I realized that a lot of them had assigned seats, whereas I didn’t. Lucky for me though, nobody had bought the seat I was in. The venue was nicely filled and later I heard they had sold 260 tickets.

Everyone settled down and shortly after 7 the band walked on stage. It was a big venue, so they had a lot of space. From the first I noticed how good the sound was and fell in the love with the lights as well. It was a joy taking pictures. After ‘Himinhvel’ people clapped loudly and they were appreciative throughout. Every time the guys announced a song, people clapped.

Ragnar greeted them in Polish and said they were gonna play old and new songs. I enjoyed being able to see the whole band at the same time and everything sounded so good. Whoever the sound person was really knew their job. ‘Bringing back the Feel’ eased us nicely into the new songs and ‘Later on’ followed immediately.

Towards the end of ‘Sanity’ I noticed some people exclaiming and saw that Guillaumes bow had come apart and was now stuck to the microphone on he cello. He struggled to break it free and left the stage. When it was time for ‘Figure’, Daníel turned towards Guillaume’s spot in confusion and was wondering where he was, while Jean-Samuel raised his arms in an “I have no clue” gesture. Then Guillaume returned with a different bow and everyone cheered. A clap-along started in rhythm with the song. Wow, that was new.

Gunnar invited us for a trip back in time with ‘Nú gleymist ég’ and remarked on how much had changed since the song was written. And yet, I still cannot get enough of the song. ❤️ People laughed when Raggi asked how many of them spoke Icelandic and he assured them it was OK and that the band didn’t speak Polish. ‘Þar sem enginn fer’ took us to the Westfjords, ‘Lover’ followed, then Gunnar talked about hard to pronounce song titles and told us to watch the string players for ‘Friðþægingin’. It was a really lovely show so far.

The band did not take a break this time and continues right on with ‘Glitsky’, after introducing Jean-Samuel and Guillaume. Not only the big, full band sound worked at the venue, but also the back to basics trio number. 🙂 Ragnar spoke about being so influence by the weather that hey even named their band seasons as an introduction to ‘Hvenar kemur sól’. If the sun is asked so nicely, it really should come out every time the song is played.

I always loved ‘While this Way’ and ‘Mute’ worked really well for me on this tour. I like, how the others play the melody already during the introduction. The same happened before ‘Home’.It’s nice to hear them talk with the soft music in the background. The song really hit me that night, it was my favorite performance of ‘Home’ this far. ‘Kirin’ was fun, even though the lyrics are not and then, after a short discussion they played ‘Seven Years’ again. It was even better than the previous night! 😀

At this point they asked how many had seen the band before and not many raised their hands. That made it even better how positive the reactions were. We “awwwed” so nicely for the last song, that Ragnar asked us to repeat it and then they played a great version of ‘Shades’ to close the show with…. until we cheered them back for an encore. ‘Kill us’ was awesome and ‘Things you said’ a fitting closer.

Many people came to get autographs and pictures. I stole a poster to get it signed and talked to the guys afterwards. Asked Guillaume about the bow and he said it just exploded and would need to be fixed. Spoke to Daníel about ‘Seven Years’ and how much I enjoyed it, then hinted I’d like to hear ‘Your Shadow’ to. I learned that it is difficult because the singing and the playing rhythm differ. That’s hard! We’ll see if it happens. Told Ragnar how much I had loved ‘Home’ and he told me it was a fairly simple melody, but hard to find the right balance between strong and vulnerable. He sure had found it that night. 🙂 It was lovely, see you soon!

Setlist

Himinhvel
Ljóð í sand
Bringing back the Feel
Later on
Sanity
Figure
Nú gleymist ég
Þar sem enginn fer
Lover
Friðþægingin
Glitsky
Hvenar kemur sól
While this Way
Mute
Home
Kirin
Seven Years
Shades

Kill us
Things you said