Árstíðir – KCK Kręgielnia, Kostrzyn nad Odrą; November 19th

Show 10m of Árstíðir’s Blik tour took me back to a familiar place. In the summer two years ago, Ragnar had played a concert in Kostrzyn at exactly the same location. I recalled that the sound had been really nice and  as a bit disappointed when it wasn’t as great as I remembered. It was fine though, only the lights were annoyingly bright and right in my face for much of the time. Otherwise, it was a really nice show though and we got a few surprises.

My trip to Kostrzyn was an easy 2.5 hour train ride and I got there too early to check in at my hotel. So I went for a nice pizza and tried again after. It was shitty weather and I stayed inside until it was time to go to the venue. 15 minutes later after walking through a slippery train station, I got there and someone inside the culture center pointed me in the right direction. Ran into Bartek, said hello and settled down to wait. Chatted with Marta for a while, who told me soundcheck had been difficult. The band said hello when they went for dinner and shortly after, they let us in.

In front row I waited for the show to start and watched as the venue filled up. Nice! The people to my right were talking a lot, but luckily they shut up soon after the band started. First though, the organizer said a few words of which I understood nothing. Finally they started with ‘Himinhvel’ and it didn’t sound good, somehow distorted. 🙁 It did get better with ‘Ljóð í sand’ though and from then on it was fine. I liked the lights at first, but then they switched on really harsh backlights and I was blinded through most of the show, really wishing I had sunglasses. The colors were pretty, but maybe they should have directed those lamps at the band instead of the audience. 😉

Ragnar greeted the audience in Polish and they loved it, then switched back to english quickly to tell us it was a pleasure to play there and what to expect from the show. This time he asked right away who spoke Icelandic and apparently there was one person. There is always one. 😉 All the Blik songs were fun and it shows that the band has played them a lot by now. I loved them all.

‘Nú gleymist ég’ was sadly a bit distorted again, but it still always grabs me and the same was true for ‘Þar sem enginn fer’. The guys didn’t talk all this much, but briefly introduced most songs. ‘Lover’ was nice and ‘Friðþægingin’ rocked. Once again there was no break  and they immediately continued with the songs from Pendúll, explaining how they write half in English and half in Icelandic. Ragnar joked they did that because they didn’t know Polish yet. Both, ‘Glitsky’ and ‘Hvenar kemur sól’ sounded really nice, and especially the first one lead to much applause.

‘While this Way’ and ‘Mute’ were awesome, but the lighting still didnt make much sense. Afterwards the bands surprised me with getting out the double mic and singing ‘Bæn einstæðingsins’ as a trio and then ‘Ísland farsældafrón’ with Guillaume and Jean-Samuel. as an introduction, Ragnar told us that in Iceland everyone sings and they wanted to show us how they sing harmonies. It was beautiful and for once the light was great too. ❤️

We returned to Blik and after ‘Home’ and ‘Kirin’, Daníel got out the keyboard and they played ‘Let’s Pretend’ again. Ragnar told us it was about being respectful and loving to those you meet and grabbing the moment, because you never know when the moment is gonna come back and “the time is now”. I loved it, it was just as much fun as it had been in Berlin the previous day. This time we didn’t react when we heard they had reached their last song and needed extra prompting. Then ‘Shades’ rocked the house and people loved it.

Of course everyone wanted more and we got it. Sadly, ‘Kill us’ had a lot of feedback, but ‘THings you said’ was great and even lead to a clap along for a while. Overall, it had been a good show, but not a particularly memorable one. I had still enjoyed being there, and hugged everyone who wanted to be hugged afterwards. I gave Gunni the usual update on the sound and joked with Ragggi about the lights being more for the band than for us, because he could see us well. 😀 Had a nice long chat with Marta too and then left, together with a German guy, who had also been in Berlin. Onwards to Dresden!

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
Bæn einstæðingsins
Ísland farsældafrón
Home
Kirin
Let’s Pretend
Shades

Kill us
Things you said