Svavar Knútur – B72, Vienna; April 28th, 2024

The second stop on my little tour with Svavar Knútur was Vienna and I didn’t have high expectations, because Innsbruck had been brilliant and he had told me that they had not sold all that many tickets for Vienna. I could not have been more wrong. The small venue held many enthusiastic people and the energy flowing between un and the stage brought on a fantastic show. I had such a great time and I am sure so did everyone else.

Th trip to Vienna took roughly four hours and for the first time since Friday I could relax a little at my hotel before leaving again. The weather was beautiful, so I decided to walk to the venue and grab some food before standing in line. The ticket said 20:00, so I assumed that was the start time of the concert, but when I got there at 18:00, I learned it was the time the doors opened. Oh, well, I sat in the sun and enjoyed the fact that I had now gotten the chance to watch the full live stream of Ragnar’s and Marina’s concert from Reykjavik. It made me really happy and they got done just before the doors opened. Perfect

Inside, I left my camera bag and jacket at the front and went back out, chatting with Svavar for a bit or mostly listening to him chat with others. He spoke a lot about the Australia tour, how he had made a compilation of “The least shit Svavar Knutur” (not “the best”, because Australians don’t like that) to sell there and how at a festival 1000 people had sung along in Icelandic. 🙂

At about 20:45, he stepped on the stage and realized the venue had two levels and there were people upstairs too, so he said he was gonna try and look at everyone. Quite a few people were new to his shows and he joked that if they felt violated in some way they should just wait and it would pass. 😉 He spoke about the release of ‘Ahoy’ and told us how long this whole project has taken, because he writes only one song a year, he now has about 75,  but Icelanders age differently. 😀

The first song was ‘Ástarsaga úr fjöllunum’ for his grandmother and told us how awesome she is. I like how he often starts with Icelandic songs to introduce his language to us. Next was the beautiful ‘Morgúnn’, which, as I learned during the break, is for his wife. Of course he had to explain to us why love songs are boring – it’s all funny, because it’s true. And still there are some great ones out there. 😉 I really enjoyed the sound at he venue, it was pretty much perfect. And the audience was really attentive too. We all laughed, when he illustrated how Austrians are the cowboys of German. His stories really cannot be told in writing – they have to be heard. He spoke about different language melodies and how they are shaped by where we live. There was a jab at Danes in there somewhere too. 😉 The last Icelandic song was ‘Refur’ and we learned how he got to spend a whole year with him during Covid and why else that was a good time for him. It is such a beautiful song too, full of so much love – tell me again you don’t write love songs!

So far, the concert had contained the same songs as the one in Innsbruck and yet it felt different already, because the atmosphere in the rom was different and some of the stories had changed. It only got better from here.

Svavar told us how he often writes “sister songs”, two songs that belong together one of the ones he mentioned was ‘Clementine’ and I wondered which the sister song is. Forgot to ask him about it though. We learned that he had finished his 15 project of an exploration of grief, but that he was not going to stop being a singer/songwriter. He was now going to play us two about refugees, ‘Lady Winter’ about the decision to leave and then ‘Hope and fortune’ about the travel. The first one really touched me that night and almost brought tears to my eyes. <3 For the second, he challenged us to sing along to the chorus and if all of us did he would buy us a drink during the break. 😀 He even gave us 30 seconds to google the song. It was fantastic. Everyone sang their hearts out. We also learned that he re recorded some part of the song for ‘Ahoy Side B’ so now I cannot wait to heart that version. 🙂

He mused for a moment of what song to play next and told us it depended on our energy. The he settled on ‘Brot’. It made me so happy. I had thought about requesting that song, but I never did and then it happened  anyway. It was a great rendition too, nothing short of amazing, including some brilliant guitar work.  <3

Next up was ‘Isn’t it funny?’ from the ‘Unanswered’ album and he told us how proud he was of that. Before he played it, he had to destroy our romantic ideas about mermaids – and how does one have sex with them anyway? Marine biology for beginners! 😀 Anyway, Icelandic merfolk are different. Svavar’s concerts are not only highly entertaining, but also educational! I do think I like the story better than the song, but it really is funny (in a dark, Icelandic kind of way).

Svavar told us how happy he was to be there. Before the final song of the first set, he joked about men in midlife crisis and their panic about aging. Good for him, that he is OK with it. He has a point, it depends on how you look at it. 🙂 Picking the right job is part of it, I guess. He ended the set with ‘November’. I like, how he speaks about the song being about grief on this tour – I cannot recall him doing that before. The performance was amazing!

During the break, we all got our drinks and many people went to buy merch and talk to Svavar. Someone had already bought the last vinyl before the show, but they just bought CDs instead. I hung out for a bit, to listen in as he spoke about the songs for his children and how Emma’s and Ulfar’s had been very clear very early, where as it took him some time to find the right one for Refur. He also mentioned getting a request for one of his few love songs and I was curious to learn which one it would be.

As promised, the second set started with ‘Januar’ and coming out of the darkness. He taught us how to sing the lines “Ég sé þig janúar, ég man þig Janúar” and spoke about darkness swallowing everything, including your pain. We did a decent job singing along too. 🙂 He talked about how he loves breakup songs, including an example of a bad one. The more he spoke about it, the more I thought about introducing him to ‘No woman ever wants to be a muse’. 😉 After some dating advice for Iceland and learning about scientific food experiments, It was time for one of his breakup songs: ‘Emotional Anorexic’. I will never not enjoy that song and wasn’t the only one singing along.

Svavar told us how he didn’t become a musician until his late 20ies and how there’s a lot of ageism in music, especially in pop music. It definitely is prejudice like any other and aging is is OK. “You’re gonna die and that’s fine!” However, folk is the non-ageist genre in music. 🙂 He mentioned that the next request was hard, because he had not sung it in a long time. “It’s not quite a love song, it’s an appreciation song”. He picked up his ukulele and played ‘Little Things’. It was so lovely and also new to me, as in I’d never heard him play this live. <3

He spoke about never wanting to play the same concert twice, always trying to surprise himself. This show was definitely a surprise so far and I have heard similar shows, but never two that were the same. 🙂 It’s one of the reasons I love them so much. I can’t remember how we got there, but from teaching us how to say “Skál” we got to a wild travel story about his uncle, who was once thought to be a dervish. While wondering what to lay next, someone yelled ‘Wanderlust’ and it was the perfect request with a great sing along.

Svavar mentioned, how he only ha two more songs, unless we’d shout “Zugabe”. He gave a shout out to Ronja, the sound engineer and we all clapped for her. Then he thanked all of us for being there. For the first time ever, he mentioned how ‘The Hurting’ is also a breakup song. Wow, we really had a moment there – all of us, collectively. We learned some Icelandic on the was too and how the icelandic way for happy means having thick skin and some more. Then he gave us a killer version of the song. 😀 Finally, he gave us the story of Emma’s birth, the longest minute of his life and her song, ‘Slow Dance’. It was lovely and felt like it ended the story of the night.

Of course we yelled for “Zugabe” loudly and svavar was right back on stage, talking about his childhood and ABBA’s album ‘The Visitors’, the played us ‘Like an Angel passing through my Room’ and ‘When all is said and done, of course not without talking about the Mamma Mia movie and Pierce Brosnan. Both songs were played perfectly. *sigh* He considered if he was done, but felt tempted to play one more, even though it might scare some people off. He gave them a chance to leave (nobody did) and gave us ‘Song of good advice’. It was hilarious, with everyone screaming “and then you’ll die” at the appropriate moments. What a show and what a finale!

Setlist

Ástarsaga úr fjöllunum
Morgúnn
Refur
Lady Winter
Hope and Fortune
Brot
Isn’t it funny?
November

Janúar
Emotional Anorexic
Little Things
Wanderlust
The Hurting
Slow Dance

Like an Angel Passing Through My Room
When all is said and done
Song of good advice

It was late, so  said a quick goodbye, thanked him for the fantastic show, confirmed that it had been completely different from the one inInnsbruck. Have a good night, see you tomorrow. 🙂