Svavar Knútur – Glashaus im Paradies, Jena; September 22nd, 2024
When I heard that Svavar Knútur was playing in Jena again, I remembered the wonderful show I had seen there the previous year and immediately decided to go back. I was not disappointed – it was my favorite show of the three I saw during the weekend. Just beautiful.
My trip from Leipzig was easy and even though my original train connection no longer existed, I got there in good time. Went and had some lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at my hotel before going to the venue, arriving too earl as usual. I got a spot at the front and read until more people arrived. The Glashaus is a small venue and has such great acoustics that Svavar can play without any amp or microphone. It’s really cozy too and I loved seeing it filled with people.
The concert started with ‘Vetrarsól’ and it sounded fantastic. I smiled right away, because it was even better than I had remembered it. Svavar greeted us and asked who was seeing him for the first time, telling those people not to be afraid. 😉 He continued that it felt like home, because it reminded him of one of his favorite venues back home in Iceland and told us the story of why he wanted to play in Jena. This time around he had time to see some of the city and liked it. ‘Orgar brim’ was next and this time he translated the poem for us, also teaching us some Iceland history in the process.
We got to hear a funny story about advertising on youTube, which apparently nobody had seen. 😀 He spoke about his project of “Songs of Misery and Redemption” for a bit, specifically how grief is a journey and finding joy in darkness, before continuing with ‘Morgunn’ and ‘Refur’. Both songs were wonderful. Sticking with Icelandic, he gave us a classic one by Sigfús Einarsson called ‘Draumalandið’. It was his grandmother’s favorite and I understood why. It’s lovely. He spoke about his album “Amma”, filled with classic Icelandic songs that sold well.
‘The Curtain’ was next, another song I had not heard in a while. I’d almost forgotten how good that one is. 🙂 Svavar talked about sister songs, specifically the one he had written about refugees, making a point about not looking back, once you have decided to leave and illustrating it with talking about Orpheus. Then he played ‘Lady Winter’ and ‘Hope and Fortune’ for us. These two are a highlight every night. He mentioned that he never wants two concerts to be the same, but that there are some songs he has to keep in the concert, like the two songs that mark the entry and the exit of the grieving process. Thus, the first set ended with ‘November’. <3
At the start of the second set, he talked about the difference of the winter cold in Germany versus Iceland, since it is more wet here, but dry there and told us a funny story about winter fog and all the tiny droplets of water freezing on his face. People were shy at first to sing along to ‘Janúar’, but it worked beautifully. He talked about how much light January brings back and how quickly it goes from there to being bright most of the night too.
During the break I had asked Svavar, if he’d play a song for me and given him the options of ‘Brot’ and ‘Tiger and Bear’. He made me really happy when he decided to play both. <3 After explaining that ‘Brot’ means the breaking (and not bread), he joked about nobody being able to understand the Danish and how to talk to them anyway. 😉 It then got more serious with the story of the avalanche that killed his father and 20 other people in their village, how the come together every year to remember and it is a song about their community. That made the song even better. 🙂 ‘Tiger and Bear’ then offered some light relief. It is just such a sweet song.
On a serious note, Svavar talked about how people don’t buy CDs any more and how concert tickets for big artists have become expensive, but it has gotten harder for small artists to make money. Therefore, we should follow him on Bands in town. Since the QR code for that was on his laminated merch sheet it lead to jokes about offering laminating services on tour. Svavar, the laminator! 😀
‘While the World burns’ was wonderful and we got two more sister songs, ‘Hard Things’ and ‘A glorious Catastrophe’. He talked about writing these breakup songs and wanting to preserve the good parts of the relationship and what he had learned. It’s a good way of looking at break ups, at least the amicable ones.
To my great joy, Svavar played ‘So long Marianne’ again, and spoke about his cousin and what a great honor it was to sing the song for her. I thought it was an even better rendition than in Leipzig.<3 He thanked us for the great evening and as usual the set ended with ‘Slow Dance’, without the story this time. It was beautiful. 🙂
We cheered loudly for an encore and of course we got one. He picked up his ukulele and played us Cole Porter’s ‘You do something to me’. It was wonderful and light, including some great whistling. Last, but not least we got ‘Isn’t it funny?’ and the show could not have ended any better.
I went and hugged Svavar, thanked him for the wonderful show, said goodbye to Uwe and happily walked back to my hotel. See you next year.
Setlist
Vetrarsól
Orgar brim
Morgúnn
Refur
Draumalandið
The Curtain
Lady Winter
Hope and Fortune
November
Janúar
Brot
Tiger and Bear
While the World burns
Hard Things
A glorious Catastrophe
So long Marianne (Leonard Cohen)
Slow Dance
You do something to me (Cole Porter)
Isn’t it funny?