Familiar faces, my picture on the poster and much laughter

Árstíðir – TheaterA/D Rijn, Arnhem; December 15th, 2018    

The second stop of the day and my next to last stop on Árstíðir’s Christmas tour was in Arnhem. It took place at a cozy, small theater that had been completely sold out for weeks already. It felt quite intimate, because the venue only had a bit over 100 seats. The view was good from everywhere as far as I could tell and it was great to see the guys play a full house. It was a really nice evening overall.

After taking a train from Maastricht I had a long walk ahead of me, since my guesthouse was quite a way from the station. I rested for a bit and made my way to the Theater. somehow I arrived at the back entrance first and had to walk around to get to the front. The bar was open, so ordered a tea, only to realize that they accepted card payment only  – from Dutch bank cards! luckily the girl at the bar offered to pay with her card and take my cash. While I waited I noticed that the tour posted had a picture that I took on it. That made me really proud and as I was looking someone from the venue staff told me it was OK to take it so I did. 🙂 Met a few familiar people before they opened the doors and asked if it was OK to sit anywhere, since I was on the guest list that night and it was a sold out show. It was, so I picked a spot in the back where I could set up my camera without disturbing anyone. So far, so good.

A special guest had been announced for the day and R. had hoped it might be Anneke, but that seemed unlikely since they had already played in Helmond and that would have been much closer for her. It was singer and pianist Lavalu. Her music was nice in the background, but did not particularly speak to me. It was a good warm up though. While they were changing the stage, H. came over to talk to me. It made me smile to see him and he told me that the rest of the group from Solingen could not make it this time. We chatted for a while and since the seat next to me was free he stayed. We were both looking forward to the show. 

When the waiting time was over and Árstíðir walked out we greeted them with applause, but then everyone went totally quiet and waited for them to start. Considering how much people had been talking during the break I was surprised that really everyone shut up. Nice. The sound at the venue was alright, but somehow not as rich as it had been in Maastricht earlier that day. Compared to the beautiful reverb in that church it seemed a bit flat here, but clear. I loved just sitting there and listening, occasionally checking my camera and otherwise just letting the music speak to me. 🙂

The first half of the show really reminds me of the old days when they played mostly quiet music, without drums or many effects. I still love those songs, that almost seem stripped bare now, even though there is so much going on. The instrumentation is by no means spares, often has several layers and intertwines with their voices, yet it is very different from what they do now. This is the band I fell in love with back in 2012. There has been continuous development towards where they are now though and I’ve loved every step of the way, because they have never tried to overcome those original elements of their music, they have just developed them further and incorporated them into something new, that is just as rich and beautiful. Especially during this show it becomes very obvious how much they have changed and the audience accompanies them on their journey every night. 🙂

Before ‘Someone who cares’ Ragnar mentioned how they like to talk about their albums by colors “like The Beatles” and consequently introduced the song as one from the blue album. For ‘Scarborough Fair’ Gunnar talked about how they sat on Daníels sofa, listening to music and how much they liked the Simon & Garfunkel version with Andy Williams. I should go and seek this version out. It sure inspired them to a beautiful cover. Afterwards Ragnar talked about Icelandic music is often sad and even the Christmas songs are. I was momentarily confused, thinking “wait a minute, shouldn’t the next song be ‘Passion’?” I sat far in the back but it still looked to me as if Gunnar and Daníel thought the same, but they just rolled with it. The introduction to ‘Jólabæn einstæðingsins’ was nice and included the story of the lonely man Gísli Gíslason, who had written the poem for it and lived alone for so long that he could not speak properly any more. The song, sad as it may be, is always one I like to hear. They continued with ‘Mute’ which fit well in this place and sounded somehow eerie that night. It suited the song well. ‘Þar sem enginn fer ‘ and ‘While this Way’ ended the first set as usual. 

I laughed a lot that night and not only when they were trying to teach us how to say “Eya” – “fjalla” – “jokull”. All the stories seemed funnier or with an extra twist somehow. Maybe they really were, maybe I was just as tired as the guys who’d had a long day. It didn’t matter, I enjoyed it. 😀 ‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’ and then they finally played ‘Passion’. It amused me that there were very few people in the room who might have known this was not intentional. It was like sharing a secret with the guys, which I just now revealed. 😉 They dedicated ‘Entangled’ to Jasper, the cinematographer for the ‘Entangled’ video. 

There isn’t much I haven’t said about the songs or the show yet. It works really well the way it is and once again it made me happy how it goes from a more quiet first half to a more powerful second one. Both halves have a nice mix of songs, but it surely gets more dramatic towards the end. every time it gets me and every time it has me longing for more as soon as ‘Shades’ ends. Everyone else seemed to agree and wanted encores. We got them too and the whole show ended on a high note with ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’.

Afterwards I talked with H. for a bit, then said goodbye to the guys. I even managed to get a second concert poster and had everyone sign it, planning to finally upgrade the poster I have on my wall. Overall it was a happy evening, chatting with an exhausted, but happy band. I wished them good luck for the afternoon show the next day and finally made my way home, looking forward to the next show.

When I left, I stuck my posters in with my tripod. I have no idea what happened then, but when I got back to Germany, I realized I had somehow managed to lose one of them and unfortunately it was the signed one. :'( Gonna have to hunt for a new one on the next tour. 

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Schedryk schedryk (Carol of the bells)
Ages
Með hallandi höfði
Ljoð í sand
Someone who cares
Scarborough Fair / Canticle
Jólabæn einstæðingsins
Mute
Þar sem enginn fer
While this Way

Hátið fer að höndum ein
Passion
Entangled
You again
Things you said
Nú gleymist ég
Shades

Heyr hymna smiður
Góða veislu gjöra skal

Árstíðir European Christmas tour: Six gigs down, one to go. Next stop: Amsterdam

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