{"id":13657,"date":"2022-12-14T05:58:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T03:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/?p=13657"},"modified":"2023-01-23T19:04:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T17:04:15","slug":"arstidir-tubingen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/?p=13657","title":{"rendered":"Great lights, much fog and hors-d’\u0153uvre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c1rst\u00ed\u00f0ir – Sudhaus, T\u00fcbingen; December 12th, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u00c1rst\u00ed\u00f0ir show in T\u00fcbingen took place at a nice venue with great lights and just a little too much artificial fog for my liking. It was a good one though and I enjoyed it otherwise.<\/p>\n

My trip from Vienna took some time, but except for the last train everything worked out fine and I got there eventually. In the morning, as I left the hotel I ran into Jean-Samuel, who had just returned from their night out. \ud83d\ude09 Hours later, I finally arrived at my hotel in T\u00fcbingen and had just enough time for a tea and some food before setting out to the venue. It was a long walk.<\/p>\n

I got there before the doors opened, but was allowed to wait inside. Once in I admired the theater like hall, already noticing the thick artificial fog in the air. I always wonder who decided that this is nice or looks good. It generally just hides the musicians from view and makes for blurry pictures. Sure, a little bit of smoke, mixing with the lights sounds nice, but it seems impossible to keep it at that and more often than not there is thick smoke hanging over the stage. There is nothing mysterious about it, it is just annoying. Anyway, I had a nice chat with the woman in the neighboring seat and enough time to get a drink and some more food so all was well. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Soon the guys stepped on stage and Ragnar greeted us in German, then claiming that they didn’t speak German at all (in German!). \ud83d\ude09 He continued in English, explaining how the concert would go and what to expect from the two parts. Already knowing what was about to come meant I could relax into it from the start and I did.<\/p>\n

‘Lj\u00f3\u00f0 \u00ed sand’ was lovely and I smiled when Dan\u00edel told us about Iceland’s bright summer and dark winters where you want the sun to come back before treating us to ‘Hven\u00e6r kemur s\u00f3l’. \ud83d\ude42 ‘Endatafl’ wasn’t introduced at all – the song speaks for itself and left me with a smile on my face despite all the inherent sadness. <3<\/p>\n

Dan\u00edel started introducing a song from Nivalis until Ragnar interrupted him and noted that the setlist was missing a song. Gunnar took over and talked about all the music they wrote during the pandemic and how they narrowed three album’s worth down to two. This lead us to ‘Later On’ from the upcoming album. It still touched me as deeply as it did when I heard it for the first time. <3<\/p>\n

Now it was time for Dan\u00edel and the song written “as a tribute to ourselves”, ‘Passion’. I got up for a bit and walked around to the back to take a few pictures from there. The fog was thick, but the lights were beautiful and so was the music. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Ragnar spoke about inspirations for songs coming from different sources and how each of them has a story. For ‘Shine’, he referred to an article he had read about the first people flying to Mars. I remembered that when I first heard the song I thought it sounded like a breakup song and that’s not too far off, because it is one about saying goodbye. It is still as amazing as it was when I first heard it. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

They kept ‘\u00dear sem enginn fer’ in the setlist and played it beautifully. ‘While this way’ made me happy as always and ‘Shades’ brought the first set to a powerful close. I never get tired of watching the guys go wild during this song, especially at the very end. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

During the break I went to the mixing desks and paid some compliments for the sound and lights. I also asked if maybe they could lessen the fog just a little bit, because by now it was making me cough. They grudgingly agreed. Now I was truly ready for the second half of the show. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Jean-Samuel grabbed the mic and welcomed us to the “Christmas buffet” and joked that this was the hors-d’\u0153uvre\u00a0because the other guys were still backstage with German beer. They played ‘Heyr, hymna smi\u00f0ur’ for us and the audience loved it. It’s great how they always get their moment to shine and the others introduce them specifically. Of course their were jokes about how the French guys brought culture to the band. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Gunnar welcomed us to part two of the show and explained that Ragnar grew up in Sweden and thus brought a Christmas song from there. After being corrected on the pronunciation the previous day, he left it to Ragnar to tell us the name of the song ‘Gl\u00e4ns \u00f6ver sj\u00f6 och strand’. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

‘J\u00f3lin alls sta\u00f0ar’ was beautiful as always and afterwards we got a bit of history about Icelandic Christmas songs that lead up to the a capella set, starting with ‘H\u00e1ti\u00f0 fer a\u00f0 h\u00f6ndum ein’. <3 Of course we got a demonstration of the “Viking sound”, i.e. parallel fifth by Gunnar and Dan\u00edel before they continued with ‘\u00cdsland fars\u00e6ldafr\u00f3n’ and then we ended on the Faroe Islands with ‘G\u00f3\u00f0a veislu gj\u00f6ra skal’.<\/p>\n

They told us a little of what their own Christmas song ‘Allt er hlj\u00f3tt’ is about before playing it and I could pictures the scene in my mind’s eye of animals huddling together in a barn while the world outside is snowy and quiet. The title means “all is quiet”.<\/p>\n

With ‘Ro’ we moved away from the Christmas songs for a moment. After Vienna they had kept the two keyboards so Guillaume and Ragnar each got their own instead of playing four-handed on one. I do appreciate the song being back in the set. ‘Things you said’ followed and is the only one that I would maybe put to rest if I had the choice. However, it is a great opportunity for the string players to shine and the audience loves it so I understand why they keep it.<\/p>\n

‘Heims um b\u00f3l’ (Silent Night) marked the end of the second set and brought us a nice sing-along. The guys did well in German too. \ud83d\ude42 After that, we sure wanted to hear more.<\/p>\n

They returned for ‘Bringing back the feel’ and Gunnar explained that they needed it to lift their spirits because “life’s too short not to wear yellow shirts, these kind of hats and dance”. I agree. The song always puts a big smile on my face. I can’t help but groove along and snap my fingers. \ud83d\ude00 It all ended with their version of ‘And so it goes’ – the guys say they can’t do justice to the King’s Singers, but it sure works for me. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Afterwards I said hello, chatted with them for a bit and then said goodbye, very aware of the long walk home. Originally I had planned to make this my last show and now I was very happy to have decided to go to Switzerland as well. I would not have been ready to leave just yet.<\/p>\n

pictures of this concert<\/a><\/p>\n

Setlist<\/u><\/p>\n

Lj\u00f3\u00f0 \u00ed sand
\nHven\u00e6r kemur s\u00f3l
\nEndatafl
\nLater On
\nPassion
\nShine
\n\u00dear sem enginn fer
\nWhile this way
\nShades<\/p>\n

Heyr, hymna smi\u00f0ur – strings only
\nGl\u00e4ns \u00f6ver sj\u00f6 och strand
\nJ\u00f3lin alls sta\u00f0ar
\nH\u00e1ti\u00f0 fer a\u00f0 h\u00f6ndum ein
\n\u00cdsland fars\u00e6ldafr\u00f3n
\nG\u00f3\u00f0a veislu gj\u00f6ra skal
\nAllt er hlj\u00f3tt
\nR\u00f3
\nThings you said
\nHeims um b\u00f3l<\/p>\n

Bringing back the feel
\nAnd so it goes<\/p>\n

Vetrars\u00f3l tour 2022 – seven gigs down, two to go. Next stop: Thun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c1rst\u00ed\u00f0ir – Sudhaus, T\u00fcbingen; December 12th, 2022 The \u00c1rst\u00ed\u00f0ir show in T\u00fcbingen took place at a nice venue with great lights and just a little too much artificial fog for my liking. It was a good one though and I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[222,13,19,17,14,995,991],"class_list":["post-13657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert","tag-arstidir","tag-fan","tag-friends","tag-germany","tag-travel","tag-tubingen","tag-vetrarsol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13657"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13757,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13657\/revisions\/13757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}