I see my friends when I see them if they make it to a show

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The Anatomy of Frank – Davidseck, Basel; November 24th, 2017

I had only great memories of last year’s The Anatomy of Frank concert at Davidseck in Basel and was looking much forward to returning to the venue. For the guys, it was the same. They love the place and its people, telling Vegard, their sound guy all tour just how much fun it is to play there. It was a nice concert for sure, I loved the setlist and after a slow start, the audience gut into it as well. Yet I have to admit that it could not live up to the previous year’s awesomeness. The band played their hearts out though and I did enjoy the concert a lot, so of course it was worth the trip.

The train ride to Basel is a comfortable one with just one change in-between and the trains were not too packed either. I stayed at the same hotel as last time around and got there early enough to go for an afternoon swim before the show. Arrived at the venue a little before the doors opened and was inside just as the downpour started. P. and A. who arrived shortly after me got soaked. Said hello to everyone I remembered from last year, chatted with A. a friend of the band and one of the organizers, waited. L. arrived and a few more familiar faces, but nowhere near as many people as the previous year. It was past the official starting time and the pace was still half empty. I had some more tea and wondered what was happening and where everyone was.

Eventually the guys started playing and Kyle told us how much they loved this venue and the people here, how they had told Vegard that Basel had the best audience. The first song was ‘Scandinavian Moon’ and I really felt the line about missing Thanksgiving to play a half-empty venue. For a brief moment, it seemed like Kyle looked a little lost there and my heart went out to the guys for having such a small audience that night. In the beginning, they were a bit too quiet as well, but luckily they warmed up later. I love that song though. It it a great one to start the show with and I regretted not having been quick enough with my camera to record it. If ‘Scandinavian Moon’ and ‘Svalbard’ are any indication the Europe album is going to be great. Somewhere on this tour I asked Kyle if that album was going to be the next of the continent albums and he confirmed it. 😀

The next three songs where the ones they mostly played back to back on this tour: ‘Photographs of Inuvik in January’, ‘Minnesota Part I’ and ‘Diagonal North America’ – these three never get old and I am always happy to hear them. In fact I have heard ‘Diagonal North America’ so often I tend to forget that it is not on the North America album, but a B-Side to it. 🙂 ‘Patagonia’ followed and it is one of those songs that I knew and loved long before the South America album. The Anatomy of Frank always try their new songs out during concerts. It’s often interesting to ear how they evolve. It feel like ‘Patagonia’ has not changed all that much. It was amazing from the beginning. 🙂

Before ‘Holy Mountain’ Kyle did the usual “This is not just a CD on a square piece of paper but a poster” thing – it always results in laughter and cheers as soon as he reveals the poster. 🙂 Needless to say the song was beautiful. They ended the first set with ‘Andes’, another one of my favorites. That song has so many great lines about conquering your fears and talks about things we fear in life and how we often let life beat us up or scare us. There’s also hope though, it has a sense of not giving up that I love. One day I’m gonna have to ask about the backstory to that song. <3

After a break to get more drinks and eat some sweet or salty snacks the guys were back on stage with ‘Ecuador’. During the break I had talked to A. who said they were certainly louder than the previous year. True, but I love how they rock now. That song though is a bit on the softer side. I watched L: for a while. She was walking around filming and taking pictures, even from outside the venue. For ‘The Landing of the plus ultra flying Boat’ the band had everyone sing along “You are the one!” – it was fun and woke up the few members of the audience who had not been very active until then.

Kyle thought it was a good time to tell a story about his best friend David. It was one I had not heard yet. We learned about steep mountain roads where he drove like a madman on a trip to the Amazon. It was funny when he told it, but I know I would not have wanted to be in that car and I’m pretty sure I would ave thrown up too at the end of the trip. 😉 ‘How do we lose it’ and ‘To keep out Hands from shaking’ were played back to back, the latter ending with some great drumming. Have I mentioned yet how much I love the sound of the South America album?

Next we heard a few words about Ecuador’s greatest living painter Viteri and a few words about the writing of the song by that name. Kyle said he wrote it and thought it was pretty good, but only when he played it to people and started crying he knew he really had something. He is right. <3 I can never find adequate words to describe the power and the beauty of that song. “Somehow through the ache of love that’s lost it’s receiving end,,,” :’)

Before the happy “lalala” of ‘The sunken Coast’ drove the tears and somber mood away, we got to hear the story of Ørjan the Norwegian sound guy who promised to tour with them and then could not make it to all the shows, but send the most perfect replacement: Vegard. Having heard both of their work I must say Kyle is right: they are both great! Of course we clapped and cheered for him! Then it was time for the “lalala” sing along, some laughter and fun! It was time to thank everyone before ending with ‘La Llorona’ and more singing from us. 😀

The final song of the night was “a song about following your dreams” – Vancouver. When Kyle talked about the time we were “Just a little Swiss child”, P. and I looked at each otehr, shook our heads and smiled because neither of us is Swiss. The song was fun as always and during it, Kyle sat down next to A. and sang to him. 🙂 One last sing along, a jump high in the air, a few bows and it was over. It may not have been a huge crowd, but it was still a good show. I said goodbye to everyone and told the guys I’d be there again the next day. 🙂

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Scandinavian Moon
Photographs of Inuvik in January
Minnesota Part 1
Diagonal North America
Patagonia
Holy Mountain
Andes

Ecuador
The Landing of the plus ultra flying Boat
How do we lose it
To keep our Hands from shaking
Viteri
The sunken Coast
La Llorona

Vancouver

Come and shelter me here from hell

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Árstíðir / Myrkur / Sólstafir – Alhambra, Paris; November 20th, 2017

Wow, what a show! Paris brought me exactly what I had hoped for: Great music, a great audience and the perfect venue for it. After Lille I knew I would have fun watching Sólstafir, but it was much more than that: I loved everything about it. The music, the energy, the emotions that came with it. Needless to say I loved Árstíðir’s set too, even though it was over in a heartbeat. Myrkur still did not do much for me, but I didn’t mind her set either. So while I had contemplated skipping Berlin before the show started, I really wanted to go when it was over. This was as good as it was going to get. 🙂

I left Lille in the pouring rain and arrived to Paris an hour later in better weather. Didn’t do much before the gig and arrived early as usual. I wasn’t the first person though, one guy was waiting already. Got a little worried about having brought my camera, because a sign on the door said they were not allowed. Asked Erin when she came out to smoke and she said she had different rules and it was fine. 🙂 While we waited Aðalbjörn came out, coffee in hand and chatted with us for a bit. It was really nice. :). About ten minutes before the doors open, Erin decided to walk me in, told everyone the camera was OK and even provided me with a photo pass. Wow! 😀 Since I was inside, I got to witness the end of Árstíðir’s soundcheck too. <3 Said hello to them briefly, before they disappeared backstage. Someone from the crew noticed that Myrkur’s backdrop was upside down and it took a while until it was fixed. The funniest part was that I was hardly able to tell the difference. 😉 Soon after the doors opened and I watched as people filed in. The venue was really nice with an upstairs seated area and a slightly rising floor downstairs that also allowed for seats, but didn’t have any that day.

At first I thought the venue was somewhat empty, but it filled up soon enough and there was a good crowd by the time the lights went down and Árstíðir walked on stage. The setlist remained the same, yet somehow everything was so much better than the previous day. It might have been the fact that the sound was brilliant, i.e. not only the singing was clear, but I could also understand every word they said. Or it might have been because I was just better rested and thus more open to everything. Either way, I loved every minute of it and felt very much in tune with the music. I noticed the girl next to me taking notes on her phone and smiled because I have done the same thing at times. This night, I just enjoyed. Took a few pictures too, but mostly just watched and smiled, especially when the audience cheered after every song. I have no idea how many of them had seen the band before, but some yelled when Ragnar asked who had seen them in Paris four years ago and I judging by the cheers I am sure many liked what they heard.

The set is a good representation of their music from powerful to slower and softer in the middle to powerful again in the end. It works well as an introduction to their music, especially moving towards the style of the upcoming album. I still love many of the old songs dearly, but I like the direction they are taking now. ‘Mute’ was brilliant. It is still growing on me every time I hear it. Can’t find the words to describe it, just that it builds up slowly and dramatically towards a strong chorus, which does not really say anything about this particular song.  You’ll just have to go see them live or wait until the album comes out. 😉 In the current set it is my favorite next to ‘Systir’. There is something about both of these songs that draws me in and resonates with me.

During the concert we learned that the current rendition of ‘Heyr, hymna smiður’ is in A minor and some other random information like how much they love French cheese or how good the backstage mood on this tour is. 🙂 This tour takes me back to 2013 in many ways, even though not only the band line-up has changed since then. I still have great memories of that tour and his one is building up to give me the same. I’m really glad I choose to see a few shows and not skip it entirely. Maybe they’ll even change the setlist a little until I see them next time. Anyway, I loved seeing them work and wished it could have been longer. It was exactly what I had hoped for. Until Airwaves I had not realized how much I’d missed seeing and hearing the guys play. <3 ‘Shades’ was the grand finale again and worked better for me this time. It is a great song, with or without string players on stage and works perfectly to close the set.

Setlist

Himinhvel
Things you said
Mute
Heyr, himna smiður
Someone who cares
Systir
Shades

I wasn’t looking forward to Myrkur all that much, but decided to give her another chance before writing it off as the part of the show I would just have to get through. Her music is alright after all, I just do not like the screaming, Once again she and her band did their job well, but it didn’t touch me at all. She has a nice voice so I listened when she didn’t scream and otherwise concentrated on the music and on taking pictures. Her outfit had changed from light the previous day to dark, this time matching with the dark clothed band members. It was all fine, it fit with the theme of the evening and overall I didn’t mind, but I will never be a fan. There were a few people who seemed to be there to see her though and they enjoyed it so I was happy they got a good show. 🙂

Setlist

Mareridt
The Serpent
Ulvinde
Onde børn
Jeg er guden, i er tjenerne
Måneblôt
Elleskudt
Skøgen skulle dø
Skaði

There was nobody to chat with since everyone around me was talking French so I just watched as the stage was changed with Daníel and Ragnar hard at work amongst others. Even Erin was helping. Only Gunnar was nowhere to be seen. They got done quickly and when the music started and Sólstafir walked on stage I cheered with everyone else. They rocked the house from the start and it already felt a lot more familiar than the first time around. This time, when they asked who had seen them before, I raised my hand along with many others. The previous night, I had simply not understood the question due to the strange sound at the venue. Must have been the typical front row problem. Tonight though, everything about the sound was perfect. I understood every word and clearly heard every note. 😀

The songs are very long and I must admit I found it difficult at times to tell when one ends and the next one starts, but that did not spoil my enjoyment. I simply got lost in the flow of the music and enjoyed seeing the band work. Each one of them knows their job well and each one of them gets into it very much. It certainly looked like they were having fun. Everything sounded much better to me than through the haze of tiredness the previous day and it had not been bad then either. Still unfamiliar with their material, I recognized a few of the songs , but was sure one or two had been changed. Only after the show I learned that it had been the same setlist. I was starting to not only really enjoy the music, but feel it. Some songs started speaking to me, move me, work their way into my heart. It came unexpected, but I welcomed it whole-heartedly. Concerts are always better when the songs speak to me in one way or another.

The audience was amazing, cheering the band on between songs and hanging on to Aðalbjörn’s every word. Since the venue had two levels he addressed each level separately when asking how we were doing. People upstairs were seated so he decided to let them do a wave – they did, all the way from one side to the other. It was great! Later on he asked us to imagine seeing Iron Maiden, “the greatest metal band in the world” and cheer as if we were at one of their concerts. Then he separated us into groups by gender and decided that the women won the cheering contest. That prompted a guy in the audience to comment that “Someone wanted to get laid later”. The answer “I am taken, but Svavar here is available.” I think he talked a lot more than the previous night or at least it felt like it.

We were right up against the stage this time without any barrier so there was no platform in front of the stage for Aðalbjörn could step on. That did not keep him from moving all the way from one end of the stage to the other though. He leaned out often and towards the end of the concert he rolled up his microphone cable and decided to venture into the crowd, right where I stood. he even used my shoulder for support as he stepped down, then moved way to the back. Eventually the cable ran out and he pulled at it. People stated helping, i.e. pulling and Daníel came running, untangling what was left of it and holding on to the connection piece. I tried to help him and he looked slightly panicky there for a moment, afraid the connection would break. It didn’t, the crowd loved the little excursion and Aðalbjörn safely made it back to the stage. 😀

Then everything got more serious. He talked about depression and how many people suffer from it in silence, with many committing Suicide. He stated that if we knew anyone who did  suffer from depression we should take care of them and keep communicating, because we might be the only people to talk to them and the only ones helping them to hold on. Reaching out is the one thing we can do and it’s important to be reminded of that once in a while. The power and passion flowing into the next song drove the point home and me close to tears.

The show ended with the band playing a crazy finale with Hallgrímur playing the drums like a madman, Svavars braids flying all over, Aðalbjörn and Sæþór dropping to their knees and Ragnar picking up the Hammond organ an playing it in the air. It instantly put the smile back on my face. It was official, I was falling for this band, thoroughly enjoying the gig and wanting to see more. When they ended the last song and came to the front for a final bow, I cheered and screamed loudly. Hell yeah, this was awesome!

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Silfur-Refur
Ótta
Lágnætti
Ísafold
Köld
Hula
Fjara
Bláfjall
Goddess of the Ages

This time the merch stand was inside the concert hall so quite a few people were still around. I waited near the stage for a while and Ragnar dropped by for a chat. I told him how much I had loved it and that I felt he was even more into it than the previous night. He confirmed that he was getting more confident with the material and having lots of fun. We also agreed that Sólstafir’s music gets under your skin. Soon he had to get back to work and we hugged goodbye. I spoke to everyone in Sólstafir too, bought their latest album after confirming the song I liked best was on there and got it signed by everyone. Had a brief chat with Erin too and finally made my way home, feeling elated, knowing that somehow, I had to make it possible to go to Berlin.