Isn’t it funny?

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Svavar Knútur – Weltempfänger, Cologne; April 29th, 2023

It had been years since I’d last seen Svavar Knútur at Weltempfänger in Cologne, so I was really happy to make it back there for a concert. I had great memories of the last time and I was not disappointed. It was a completely different show from the one I remembered, yet absolutely wonderful.

Every time Svavar plays a concert near me and I’m not out of town, I do my best to make it there. Cologne on a weekend is an easy thing to do and I arrived in good time, had some delicious cake, grabbed a seat at the front and was ready for a show.

The sign outside had said 20:30, but Svavar stepped on stage around 10 past 8 – turned out there was a curfew, because of the hostel guests who might want to sleep upstairs. He greeted us, said he loved being back and was happy to recognized so many people in the audience. It lead to a lot of laughter when he said he loves Deutsche Bahn, but so far there had been no delays on this tour.

He started the show with ‘Your Love was death to me’, a not break-up song, he wrote for a friend. It was the perfect introduction to his often melancholic music. Next, he introduced a new song by speaking about living “on the ass of the world” and went off on a tangent speaking about a new waterfall near Akureyri, before playing ‘Refur’, the song about his youngest son. It was a funny story and a lovely song.

There was more laughter when he spoke about drinking on the job, giving examples of where that wouldn’t work. 😀 ‘Ölduslóð’ followed, including some explanations on the Icelandic language and after this song about friendship, he spoke about his love for breakup songs and how he writes kind ones, because you can learn from breakups. The beautiful ‘Hard Things’ followed.

Svavar mentioned how mornings were his favorite time of day to sleep and this played us ‘Morgunn’, one of his happy songs. <3 He mentioned how he would love to do a “Monster Tour” where he just told stories about Icelandic monsters, then introduced two of his favorite monsters to us in detail, including great sound effects. 😀 This all served as introduction to a new song about the Merman, who does only one thing: laugh. Why? Well, you’ll have to ask Svavar about that. The song is called ‘Isn’t it funny?’ and I really enjoyed it.

It was already the end of the first set and before the last song, he spoke about playing for the hat and how it does not work in some countries. 😀 ‘November’ ended the set, beautiful as always. He also asked us for requests and got a lot of them.

The first song in the second half continued the “favorite months of the year” theme with ‘Janúar’. 🙂 Svavar then joked, he would play all the requests at double speed to get through them all. First one of them was ‘Humble Hymn’, a “song about hangovers” – really? OK. I had fun with it either way, especially with the sing-along.

‘Hverjum hefði getað dottið í hug’ was next and I could not even remember having heard the song on any album (it’s on Kvöldvaka), much less live. It was beautiful. Sticking with Icelandic songs we got ‘Undir Birkitré’ and a few stories about Icelandic forests. 😀 It brought another lovely sing-along. While we were at it, ‘Wanderlust’ was the perfect follow up. 🙂

Svavar picked up his ukulele and told us how he had an accident with it, using the story to teach us how it is important to be the first one to laugh when something stupid happens to you. Great advice. We got to hear the great ‘Girl from Vancouver’ before he told us he was only gonna play two more songs.

We learned a bit about the evolution of love songs (or not) since Shakespeare and that he hates love songs because of that. ‘While the World burns’, however, is an exception and it was wonderful too. Then, the grand finale, was ‘Emotional Anorexic’. <3 And I had thought he might not play it this time.

We cheered him back to the stage and he played ‘The Hurting’. I loved it. It is such a powerful song. It got quieter after that with ABBA’s ‘When all is said and done’, his favorite breakup song. Such a lovely song to end the show with.

It didn’t end though. We cheered so much, that he played one last tune, off mic. It was ‘Halfway down he stairs’. Awww. 🙂

I stayed for a hug and a chat afterwards, happy to have the time for it. Thank you for the great evening, hope to see you soon.

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Your Love was death to me
Refur
Ölduslóð
Hard Things
Morgunn
Isn’t it funny?
November

Janúar
Humble Hymn
Hverjum hefði getað dottið í hug
Undir Birkitré
Wanderlust
Girl from Vancouver
While the World burns
Emotional Anorexic

The Hurting
When all is said and done

Halfway down the Stairs

Friendly venue, fuck-ups and fun

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Ragnar Ólafsson – Kino za rogiem, Rzeszów; April 27th, 2023

My final show of Ragnar’s tour happened in Rzeszów and it was a good one. It was a nice venue, the gig was sold out and we had a lot of fun. In short: everything a concert needs. I was happy I’d come.

After the previous night’s party, I was happy that my train didn’t leave until noon and I could sleep late. Travel time was short, I got some food when I arrived and took a little walk around the city before I went to the venue for a pre concert tea. It was an early show and I heard some of the sound check soon after I arrived.

When they let us in from the cafe, I was surprised that the venue was upstaors, but it all made sense, considering the building wasn’t that big and the cafe took up most of the downstairs space. Anyway, I got a good seat and immediately liked the room with sofas, chairs and a small bar.

As he stepped on stage, Ragnar greeted us in Polish and did not seem as hungover as I would have expected. It was quickly established that only one person in the room spoke a little Icelandic and thus he would stick with English. Quite a few people had seen him before.

‘Warsaw’ started great, but with the last verse there was music coming from somewhere, specifically Madonna’s ‘Like  Prayer’ and for some confusing moments it was unclear where it came from or how to turn it off. Then, just as he was checking out one of the speakers side stage, it suddenly stopped and Ragnar continued the song. 😀

The beautiful ‘Every Brick in Manhattan’ went by without any disturbance and we heard stories about travel and inspiration. Before ‘Deva’ he asked about the sound and it was fine, so jokes ensued about the Madonna incident. Then, however, it happened again, this time with Ragnar’s own song coming from the speaker and not the one he was currently playing. Turned out one of the hosts accidentally connected via bluetooth. Ooops. She apologized and we all laughed it off. Then he just started the song over. 🙂

Ragnar spoke about his breakup album and how selfish love songs are, especially the sad ones, because we only get one side of the story. He invited local singer Gaba on stage to help him out and she mastered ‘Dozen’ beautifully. ‘A Prayer’ was powerful as every. I loved it.

We heard about the TV series Fractures and the great music on it. ‘Hugsanir’ was the perfect example. <3 When he asked us to sing with him in Icelandic, someone replied “of course” and Ragnar told him he was a brave man. He decided not to tell us what the song was about, but think of a person that is special to us and make the song about them. That works really well for me. With everyone singing, the song came out beautifully.

Afterwards he had to ask some people in the audience to stop talking, because it was distracting. I had not heard them, but I was at a different angle to them. After the show, Ragnar told me it made him lose his stride, but I didn’t notice it. Then, he spoke a little bit about his trip across the rocky mountains and played us ‘Bravery’, which is always a crowd pleaser.

To my surprise, he continued with ‘Water’ and just started playing it without any introduction. I had not heard it on guitar in a while and loved everything about it. <3 ‘Łódź’ was next and again people claimed they didn’t like the city. Why so much hate? I actually think it’s rather nice. The song was lovely, it always is and people really appreciated it too.

‘Petals’ brought Gaba back and she handled that one very well too. It is still a highlight for me every night. ‘Dragonfly’ was the closer. With no cow or giraffe costumes this tour, but fun to watch nonetheless. Marta really gets into playing that glockenspiel. 😀

The demands for an encore were loud and the murder ballads were great. ‘Where the wild roses grow’ had some of us sing along and ‘Sleep now’ brought the usual walking around the room. Ragnar ended it sitting down in the empty chair next to me and singing the final “I love you, you’re asleep now” to me. <3 People cheered loudly after, but this time they stopped too early so no more songs. It had been a good, enjoyable last show for me.

We chatted for a while, about the tour and music in general, then I helped them pack and we said goodbye. It has been great, gee you next time. <3

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Warsaw
Every Brick in Manhattan
Deva
Dozen
A Prayer
Hugsanir
Örlög
Bravery
Water
Łódź
Petals
Dragonfly

Where the wild roses grow
Sleep now