Old songs, fun covers and self defense involving beer

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Svavar Knútur – Schlachtgarten, Krefeld; July 20th, 2022

Svavar Knútur’s concert in Krefeld was a spontaneous one for me. Until that morning I hadn’t even known he was playing in my area. It was a great one overall, taking place at a rather nice location and bringing some songs I had never heard him play before. Lights, sound, staff and audience were all great too so I had a wonderful evening.

In the morning I had bought a ticket for ‘Doors (No exit)’ the play that Svavar has a part in at Theater Gütersloh and then checked his website for tour dates. Until then, none of the dates had fit for me and suddenly there it was: Krefeld, July 20th – “Wait! That is tonight!”. i checked train connections and immediately decided to go. Fast forward a few hours and I arrived at Schlachtgarten, before Svavar even got there – his train was delayed. Grabbed drinks, found a seat, talked with other guests, greeted Svavar as he arrived and listened to souncheck – all good ways to pass the time.

Sooner than expected the organizer greeted us and announced the concert, telling us how great last year’s concert had been. Svavar stepped on stage, grabbed his guitar and told us that this concert was part of awakening from the post-Covid coma. He started with an Icelandic lullaby based on a poem by Halldór Laxness called ‘Hvert örstutt spor’ and explained that it was his son’s favorite. it was a soft and sweet melody, perfect to ease us into the concert.

He said he’d be playing all sorts of song during the night and continued with one of his earlier songs called ‘Dansa’ about getting up and starting to move again after trauma and face life. It felt right when he said that this wasn’t easy and it as OK to admit to that. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him play that song before. 🙂 After the somber start we were all laughing when he joked that Covid was worse than having a bit of popcorn stuck between your teeth.

We got ‘Brot’ next and I as already smiling happily. It is one of my favorite songs. <3 After all the Icelandic songs, he wanted to play something in English and settled on ‘Clementine’ and we got to sing along to the “lalala”-Part. I felt right at home. Then Svavar told us some Icelandic history and gave us a lesson on cultural differences.

He explained hat he only writes nice breakup songs, because there is a reason for having been together. He turned it into a joke about Taylor Swift writing songs about how bad her ex was. Of course he sang all of that, making up a song on the spot. 😉 Dude, you didn’t have to look all the way to the US to find someone who writes angry breakup songs *cough* just listen to Ragnar Ólafsson’s ‘Urges’ *cough* (yes, they know each other). Anyway, I understand the sentiment that one might take something good from a relationship that has ended. The song he played was ‘Hard Times’ and I loved it.

Proudly Svavar told about never getting into a fight and his special way of avoiding them. Beer plays an important role there. The Smiths’ ‘There’s a light that never goes out’ another song I’ve never heard him play and an amazing one. It was such a surprising setlist so far. The last song before the break was ‘November’, because he was longing for cooler weather when there is space for creation in the darkness. I had been hoping he would play this, it’s another one of my favorites.

During the break I went and talked to Svavar for a bit. He wanted to know if I had any requests so I asked for ‘Lady Winter’ and told him the setlist was great so far. Also spent some time chatting with K., who sat next to me and offered me a ride for after the show. 🙂

Soon he was back on stage, already making us laugh again by explaining what the real way to a man’s heart is. 😀 Next was ‘Januar’ the song about the month that brings back the light. Svavar spoke about the Icelandic language and how every language has unique colors and melodies. One example was how the ocean is used as a metaphor for loss and grief in Icelandic, but in German it’s mountains or forests. Somehow that lead to jokes about Danish people and finally a song about birch trees, ‘Undir Birkitré’ and another sing along. 🙂

‘Emotional Anorexic’ was next and for the first time in a long time it didn’t make me cry. <3 It always moves me so I love to hear it. He picked up his ukulele and played ‘Baby would you marry me?’.

Svavar told us how he always has to write from his own perspective and spoke about writing songs about refugees and how Icelanders as well as Irish people fled from hunger. He played ‘Lady Winter’ about Icelandic Refugees and then ‘Hope and Fortune’ the song he wrote with Irish Mythen, where Irish and Icelandic refugees compare stories. <3

The ukulele was back for ‘Girl form Vancouver’ and he mentioned that he wrote it about two different girls. 😀 We had arrived at the last song, the song about a Raven. Svavar offered to play more if we got one more drink to help out the venue.

The Encore started with A Jeff Lynne song called ‘Mr. Blue Sky’, which he declared his “Fuck you Covid song” – it was very fitting indeed. 😀 He continued with Johannes Brahms’ ‘In stiller Nacht’ and it was beautiful. After more cheering he added ABBA’s ‘When all is said and done’ and there could not have been a better ending. What a lovely night that was!

I went and hugged Svavar goodbye, then K. gave me a lift to Mühlheim. We had a nice evening, hope to see you soon.

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Hvert örstutt spor
Dansa
Brot
Clementine
Hard Times
There’s a light that never goes out (The Smiths)
November

Janúar
Undir Birkitré
Emotional Anorexic
Baby, would you marry me?
Lady Winter
Hope and Fortune
Girl from Vancouver
Krummi Svaf í Klettagjá

Mr. Blue Sky (Jeff Lynne)
In stiller Nacht (Brahms)
When all is said and done (ABBA)

 

 

I feel something when I see you

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Phoebe Bridgers – E-Werk, Cologne; July 18th, 2022

Over the years I have learned that when it comes to concerts, I need to follow my instinct and when my heart tells me to go to a show, I should do all I can to be there. On Friday I listened to my heart and bought a ticket to see Phoebe Bridgers on Monday. I was one of the best shows I have attended this year!

The original plan was to see my friend Ragnar play in Szamotouly on Sunday and return home Monday morning. That plan had already been altered by Flixbus canceling my bus and rebooking me to a late one. So I would not have made it home before noon, which seemed a hassle. Then, on Friday, I found out Phoebe Bridgers was playing in Cologne on Monday and changed all plans to be there. 🙂

Thus, I found myself outside E-Werk at 4:30 in the afternoon. Due to the heat the security guards gave out numbers and told us to find shade and come back around 6 and they’d line us up in order. It worked pretty well. Kudos to the organizers! While standing in line, an envelope was making its way through the line with red and blue pieces of paper and instuctions to take one each and put them in front of our phone lights during ‘Punisher’.

Once they let us in I immediately went upstairs and had the entire balcony to myself for a bit. Eventually others joined me and we had nice conversations. Much sooner than expected the lights went out and Phoebe introduced the support act, Sloppy Jane. I later learned that she used to play bass with them. Sloppy Jane started with an instrumental, that was heavy on the strings. I liked it and their set only got better from there. It was a cool mixture of music and performance art, in the process of which the singer stripped off her pants and replaced them with high boots. It was fun to watch and especially when she turned to the piano it reminded me of Amanda Palmer. What a great start. 😀

It was only a short wait now and many of us on the balcony stayed sated for a little while longer. When the lights went down again, everyone got up and big smiles showed up on the faces all around me as we heard Disturbed’s ‘Down with the Sickness’ play from the speakers. Phoebe and her band, all in cool skeleton clothes,  walked on stage and the song turned into ‘Motion Sickness’. Cheers erupted everywhere, the sound was amazing and I already loved it.

She continued with ‘Play video’ and ‘DVD Menu’ – somewhere in there she greeted us and with this started an ongoing conversation with the audience. It was attentive, friendly and caring throughout. I was deeply moved not only by the music, but by the love I felt that night, flowing between the stage and the audience.

For ‘Garden Song’ her tour manager Jeroen Vrijhoef joined her and like for everything else, the fans sang along to every word. <3 It was all a beautiful get together. At one point Phoebe was concerned with us getting enough to drink in the hat and asked the venue staff to give out water. She was also reading placards that people held up. “This one reads ‘She is a ten but looks like Draco Malfoy’ – that’s an and for me and fuck JK Rowling obviously!” Another one read ‘Fuck the Surpreme Court’ – she used it to give a shoutout for an organization that funds abortions for undocumented people and generally suggested giving money to abortion funds, fully aware that we might not feel we needed to solve another countries’ problems. She concluded that it as nice to be away from the US for a while.

‘Kyoto’ followed, for all the dads in the house, then ‘Punisher’. I held up my phone with the flashlight glowing red as red and blue lights went up all over the place. It looked amazing and Phoebe was really happy about it, asking who organized it and thanking them. After so much happiness, she promised us misery on the next song, ‘Halloween’.

I loved everything about the concert from the songs to the beautiful lights to the wonderful fans and was moved to tears a few times, even though I cannot recall which songs did that. it definitely felt like Phoebe was connecting with all of us and more than once I looked at the woman to my right, singing along with all of her heart and full of passion. I saw myself there, singing along with my favorite artists and could not help but smile. This was love.

Before ‘Funeral’ she talked about depression and how some people thought she made it sound cool, but that was not her intention and everyone who suffered from it should get help. This song, she explained, was about how it felt like for her. The setlist was perfect and only lack of familiarity with Phoebe’s songs stops me from raving about each one individually. I recognized most of them, but I’m terrible at remembering the titles or what happened where. Let me just say that I enjoyed the show tremendously and was really glad I decided to go.

Somewhere in the second half, a lot of people gave her presents and she commented on all of them, expressing how nice they were and what she might do with them. Someone threw a blinking cowboy hat on stage and she put it on for one song. She as clearly having fun! After the beautiful ICU she told us that the next one, ‘Sidelines’ was her last song. Of curse we cheered for more and nobody bothered with leaving the stage.

They played ‘Graceland too’ and Phoebe ended the set with calling Sloppy Jane to the stage to help with ‘I know the End’. It was a great rendition of the song. They said goodbye, but would give us one last song, a request. While she was looking at the fan’s signs and deciding what to play, she introduced the band to us. That night, the final song was ‘Gloria’ and as the last notes rang out, I left with a happy sigh escaping me. This is how a concert should be!

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Down With the Sickness (Disturbed song) – from tape

Motion Sickness
Play Video
DVD Menu
Garden Song (with Jeroen Vrijhoef)
Kyoto
Punisher
Halloween
Smoke Signals
Funeral
Chinese Satellite
Moon Song
Scott Street
Savior Complex
ICU
Sidelines
Graceland Too
I Know The End (with Sloppy Jane)

Encore
Georgia