This was a Christian youth festival that I kinda was dragged into. I was not Christian at the point, and I was sure as hell not Christian after ^^. Rudi Myntevik played pretty standard worship music.. PIT was some kind of a rap crew or something which I only spotted in the basement. Overall not a good "first-concert" experience.
Before the first day, I had moved some random bands over to my cell phone. One of them was Despised Icon. Their first grindy album. Since we had nothing else to do, I played the track and I was amazed. Had never heard bree vocals before. We called it "tea can" vocals and was laughing the whole night.
When entering the doors for the Myntevik-concert, we were kinda squeezed. The guards actually had to counter-squeeze. Believe it or not. During the Saturday I also visited Mefisto, a now closed metal CD store. I bought my very first album: The Red Chord - Clients. I was laughing at the lyrics the whole night.
So this was my very first "real" concert. A local gamer tipped me about this on IRC. I went with steriliuz and -JannE-.. None of us had even heard about L54, so we didn't really know what we were going to. I had no idea the volume would be this high, so I didn't have any ear plugs (and I had never actually used ear plugs before either). My ears were broken after the night. I had checked out the bands before I went, and hadn't really heard any good words about Pain of Elohim, but I was amazed by them live.
Pain of Elohim moshing:
During Imprint I discovered one thing: moshing is not for me. Also, there were extremely many long-haired headbangers in the room now. Kinda surreal for the concert-noob I was.
Here the whole front row fell to the right (lul):
At this point we had 8 layers of "dotts" in our ears, but as we were walking slowly up the stairs to catch Lowdown, we heard it build up for a breakdown. And the moment we entered the room, there was this beautiful "pling" breakdown. There were extremely many headbangers in the room now, and also a semi-professional light show o.0.
Lowdown:
Still, after 2 years, I have never seen L54 looking so good as it looked this day. On the way home we, the kids we were, practiced death metal vocals on the whole way home. We had to walk, because we didn't know how to take the bus.
(Added at a later point from a journal I discovered I had written)
"PoE was much better than I thought they would be. Their vocalist had very nice screams and jumped around as a real vocalist. The bassist did not know how to headbang, but he played good. Their songs were good as well. Beautiful bass in the drums!
Imprint was the best headbangers tonight, they had powerful guitars and vocals. Really nice gear as well. Many riffs were made for headbanging, and everyone shook their heads in rhythm. It looked and sounded awesome. It started to get really crowded in the front, and there were some nice mosh rings.
When I came up after the break, I came in the middle of a song during one of the best breakdowns I've ever heard. The light-man turned on his funky white and bright lights to make the riffs even more powerful. You could hear that they were inspired by Korn and American metalcore. More and more people came as Lowdown played and I could not see that much (the bright lights flashed my eyes all the time), but I could hear... and it pleased my ears.."
After the concert at L54 we were pretty amused by the whole local concerts thing, and found this hardcore show. I had never been to Metropolis before - didn't even know where it was. I remember more or less nothing about this concert now (November 2009).. but me and Eirik wrote a little blog post on our blog about the show, so I'm referring to this.
Cold Front had no bassist, and the whole band was pretty tame. Unbreakable was standard hardcore and had to give up because of problems with the vocals.. We liked When Sin Fails, double vocals and nice breakdowns. And the surprise of the evening, Arise of Judgement had a girl on vocals! "Everybody" was singing along in pure hardcore spirit and we had a good time.
The poster:
Arise of Judgement:
When Sin Fails:
When Sin Fails with Matsi on guitar, who we would later see in Pain of Elohim:
(Added at a later point from a journal I discovered I had written):
Cold Front:
Cold Front was the first band to enter tha stage.. They had no bassist, but two guitars, and they sucked at headbanging, maybe because their songs also sucked. The vocalist, Erik(?), was talented though.. [nov-2009: wow very rude of me. I actually liked the vocalists other band, "On Own Terms" later]
Unbreakable:
This was just a piece of crap. The vocalist was hoarse, and they could only play two songs.. I don't remember much of them.. But no one cried when they said that "this was their last song". [nov-2009: also very rude of me.. but this was probably even more true... sorry :)]
When sin Fails:
Really, really good double-vocal hardcore band. Neat breakdowns as well.
Arise of Judgement:
Double-vocals here as well. One of each gender.. The girl, Ida(?), was talented, and I enjoyed listening to her nice and powerful screams. The bassist was c00l and the drummer had weird facial expressions [nov-2009: more usual than I knew at the time]. The audience knew the lyrics and everyone was singing.. Best band of the show!
UKM - Ungdommens kulturmønstring.. A competition for youth. Tickets were 150NOK for two days, and I'm pretty sure the reason we went was When Sin Fails and Pain of Elohim.. This was the finals for my county, and the concert was split in three different concerts, but I only think I went on 2 of them.. I was disappointed in When Sin Fails, as they only had one vocalist this day (see the video). Also, I don't think I liked Perfect Crime very much at the time, but in 2008 I would love them. Malin Winther was btw a girl from my school, and 2 years later she is now far into the Norwegian X-factor competition with Shackles.
At this time, the hardcore scene in Stavanger was actually pretty okay. They booked these big names (including Justice, which I did not catch), and made it last a whole day (for 120 NOK). Review from a journal I wrote the day after:
"I met up in my Dimmu Borgir hoodie as usual, and I was ready for some beautiful music.. but..:
It started with Alert The Audience.. well, what could you expect from a newly started band? To tell the truth, this sucked.. I did not like the vocals.. [nov-2009: I would later like this type of vocals]
Second band was Unbreakable, they were much better this time.. but I can't say it made me headbang :p
I'm not sure about the order of the bands, but what the hell:
xArise of Judgementx was good, as usual. Br00tal vocals! Not much to say about that..
On own terms: This would've been much better if the audience (including me) would have been more willing. But they were good, nothing negative about them..
Common Cause was teh shit.. bad vocals.. (I'm not even sure if it was Common Cause, but what the heck :p)
Real Heroes Die... This was REALLY good! Beautiful breakdowns, beautiful riffs and br00tal sound=d Really headbangable=p
Verse.. These American guys was what I expected, melodic hardcore.. it's not really my style, but they were great on stage.
Justice: I left the building before they played :( I had a train to catch.. I had looked forward to this band, after what I've heard on myspace..
conclusion: It was worth the money
Quote one of the American bands I'm gonna be that annoying guy again, and say "please move forward towards the stage""
After listening to these guys on Spotify and Lydverket, I fell in love. Found a free demo thingie online, which I loved even more. First up was Frøken Fryd, which were playing pretty tight tonight. Their new song had a few dissonant parts which I liked. I think it's time to move on from the girly pop rock...... don't care about what the record companies or the manager wants.. Anyway, Kråkesølv. Surprisingly young, from the very awesome city of Bodø. Playing beautiful indie pop and post-rock. Fits perfectly with my favorite artist at the moment, Cymbals Eat Guitars. They were joking about their mistakes and generally having a good time. I absolutely loved it and I'm sad I didn't get to buy a CD.. They're also playing tomorrow at Martinique, if I'm lucky I can see them there after my own concert. Perfect concert.
We (Hamu(e)mon) had a band practice earlier on the day, when we got a call from Iris about out our sound check time.. We suddenly realized we had to flee from Eirik's house, to catch the train. Which we did, by 1-2 minutes.. but there was no train at that time, as this was a Saturday... so we had to wait another 30 minutes, but luckily the sound checks were a little delayed.
The first band, Steinbitt, could only play one song (I believe it was a cover), which was pretty bad. We didn't know that they only were playing 1 song, so I did not have time to warm up, thus making me tired in the arms after only 1 song -> making me play sloppy. I don't believe it was terrible though, but not my/our best concert. This was our last concert ever, but we didn't make any fuzz about it.
I don't remember much from Battle of Jericho. I left before Arlie Mucks played. I did not go to the Kråkesølv concert at Martinique as I planned :(. anders_sn did, and he got a t-shirt + a signed CD :(.
___
Album collection
Syntax: Date bought:Artist - Album(place bought)
Poucos artistas noruegueses possuem uma carreira tão bem sucedida quanto Espen Lind, seja internacionalmente ou em seu próprio país, seja como cantor ou como compositor-produtor, seja solo ou com seus companheiros de palco. Seu novo disco “Army Of One” foi lançado nesta segunda (dia 23/06) na Noruega, com o primeiro single deste trabalho tendo desbancando o hit mundial “4 Minutes” de Madonna do primeiro lugar da parada nacional.
Muito? Apesar de Espen confessar que não esperava que uma música tão pouco comum cativasse tanto as pessoas, estar no topo não é novidade para o cantor. “When Susannah Cries”, sua primeira música, lançada em 1997, atingiu o #1 em 11 países ao redor do mundo e seu primeiro álbum “Red” vendeu mais de meio milhão de cópias. “This Is Pop music”, seu segundo trabalho, saiu em 2000 e foi direto para a lista dos mais vendidos na Noruega, embalado pelo hit “Black Sunday”. Depois de uma pausa de 4 anos, o cantor-compositor retornou no final de 2004 com o single “Unloved”, atingindo novamente o topo da parada nórdica por diversas semanas. Seu terceiro disco “April” saiu no começo de 2005 e ainda teve o hit “Million Miles Away”. Em 2006, Espen se juntou com o cantores Kurt Nilsen, Alejandro Fuentes e Askil Holm para uma pequena turnê pelo seu país, que acabou se estendendo por todo o ano e rendendo um dos álbuns mais vendidos na Noruega durante a semana de lançamento, “Hallelujah - Live” atingiu a marca de 100 mil cópias em uma única semana e o cover da famosa canção de Leonard Cohen chegou ao topo da parada nacional.
Depois de tantos êxitos, o que Espen podia mais esperar? “Irreplaceable” da cantora Beyoncé, música de sua co-autoria, ficou por 10 semanas no topo da Billboard, além de ter sido o single mais vendido dos Estados Unidos em 2007. Espen também compôs músicas para artistas como Jessica Simpson, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks e o “Take That” Mark Owen. Ele abriu um estúdio em Nova York, junto com o produtor Amund Bjørklund, chamado Espionage, que também tem sede em Oslo, onde produz música para diversos artistas.
“Army Of One” é o seu quinto trabalho e foi gravado praticamente na sala de estar do cantor, armado com um ukulele (cavaquinho), um violão e piano. Espen diz que comprou o peculiar instrumento e quando ele foi entregue na porta de casa, simplesmente sentou e começou a tocar a primeira coisa que veio em sua cabeça. A partir daí, o disco inteiro fluiu. “Army Of One é definitivamente o álbum mais fácil que eu fiz e também o primeiro que não me cansou antes de ser lançado”, diz Lind, que se inspirou na sua coleção de discos dos Anos 70, com Paul Simon, Randy Newman, James Taylor e Cat Steves. Ele queria fazer simplesmente algo diferente do que já tinha feito antes. “Eu não tinha idéia de como as pessoas iriam reagir a isto”. Alguns músicas do disco são realmente inusitadas, como o single “Scared Of Heights”, tocado com o cavaquinho mais um bumbo e uma tuba. “Sea Of Love” segue o mesmo estilo da anterior, tirando a tuba e o bumbo, e adicionando o teclado. “Cleary You Are Falling In Love” lembra as músicas da sua avó, com uma levada absolamente old-style. As canções “Army Of One” e “Sweet Love”, por sua vez, são tocadas apenas no piano, uma das especialidades do cantor, reconhecido por uma voz diversificada e muito bem afinada. O disco tem ainda boas baladas, como “Hopelessly Happy” e “The Music Takes You There”, fechando com a clássica “I Don’t Let My Heart To Be Toubled”.
“Army Of One” é de longe o melhor trabalho de Espen Lind, ironicamente feito sem numa pretensão ou cobrança, um album leve e delicioso de se escutar. O disco está disponível inteiro no seu myspace oficial. Se por acaso alguém estiver pela Noruega no outono europeu, não deixe de ir aos shows da turnê do cantor, o maior nome da música nórdica na última década.
1. How did you get into 29? Yellowcard - A movie. I think they played Ocean Avenue and it's really catchy, even the first time you hear it, I gotta say ;)
2. What was the first song you ever heard by 22? The Calling - Haha! Wherever You Will Go for sure! Haven't listened to it for ages though :/
3. How many albums by 13 do you own? Nelly Furtado - I've gotten two albums. Well, one and a half to be correct.
6. Is there a song by 6 that makes you happy? My Chemical Romance - Teenagers, definately! The lyrics are so true :P
7. What is your favorite song by 10? Lifehouse - The only song I find listenable is You And Me, so that's it!
8. What is a good memory you have involving 30? Phantom Planet - I don't know if there are any good memories, but California is classic to me sense I got stuck watching the stupidest show ever - The O.C :(
10. How many times have you seen 25 live? Aerosmith - Like I've gotten any chance to :(
11. What is the first song you ever heard by 23? Hellogoodbye - Can't remember, sadly.. But, their best one is Here (In Your Arms), no questions about it!
12. What is your favorite album by 11? KT Tunstall - Hmm.. Haven't really listened to her new one, so I'd say Eye to the Telescope.
13. Who is a favorite member of 1?
Well, Mika is my number one (: So, I guess Mika is my ultimate favorite ^^,
14. Have you ever seen 14 live? Bowling for Soup - No, I sure would love to.
15. What is a good memory involving 27? Takida - Well, I got a really bad memory of Jaded though :/ Hate that song now.
19. What is the first song you ever heard by 26? Keane - Don't know. Probably Everybody's Changing, 'cause it's the only song I can't stand nowadays :/
20. What is your favorite album by 2? Paolo Nutini - These Streets. What a hard question to answer ;)
22. What is you favorite song by 8? The Academy Is... - Down and Out was the first song a ever heard from their first album.
23. How many times have you seen 17 live? Panic! At the Disco - NONE! Was close once, but no one really wanted to go with me though :( Such a pity, cause obviously they are really good performers..
24. What is the worst song by 12? Snow Patrol - The worst song is also the best song, and thirdly.. the only song I got in my iTunes library: Chasing Cars. I already know I'm not well..
25. What was the first song you ever heard by 28? Hawk Nelson - Bring 'Em Out I think. In a movie maybe.. Yeah, probably. Honestly, I have no idea, but whatever.
28. Is there a song by 9 that makes you happy? Teddy Geiger - For You I Will (Confidence) is a bit cheesy but I can't help loving it. The coziest song ever!
29. What is your favorite album by 4? The All-American Rejects - Both albums and the EP are great. Don't have anything negative to say whatsoever. A-AR is the only band I've never gotten tired of! Applause ;)
30. How many albums do you own by 20? Rooney - Their one and only self-titled album :)
01:Maria Solheim
Ikke overraskende en ener denne uka også...
Will There Be Spring er et herlig album.
Lurer på hvor lenge frøken Solheim vil holde seg på toppen... Jeg anbefaler den små-catchy 'Wildest Day'
02:Eva & The Heartmaker
Koselig med norske, flinke talenter som Eva og hjertemakeren hennes. 'I am the sun' er jo så søt!
04:Lene Marlin
Jeg ble glad når jeg fant ut at idolet mitt gjennom alle tider, stod på lista. Jeg begynte å bli litt redd for om hun hadde dalt langt ned, men neida :) 4 plass holder fint for 'A place Nearby' og Avalon-duetten<3
Jeg er spent på neste uke, Lene...
05:Alejandro Fuentes
Så det holder ikke med gitarvennene dine, Ali? Du må få en egen plassering? Javel ja.. Merkelig nok.. Enten har jeg hørt veldig lite på musikk denne uka, eller veldig mye på deg.. Hmm.. Overraskende 5. plass
06:Karpe Diem
Okai da, så kan jeg skjønne at de kuleste rapperne i Norge ligger på lista, de har jo tross alt en del festlige låter, selv om albummet er en dose skuffende...
Lykke til neste uke, gutta!
07:Belle & Sebastian
Mm.. De er så originale! Har ikke satt meg inn i musikken helt enda, men det kommer :)
08:Donna Lewis
Jeg har jo bare to sanger, men to fine sanger =) Jeg vil kjøpe albummene! Jaa....
09:Kurt Nilsen
Hm.. Trodde jeg hadde hørt på Nilsern mer enn Lewisen men men, vi får se da.. på statistikken neste uke, min unge mann!
Alejandro Fuentes
