Best songs:

01: Spleen United: My Tribe
02: Modest Mouse: Dashboard
03: Cold War Kids: Hang Me Up To Dry
04: Band Of Horses: Is There a Ghost
05: The Gossip: Standing In The Way of Control
06: Familjen: Det Snurrar I Min Skalle
07: Plain White T’s: Hey There Delilah
08: Shout Out Louds: Tonight I Have To Leave It
09: Soko: I’ll Kill Her
10: A Kid Hereafter: Hip Girls
11: Magnum 44: South Side Of My Bed (demo-track)
12: Kaiser Chiefs: Everything Is Average Nowadays
13: Foo Fighters: The Pretender
14: Interpol: The Heinrich Maneuver
15: Forest and Crispian: Linda

Best albums of 2007:

01: Muse: Black Holes And Revelations
02: The Killers: Sam’s Town
03: Band Of Horses: Cease to Begin
04: Dúné: We Are In There You Are Out Here
05: Amy Winehouse: Back To Black
06: Queens Of The Stone Age: Era Vulgaris
07: Oh No Ono: Yes
08: Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
09: The Kissaway Trail: The Kissaway Trail
10: Interpol: Our Love To Admire

You will be able to listen to the songs shortly!

UK indie band Kaiser Chiefs has played in Denmark many many times since they broke through the sound barrier with their first single Oh My God a few years back. Lead singer Ricky Wilson and his band have always been a great live band, but tonight in Copenhagen, it became obvious that if it wasn’t for Wilson, Kaiser Chiefs would be nothing than a mediocre band.

From the very first song Everything Is Average Nowadays, Wilson had the crowd in the palm of his hand. In recent days, Danish media has been all about athletes using EPO, and in K.B. Hallen, it seemed that Wilson was a clear EPO-candidate. Running and jumping around like a Duracell bunny, the crowd had difficulty keeping up with the Englishman. The rest of the band, though, was way too static, and seemed like they were just there to play, and not do much more – this got increasingly annoying during the concert, but Wilson kept compensating by jumping higher and running faster.

While the first KC album Employment was a worldwide success, the latest album Yours Truly, Angry Mob has not appealed to the same wide audience. Only songs like Ruby kept the audience on their feet, while only songs from the first album really sent the crowd into frenzy.

At the end of the concert, great songs like Oh My God, Na Na Na Na Na and I Predict A Riot made sure that the last energy was squeeed out of audience and leadsinger, and while one left the building, the word ‘Showman’ was one of the words that could best describe this night. It was Kaiser Chiefs on stage – But Ricky Wilson that made the real difference.

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- Watch Ricky Wilson when he hosted the fantastic rock quiz show ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’:




You might not know this Danish band, but you just might like them. The genre is “Viking Metal”, but while that might make some frown, Svartsot incorporates a lot of interesting elements into their music, such as flutes and tribal drums, which adds an (sorry about the expression, Svartsot) almost Irish feel to the music. OK – Irish folkmusic and Scandinavian folkmusic share at least a few similarities. Dressed in “authentic” viking-gear (chain mail shirts – 20-40kg…!), an axe (leadsinger Claus Gnudtzmann almost took the head off a fan by accident), long hair and beards, Svartsot entered the stage like they owned it.

The mini-concert at the hot venue at Von Hatten was ment to celebrate the fact that Svartsot has recorded their debut-album which is to be released on Napalm Records in November. It revealed a band that has grown substantially as a unit, and now play so tight that it sometimes even rivaled their recordings. The two guitarists, Cris Frederiksen and Michael “Hellboy” Andersen, did a nice job, and the abandonment of the “Metal-Zone sound” is a improment that elevates the sound of the band enormously. Lead singer Claus Gnudtzmann has gotten even better at growling, and now, the stories of folklore, excess drinking of meed, gals etc. could be heard – again – good job at making a solid concept better. The new basist Martin Kielland-Brandt had his concert debut at this gig, and did a solid job. He doesn’t look like the rest of the band, but that is quickly forgotten.

While new songs (several of the songs had previously never been played live before) showed a band with one foot in the viking-sagas and one foot in the Iron Maiden-que metal, the older songs like Tvende Ravne, Skønne Møer, and especially the hit-to-be Jotunheimsfærden, sent the crowd into frenzy. The older songs actually sounds a little more true to the viking sound, due to the excellent use of flutes, battling the guitars.

In all, a great show. Why then only 4/6 rating? two main reasons. The show was too short – nothing that has had a major influence on this review, but the party could have continued for a long time, if it hadn’t been for the sound engineer, who had to leave. He was also – by far – the reason why the rating has dropped a one or two. While the band might not have played flawlessly, they constantly battled a sound that, while loud, consisted mainly of drums and bass. The vocals were far far to low, and one actually got a better sound if one stood so close to the stage that the PA and monitors could both be heard… I look forward to seeing the band with a new sound engineer soon!

Listen to one of the newer songs:

Mp3:
[Svartsot: Gravøllet]

Video from a previous concert:

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Denmark License.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Denmark License.

The Blue Van (Denmark) – Stage: Rytmehans

Until recently, I felt like the only one on earth, who had yet to see The Blue Van live – But over the last few weeks I have made up for it! My first encounter with the Danish quartet was at the SPOT Festival in Aarhus in June, where they also had two members of the band Oh No Ono join them on stage.

At Skanderborg, the crowd was a bit smaller, but equally enthusiastic. Songs like ‘Revelation of Love’ and the amazing closing song ‘New Slough’ took the crowd by storm, and proved, that these four young guys have something that most bands don’t have: a killer show, extremely talented musicians and a stern belief in themselves. Only few things stood in the way of this becoming the concert of the year – the sound – lead vocalist Steffen Jørgensen’s voice was sometimes impossible to hear – and the fact that the tent was only 50% filled. Those 50% were, however, 150% more enthusiastic than at any other concert at Skanderborg this year.

The songs from the 2005 debutalbum ‘The Art Of Rolling’ were the most succesfull at a show, where the songs from the sophomore album ‘Dear Independence’ (from 2007) never managed to take off, due to their more soul-inspired style.

One thing has to be said, though: A “bad” Blue Van concert is still much much better than most concerts you get the chance to see. The band is skillful, and has the ability to get a party started everywhere – any time. Go see them, if you get the chance!

A little fun – “The Blue Van Show: The New Tatoo“

THE BOSSHOSS (Germany) – Stage: Bøgescenerne

Standing in front of the stage just before the band took the stage, it was evident, that I was the only person around who had actually any knowledge of The BossHoss. Their amusing take on pop-culture, adding their classic hillbilly western.style music, is perfect for a festival setting – and very European in some ways.

Entering the stage, the band looked a bit disappointed by the fat that only about ten people were standing up, and for the first few song (their own ‘Rodeo Radio’ and others) that didn’t seem to change. The big change came with their versions of The Cardigans’ ‘My Favorite Game’ and Nelly’s ‘Hot In Herre’, where it sudenly dawned on the audience, that this band wasn’t just playing plain Country – they were a spoof-band (and we like spoof-bands here in Denmark!).

The leadsingers Boss and Hoss (go figure) showed everyone, that it is possible to dance, even if you are seated on a bar-stool (I am gonna try that out for myself sometime), and gave one of the best performances I have seen in a long time, working extremely hard in the scorching sun to entertain the crowd. At the end of the set, the cover ‘Word up’ brought together band and audience in sing-a-long mode, only to explode in solo performances by every musician in the band, while the other band members were trying to pour beer etc on their instruments, and trying to sabotage the solo in many many different ways. ‘Sabotage’, the Beastie Boys cover, was actually one of the only things I missed from The BossHoss – a big hillbilly greeting from me to you.

The BossHoss: Word Up

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