Kings of Convenience at El Salon
Feb. 21st, 2005 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaThe universe has made up for the euphoria of this week (a costume party, a concert, a leaked album, a sizeable salary raise and a new fandom) by afflicting me with whatever it is that's been going around the flist. Vaguely woozy and out of sorts, headache, bit of a runny nose, bit of a cough, may be running a low-grade fever. Not leaving the house today was the right decision, even if it left ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
smurfmatic-tachi in the lurch rather. ^^; Next week features a huge whopping deadline at work and... my birthday. Which I really have to start organizing.
On the bright side, I've caught up on Death Note, i.e. am stewing in the same pan as everyone else more or less, and many people are watching Initial D or about to do so! Huzzah.
***
Now for the concert report. What explains a lot of the following is that I was in a really buoyant mood, absolutely convinced that my week was going to be fabulous and that I could do no wrong. Muteki, one would say in Japanese. It happens very rarely, which is a good thing as it makes me obnoxious - witness Shoujocon '01 when I was darting about maniacally taking photos of everyone I saw, even people who obviously didn't want to be photographed. All Neworderium's fault. XD
Arrived at venue a little before 9PM, after having caught Ced as he was coming out of Schwartz's with a brown paper packet of smoked meat and rye. (We were supposed to dine together; work wouldn't allow. Even my most forgiving friends have been getting riled by my failure at time management this last week. ^^; Ate contents of brown paper packet instead and bought Ced beer to make up for loss of leftovers.) El Salon is the exact same room as Sala Rossa, only not decorated in red and even more cramped, I mean cozier. The show sold out not five minutes after we arrived, but we managed to stake out a spot directly stage left, strategically close to the women's washroom. Then I returned to coat check to get my camera out and put the CD I'd purchased in my bag, which was when I ran into the Scandinaked video crew doing interviews. XD 'Twas a boy with a microphone and a girl with a handheld video camera (and braids - the one thing I learnt at this gig is that women of Scandinavian descent really are more braids-prone). They asked me dorky questions and I gave them dorky answers like "Yes, I know Norwegians but only from reading their blogs." The funny thing about the Bergen-Manchester line is that the vidcam girl caught on but the microphone boy didn't.
Girl: Bergen is the new Manchester, huh. Did you hear that? That's a pretty cool idea actually.
Boy: I don't get it.
Girl: Manchester as in England?
Boy: Yes...?
Girl: >_>
Concert started not long after that. Very what one would call intimate, I guess: twodorks guys sitting on two stools playing two acoustic guitars in front of two mike stands on one not-at-all-large stage. It transpired that Eirik is lead vox on most of the songs and the quieter stage presence; Erlend played piano keyboards, led the audience in hum-and-clapalongs, geekdanced with extreme prejudice and was generally dorktastic. I suspect there would have been even more antics, but he said he left his guitar strap on the bus. XD Mind you, everything you need to know about Erlend Øye you can already guess from his glasses, which are more like modified chemistry goggles and so mindbogglingly nerdy that no real human being would be caught wearing them, and thus are actually sort of cool. Ced said he looks like Martin from Taskforce and is right, although I suppose that means nothing to anyone else on lj. :P
Things that happened during the gig, in approximate chronological order between the pretty floaty acoustic folk (I can tell the difference between their songs ahaha - I swear! - but it's never any use asking me to reproduce a setlist from memory. All the best songs off both their albums, at any rate):
* Simultaneous translation intro: "Bonjour, nous sommes Kings of Convenience." "Hello, we are Kings of Convenience." "Nous parlons courrament le français." "We speak French fluently." etc. And er, so they do!
* New standard of wussitude attained when Eirik asked the audience to put out their cigarettes. In Montreal, forsooth. XD Everyone did too; the audience did everything they asked all night.
* Erlend asked someone to lend him a nail file, which a small Asian girl duly provided from her purse. So the dude knelt down at the edge of the stage, right in front of me and Ced, and filed his nails until I guess he felt he could return to playing the guitar. XD;;; I am sorry to say that I took a photo, because am obnoxious like that, but it didn't turn out. (Took lots of photos, even with flash - everyone was taking advantage - but none of them turned out properly at all, as have quite forgotten how to use camera in two months of not doing so. >_>)
* Eirik complained about being overheated onstage, because "I got up this morning and thought, I'm in Canada - time to put on the long underwear!" Of course it turned out to be a thaw day, unseasonably warm for February. Then he announced he was going to take off his long underwear, but was not in Scandinakedness shokkah onstage as went to men's washroom to do so. While he was gone Erlend played and sang a short song the lyrics of which were something like "I will be happy to talk to you and sign your CDs, but I would like to be left alone for approximately ten minutes after the show". ...Then Eirik came back and Erlend went to take off his long underwear.
* Shaggy-dog story about meeting a girl after a gig in Montreal, opening for the Raptures. I remember that this one led into "Toxic Girl". XD
* Made audience hum along.
* Made audience snap their fingers along.
* Behaved as if audience snapping fingers and humming was a prime audiophile experience.
* Put head through ceiling during "I'd Rather Dance With You" (the last song of the proper set and crowd favorite), put microphone through ceiling, and sang like that. In general sold IRDWY as if it were sparkly pop candyfloss by Asakura Daisuke. XD All this being Erlend of course, Eirik far more sedate. The genius moment of the evening came when Erlend jumped into the audience during the song and asked, "Is there anyone who can beatbox?" And there was someone who could. So Eirik kept strumming along, Erlend gave the mike to the beatboxer, hopped back on stage and started playing jazz piano chords - instant IDM!
Encore was one of the songs that featured Leslie Feist on the second album, and... don't quite remember. ^^; When asked "Can you think of a song that goes to this beat...?" the girl behind me started singing "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out," less because it was a perfect match for the rhythm than because she just thought it would be cool to get KoC to sing a Smiths song, I suspect - and so they did. Didn't work out entirely as was obviously one of those "I thought I knew this song but actually I sort of don't" situations one encounters quite often in karaoke, but a nice note on which to end the evening. XD
After the concert I waited approximately ten minutes before asking Erlend Øye to sign my CD - he was sitting on the side of the stage chatting with the line of girls. :P Will not reproduce conversation here as is the sort of situation that feels horribly embarrassing in retrospect even if it wasn't. At one point I said my friend from England sent me a bootleg of "Ghost Trains" over an instrumental track by this guy on Kompakt, and I've been walking around with it on my mp3 player for a month as well as a lot of KoC as I feel it suits the weather; that's about the sort of babble that left my mouth (he said oh that one, they really should've re-done the vocals altogether, which is rather true XD;;).
...Gah, to bed, or I'll never be up tomorrow. ^^;
smurfmatic-tachi in the lurch rather. ^^; Next week features a huge whopping deadline at work and... my birthday. Which I really have to start organizing.On the bright side, I've caught up on Death Note, i.e. am stewing in the same pan as everyone else more or less, and many people are watching Initial D or about to do so! Huzzah.
***
Now for the concert report. What explains a lot of the following is that I was in a really buoyant mood, absolutely convinced that my week was going to be fabulous and that I could do no wrong. Muteki, one would say in Japanese. It happens very rarely, which is a good thing as it makes me obnoxious - witness Shoujocon '01 when I was darting about maniacally taking photos of everyone I saw, even people who obviously didn't want to be photographed. All Neworderium's fault. XD
Arrived at venue a little before 9PM, after having caught Ced as he was coming out of Schwartz's with a brown paper packet of smoked meat and rye. (We were supposed to dine together; work wouldn't allow. Even my most forgiving friends have been getting riled by my failure at time management this last week. ^^; Ate contents of brown paper packet instead and bought Ced beer to make up for loss of leftovers.) El Salon is the exact same room as Sala Rossa, only not decorated in red and even more cramped, I mean cozier. The show sold out not five minutes after we arrived, but we managed to stake out a spot directly stage left, strategically close to the women's washroom. Then I returned to coat check to get my camera out and put the CD I'd purchased in my bag, which was when I ran into the Scandinaked video crew doing interviews. XD 'Twas a boy with a microphone and a girl with a handheld video camera (and braids - the one thing I learnt at this gig is that women of Scandinavian descent really are more braids-prone). They asked me dorky questions and I gave them dorky answers like "Yes, I know Norwegians but only from reading their blogs." The funny thing about the Bergen-Manchester line is that the vidcam girl caught on but the microphone boy didn't.
Girl: Bergen is the new Manchester, huh. Did you hear that? That's a pretty cool idea actually.
Boy: I don't get it.
Girl: Manchester as in England?
Boy: Yes...?
Girl: >_>
Concert started not long after that. Very what one would call intimate, I guess: two
Things that happened during the gig, in approximate chronological order between the pretty floaty acoustic folk (I can tell the difference between their songs ahaha - I swear! - but it's never any use asking me to reproduce a setlist from memory. All the best songs off both their albums, at any rate):
* Simultaneous translation intro: "Bonjour, nous sommes Kings of Convenience." "Hello, we are Kings of Convenience." "Nous parlons courrament le français." "We speak French fluently." etc. And er, so they do!
* New standard of wussitude attained when Eirik asked the audience to put out their cigarettes. In Montreal, forsooth. XD Everyone did too; the audience did everything they asked all night.
* Erlend asked someone to lend him a nail file, which a small Asian girl duly provided from her purse. So the dude knelt down at the edge of the stage, right in front of me and Ced, and filed his nails until I guess he felt he could return to playing the guitar. XD;;; I am sorry to say that I took a photo, because am obnoxious like that, but it didn't turn out. (Took lots of photos, even with flash - everyone was taking advantage - but none of them turned out properly at all, as have quite forgotten how to use camera in two months of not doing so. >_>)
* Eirik complained about being overheated onstage, because "I got up this morning and thought, I'm in Canada - time to put on the long underwear!" Of course it turned out to be a thaw day, unseasonably warm for February. Then he announced he was going to take off his long underwear, but was not in Scandinakedness shokkah onstage as went to men's washroom to do so. While he was gone Erlend played and sang a short song the lyrics of which were something like "I will be happy to talk to you and sign your CDs, but I would like to be left alone for approximately ten minutes after the show". ...Then Eirik came back and Erlend went to take off his long underwear.
* Shaggy-dog story about meeting a girl after a gig in Montreal, opening for the Raptures. I remember that this one led into "Toxic Girl". XD
* Made audience hum along.
* Made audience snap their fingers along.
* Behaved as if audience snapping fingers and humming was a prime audiophile experience.
* Put head through ceiling during "I'd Rather Dance With You" (the last song of the proper set and crowd favorite), put microphone through ceiling, and sang like that. In general sold IRDWY as if it were sparkly pop candyfloss by Asakura Daisuke. XD All this being Erlend of course, Eirik far more sedate. The genius moment of the evening came when Erlend jumped into the audience during the song and asked, "Is there anyone who can beatbox?" And there was someone who could. So Eirik kept strumming along, Erlend gave the mike to the beatboxer, hopped back on stage and started playing jazz piano chords - instant IDM!
Encore was one of the songs that featured Leslie Feist on the second album, and... don't quite remember. ^^; When asked "Can you think of a song that goes to this beat...?" the girl behind me started singing "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out," less because it was a perfect match for the rhythm than because she just thought it would be cool to get KoC to sing a Smiths song, I suspect - and so they did. Didn't work out entirely as was obviously one of those "I thought I knew this song but actually I sort of don't" situations one encounters quite often in karaoke, but a nice note on which to end the evening. XD
After the concert I waited approximately ten minutes before asking Erlend Øye to sign my CD - he was sitting on the side of the stage chatting with the line of girls. :P Will not reproduce conversation here as is the sort of situation that feels horribly embarrassing in retrospect even if it wasn't. At one point I said my friend from England sent me a bootleg of "Ghost Trains" over an instrumental track by this guy on Kompakt, and I've been walking around with it on my mp3 player for a month as well as a lot of KoC as I feel it suits the weather; that's about the sort of babble that left my mouth (he said oh that one, they really should've re-done the vocals altogether, which is rather true XD;;).
...Gah, to bed, or I'll never be up tomorrow. ^^;
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 06:14 am (UTC)I've been eyeing your birthday all this week actually, and um, had wanted to write you Ryousuke/Takumi as I went !!! after plowing through your memories, but I don't think I could get it done/started by then, but uhm. I am v. seriously thinking about it and will probably write it in the near future after I'm done reading through vol. 26? XD;;
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 07:17 am (UTC)-Ced
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Date: 2005-02-21 04:06 pm (UTC)Narita Express? That's the shuttle from the airport yes? What other mode of transportation is there anyway? x_x
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Date: 2005-02-21 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 07:19 am (UTC)Are you taking the Narita Express?
-Ced
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Date: 2005-02-21 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 04:55 pm (UTC)I really need to start going to more gigs. Is it sad that I am dreaming of the days Annie will tour? I rue the fact that I wasn't into Junior Boys when they were in NYC XDXDXDXD