When a stage set consists of a large rug, a piano with antique lamps, a background of an old cobbled street and two oil barrels, it can only mean that the Kaizers are back in town.
With their sophisticated folk-rock tone, the band once again bought the house down in their much-beloved Vega. From the moment lead Kaizer, Janove Ottesen, took to the stage he conducted not just the band, but the audience as well. And so began the jumping.
“It’s nearly a year since we saw you…are you ready for some old stuff?” yelled Ottessen to the delight of the crowd. While pumping out hits from their previous album, Ompa til du Dør, the party only really got underway when the spine-tickling electric guitar scales signaled the introduction of ‘Støv og Sand’ from their latest album Violeta Violeta Vol II.
The atmosphere was much like a raging house party – one where things get destroyed. This was illustrated ever so well when Ottesen asked the audience to vote for which item the Kaizers should use to beat the crap out of the oil barrel. Accompanied by guitarist Geir Zahl, the two men grabbed a long baton and pounded in time to ‘Drøm Videre VioletaÂ’. And while fans enthusiastically waved their hands side to side looking like a raging ocean, drummer Rune Solheim did his usual circus act and stood on top of his stool while playing.
The beauty of the Kaizers is their overwhelming need to give fans one hell of a great time. For the whole hour and forty-five minutes they were on, the audience felt like they were a part of the show.
A competition was also waged between the crowd and the band to see which could be the loudest. The crowd managed to nab the honours, though truth be told I think Ottensen was just going for charm points when he declared the audience the winner.
And just when we thought they were about to bid us goodnight, the accordion began and the crowd began to ompa as ‘Ompa til du Dør’ was rocked out. Following that was the high intensity ‘Bak Et Hallelujah’, draining nearly every ounce of energy from fans as they worshiped the mighty Kaizers.
Being the crowd-pleasers they are, an encore was of course in the cards. With a few more whacks of the steel drum, they played their unofficial anthem, ‘170’. And with a final promise to return very soon, the Kaizers left the building having given one heck of a great house party. Lucky the parents weren’t home.
