[kj] Oslo gig

[Neil Perry]

Well that was a fucking fantastic show. When we walked out
I was a bit lost for words... they are in the form of their lives. Big
smiles
all round, obviously enjoying themselves, bit of amusing banter onstage
between them, it was a pleasure to see. Set list was the same as the pics of
the set list that I've seen except for the encore, which was TD&RS and
Pandemonium.

Crowd was pretty decent considering. Rockefeller is one of those
older theatre type venues with the balcony stretching round - the upstairs
was closed as we expected but downstairs was pretty full, probably around
400 at a guess.
So it was nicely crowded but not too packed so us old 'uns could get
relatively close to the stage and not take a battering...

Oslo crowds are notoriously stand-offish - we saw PiL at the same venue
a few years ago, similar deal, not sold out, less people than for KJ in
fact, and
much of the crowd spent the whole gig stood still with their arms folded -
which is
how this one started, but by the end everyone in there had their arms in the
air shouting their heads off.

Weirdly the sound did the same as the Roundhouse gig last year - started off
pretty bad (Geordie too quiet, Paul too loud) but by Requiem was sorted.
It was fun watching the crowd - a fair few hardcore fans but a lot of
curious
people I think - when they started with The Hum a guy next to me went from
standing still to apeshit in about half a second, saw another guy do the
same
thing when Unspeakable started.

Some moments: Jaz did his scary face shouty WARDANCE!! intro... then nothing
happened, he turns round to see Youth fiddling with his amp. "Youth what
the
fuck are you doing?" Youth looks round sheepishly, Geordie starts laughing.
I completely revise my opinion of  Autonomous Zone - I never really got it
before, but after last night I do. There's that drum break about 4 minutes
in, both
Geordie and Youth went and stood round the drumkit while Paul hammered away
like he was trying to break through the earth's crust. Just an immense
display
from him all night - even my wife, who rarely takes notice of such things,
nudged me
at one point and said "He's a very good drummer isn't he?"

Jaz seemed in a great mood, didn't take off his smart frock coat all
evening but
put in some serious dance moves. He introduced Eighties by saying,
"things have changed since we were last here!" Before Complications he
started going on about waking up in the morning in a dark Norwegian winter
and
how you'd want to kill yourself and Youth shouted "What a load of bollocks!"
Later introducing Turn To Red he said, "We haven't been here since 1983,
but this
is from 1979!"

Only Exorcism didn't work - the vocals have got all that echo on them and it
was a bit of a mess, although at the end Geordie marched across the stage
and
had a go at someone in the wings so maybe something was wrong.

Highlight for me was Change. They have that rhythm nano-second tight. I
don't know if anyone here knows or likes the New York band Endless Boogie.
I have a soft spot for them, the
clue is in the name - first time I saw them they played for 80 minutes and
only did
four songs, one was 30 minutes long, and I could have watched KJ do that
with
Change last night. During the guitar break section Youth and Geordie stood
facing
each other up close, grinning, with Jaz almost between them throwing out
some dance shapes
and generally losing himself - it was just a pleasure to watch, the sound
was
razor sharp and heavy by this point, just phenomenal. TD&RS was also superb.

During the Pandemonium intro Jaz started talking about how beautiful Norway
was,
pointing at people and telling them they were the guardians of the forests
and fjords.
Then he broke into a huge smile and everyone started cheering, it was a
weirdly
warm moment that I have never previously associated with a KJ gig! The big
softies.

At the end, my wife found a fellow north-Norwegian staff member and
sweet-talked him into
giving her the only poster for the gig that we could see in the whole
place, which they already
had in a frame on the wall. So, result.

Would love to know what the band thought about it, but that's one of the
best KJ shows
I've seen, at least in this century.

n
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