The Swing Of Things

Yesterday a-ha played four songs as they ended “VG lista topp 20″ - a free concert by nearly 30 artists at Rådhusplassen in Oslo. The setlist was - as predicted - The Sun Always Shines On TV, Riding The Crest, Foot Of The Mountain and Take On Me. Some of us were hoping for an additional bonus after the TV went off air, but for some reason the crowd dissipated surprisingly quickly - so now pressure for extras unfortunately.

The weather was rather disappointing, a bit cold and windy and loads of rain - thundershower style. Luckily it lifted before a-ha went on stage. Some reports claim up to 90.000 people attended - which I find rather doubtful. My estimate would be 50-60.000 or so - still a decent crowd. The mood was surprisingly cheery though - given the pretty battering weather.

A-ha’s performance was really good - the TV version don’t give it credit at all - which bodes good for the coming tour. Riding The Crest in particular is a lot more powerful live than the studio version appear. 

Read more about the show in VG and there are lots of pictures from the event here here (a-ha from #68). Even more of my photos on Flickr.

I was walking in the city today and to my surprise a-ha was doing soundchecks at Rådhusplassen for tomorrows “VG-lista” concert. I have no idea how many songs they are going to play, but I doubt they’ll attend something like this for just a couple. Most artists will only be able to do one or two songs usually - but most artists also does playback. A-ha will apparently not.

Close to 30 artists will perform during the 3 hour show, and if the weather is as good as tonight probably around 100.000 people will attend. The concert will be televised live on NRK. I take it that it will be able for streaming from nrk.no afterwards.

Other notable acts are Aqua, Alexander Rybak, Big Bang, Lene Marlin, Timbuktu, Eva & The Heartmaker and Mira Craig. Read more at vg.no.

During the time I stayed at the soundcheck the guys played excerpt from Riding The Crest, Foot Of The Mountain and Take On Me. I take it these are pretty safe bets to be on the setlist tomorrow. Hoping for more than that though. Ridning The Crest sounded quite more powerful than on the CD though.

Sorry for the crappy quality of the pictures - only had my mobile with me, and it doesn’t do well when it’s getting a little dark.

Graphics on the screens. Sort of.

If the weather is nice, this place is going to be some wild party :) 

Norwegian newspapers VG and Dagbladet already up with reviews of the new a-ha album, “Foot of the mountain”. Both rolls a 4 out of 6, and agrees that it is a solid album that goes back to the roots of synthpop, but maybe missing the final touch of real magic they so frequently managed in the past. Pre-listening here. 

The new video. Nice feel to it, but a couple parts seems a little unnatural or stiff to me.

Digged and Funny

a-ha performed their new single “Foot of the mountain” at Germany’s Top Model Finale on May 21st.  Intriguing stagedesign.

It is a really beautiful song - much in the spirit of his ‘Wild Seed’ album. Originally by the norwegian band Locomotives under the name ‘My Woman’. Here performed during the a-ha tribute night at Idol 2007 in Norway:

Unfortunately Linnea got booted this friday - in my opinion the only one coming close to a-ha nerve in her performance of Velvet.

So the Kiel concert got a bit special - at least so it seemed from the webcast. I guess playing on a stage placed in the middle of the harbor in broad daylight with boats coming and going and like 50-100 meters away from the audience does something to the mood.
Same setlist as the former concerts, with the notable exception of Dark Is The Night as the closing act. Probably a bit early in the day for that particular song, so they left it at Sun Always Shine On TV.
Seems Morten had the same problem with his voice on Summer Moved On as well. But overall it sounded nice - and there certainly was a crowd there, looking to enjoy the day.

Great anticipation for tomorrows gig in Kiel. Unfortunately unable to attend it - but apparently they expect about 200.000 will experience the spectacular show.

Good news for the rest of us though - MSN.no will be sending the concert live!

More from Colorline here.

Apple special event on wednesday September 5! Obviously new iPod lineup - also interesting what will happen with iTunes and related stuff. TV shows supposedly now appears in the UK, and what about that beat… would it finally be time for the Beatles? As Appleinsider indicates, the reference is quite intriguing.

Close enough for me to await this years birthday present to self just a tad.