Oslo, Norway August 11, 2007

[Erikkerik]

I mailed the festival and asked them if I could work as a volunteer thursday and friday even thoug they were only asking for people who could work on saturday(the day Melvins are playing), and I now am. Hooray, Melvins for free

They sell tickets on Finn.no for saturday. Original price 525 NOK, 900-1000 NOK from the greedy salesmen. If I had the possibility to travel I wouldn`t have hesitated a second, though, Melvins is the only band I could pay a lot to see.

Regarding the Garage-gig 00:00 at night, Erik: It`s prioritized for those with festival-passes. If a voulenteer is reckonned as a festival-goer, then you`re home-free, but you should hear with the festival also if it`s ok that you leave 20:00 to reach the queue at Garage. The festival ends 22:00, and I guess it`s not unlikely that voulenteers will have to stay some time after the festival, to help with some clean-up etc. I don`t know how this is in reality, but I would definately check out how rigid it is. Garage (old So What!) has a very limited capacity, with about 300 in admittance. 

According to the chap I spoke with they will have two queues, and they will start to let people in from 21:00.

The Garage-gig doesn`t in fact have anything directly to do with the festival, it`s Garage "borrowing" Melvins from Oya-festival.

I don`t know why I have blabbered away about all of this, cause Erik is clealry a very intelligent chap, but I guess it was the father in me speaking.  Have a feast, Erik!

Im not working saturday Schnab, however I really would like to see Primal Scream which starts at 21.00... hmm... maybe I`ll get a friend to get a ticket for me to be on a safe side. Anyways thanks for the concer paps

[Schnabster]

You know, I could have been your father, Erik, 13 years and fistful of hormones. Thank your god, Erik, that it isn`t so. 

You have a more than decent music-taste, Erik, you`re showing it once more by pulling out Primal Scream as one of the gigs you will watch. I saw them live at Roskilde in 20o3 and believe me, that`s one of the best concerts I`ve been to. They have a very heavy soundscape live, and they severlyh kicks ass when they`re playing the songs from Evil Heat.

Swaztike Eyes, Leeds 2006:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nv2CnWMcEs&mode=related&search=

Here you have them live from Roskilde:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-GE8wSk_20

My favourite-song, not live but still, Miss Lucifer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Tl8bur1QI&mode=related&search=

If you haven`t seen PS live before, Erik, get ready to get goosebomps. Enjoy!

[Erikkerik]

You know, I could have been your father, Erik, 13 years and fistful of hormones. Thank your god, Erik, that it isn`t so. 

You have a more than decent music-taste, Erik, you`re showing it once more by pulling out Primal Scream as one of the gigs you will watch. I saw them live at Roskilde in 20o3 and believe me, that`s one of the best concerts I`ve been to. They have a very heavy soundscape live, and they severlyh kicks ass when they`re playing the songs from Evil Heat.

Swaztike Eyes, Leeds 2006:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nv2CnWMcEs&mode=related&search=

Here you have them live from Roskilde:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-GE8wSk_20

My favourite-song, not live but still, Miss Lucifer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Tl8bur1QI&mode=related&search=

If you haven`t seen PS live before, Erik, get ready to get goosebomps. Enjoy!

XTRMNTR is what it`s all about

but yeah I saw em at roskilde in 2006 which was my first real introduction to them,and I`m really looking forward to seeing them again when i know the songs. I REALLy hope they will play swastica eyes, as they did in 06

[GrimReaper]

Someone please see Roky Erikson!

[norecess]

And give him acid!

[Erikkerik]

Someone please see Roky Erikson!

I have to admit I`m not familiar with him, but understand he`s some kind of legend. I`m working friday, but will do my best.

[cheeseburger]

Someone please see Roky Erikson!

hey he's playing here on halloween!! do i see another trip in grims future??

[GrimReaper]

Where are the reviews?

[Erikkerik]

Where are the reviews?

you have the video, isn`t that enough?

well, I`ll try to write a review later on, I just got home from Oslo. Dead tired.

[Erikkerik]

ok, I arrived about 15 minutes early, at this point the field in front of the stage was pretty much empty with the exception of some die-hards up against the fence, and all members of Melvins were already on stage working on their soundcheck. The soundcheck lasted for very long and meanwhile more and more people gathered up in front of the stage, and I lighted up a joint with my friends and poured down the Smokehead whiskey we had smuggled in on plastic water-bottle in my friends backpack. The band showed a really nice and relaxed attitude on stage walking around and making one and another half-joke in the mic.
  They got started around 16.10, at which point the field was filled up to a point where it at least wasn`t embarrassing, but you could still easily walk up to a spot 6 feet from the fence without having to force your way through.  I was psyched when I heard they opened with lovely butterfly, but I missed the riff. The electroretard drum-bass is cool, but come on, the guitar is what that song is all about. Lizzy is very far from my favourite Melvins song, but it was still very cool, it`s the melvins after all. Civilized worm - expected and good. Then came Oven which I really hoped they would play, I was wasted when they played in Oslo in April and didn`t remember much of it. It was very good, the first song on the set to really punch me in the right places. I`ve always been amazed at how good a singer Jared is when I listen to BB, but this (not just this song, but the whole show) was really the first time I was taking notice to that when listening to the Melvins. Lizzy/DCH was another killer, I even love that song on the original Houdini but with the DCH part it really takes a handfull steps up, especially as a live song. It wouldn`t have bothered me if they played another song instead of sky pup, but, fun. Let it all be and NIghtgoat worked as the natural classics they are. Haha, Jareds bass was so fucking heavy on NG, a perfect spot to light up the second joint. The next and last six songs were all from asa:  blood witch and history of drunks - bad men. Drunks was played very fast, a bit to fast to my liking, I also missed the clapping. The finishing four was a difinitive highlight along with Oven and SMS/DCH, and really got the crowd going. These songs are so strong live. More or less everybody I talked to about the show pointed out these last songs as the highlights, even a couple of people who wasn`t completely satisfied with the gig they saw  at rockefeller in April absolutely loved them now and pointed out these songs as the best they did, which is weird since they - of course - played these songs then as well, and they had even better sound then. By the way, did anyone else notice that Rat Faced, The Hawk and You`ve never been right was listed as some kind of "triology" on Dales setlist on the vid?  Oh well. I was hoping they would play some stuff from eggnog and/or lysol, thinking they perhaps were eager to try out some of this stuff with the two drums,  but they didn`t.
   In the end of Bad men Buzz left the stage without as much as a wave or a nod. Like the reviewer in a norwegian paper pointed out he didn`t pull a single smile during the whole concert but still manages to express so much love and joy of what he is doing.Then Coady and Dale did a high-five and Buzz returned to invite us all for a swim.
   Ten seconds after the show a friend who I`ve made efforts to turn on to Melvins lately (I`ve gotten him as far as Revolve) but who couldn`t get tickets to the concert called me up and told me had gotten a free ticket in the last end and that it was the best show he had ever seen.  I don`t think he was the only one in the crowd with those thoughts in his head - everybody I talked to was amazed and absolutely loved it.

  Further reading:
  After the concert we chilled out with a some beers for a while and then decided to skip Primal Scream and instead head back to my friends place - where I was staying - for a while and go out again in good time for the BB gig at garage at midnight. I was really tired, my feet was killing me, and I had heard rumors that PS would play a very long set so if we wanted to be sure to get in at Garage we would have to head in early anyway, it was a sad decision but from the reviews I`ve seen of PC I didn`t miss that much. Also we had to get some more pot.
  Back at his place one of his room-mates were having a party, but we soon retired to his room where we could smoke and listen to whatever music we wanted. He played me some Hank Williams, which was fun. I`ve never heard him without the Melvins before, it surprised me how little they have done with a song like 'rambling man' and how much better the original was, Melvins covers usually kick the ass of the original, with this one it definetly is the other way around. He also showed me some new stuff his band in in the process of recording and mixing, he`s a very heavy and really talented guitarist - check out http://myspace.com/ytooslo 
This is older stuff and from a period when they were experimenting with vocalists after they didn`t manage to work together with their last one (which is sad cause he was the shit), they have now settled with another one, the new stuff should be up in not to long.The drummer is the other friend I was with at the Melvins.
 
When we arrived at the garage the doors weren`t even open yet, but when we came back a joint later there was a long line and I was getting nervous we wouln`t make it in, luckily it went rather fast since they prioritized people with festival-passes and we made it in, safely. The review of this gig sadly can`t be as extensive as the one from melvins due to my condtion at this point. The place was packed and had a nice vibe to it. It was hot and in the end I was pouring with sweat. Somehow I didn`t enjoy this show as much as I had hoped to, don`t get me wrong, it was great, but my expectations were as high as for the Melvins gig. The sound was very loud, but not very clear and especially Jareds vocals didn`t sound as good as on the records. They also had some technical problems with the guitar I think, at least Dale were of the stage for a lot of songs where I would have expected he would have been on. After the gig I went  right home and got to bed. I was so tired. My feet had be killing me all week, I only had some terrible shoes I had stolen from my bother who wouldn`t fit my feet and due to long distances and the volunteer work I did for my ticket I walked a lot. In fact my feet are still hurting.

Other concerts worth mentioning. NIN did a good job the first night, I`m not really a fan, but it was cool. They had some very impressive lights, and some parts of the electronic part of the set was extremely heavy. Tool was good, but not as good as the other two times I`ve seen them and easily forgotten. It might be because I`ve gotten bored with them lately, but I was bored with them before I saw them last summer as well and that concert completely renewed my interest for a short while, this didn`t. I loved Battles, it was all good but the last two songs were the shit. I`ve no idea what they were called but it`s were they use some kind of guitar-pedal for the vocals a lot. I tried to watch trail of dead after I had seen them, but there was no way they could follow that.  Rocky Erikson, I have to say, didn`t do anything for me. I only stayed for two songs, I guess this guy has done some important stuff and released some classic records but what he did at

[GrimReaper]

Great Review!

" He played me some Hank Williams, which was fun. I`ve never heard him without the Melvins before, it surprised me how little they have done with a song like 'rambling man' and how much better the original was, Melvins covers usually kick the ass of the original, with this one it definitely is the other way around. "

HankIII said he would contribute to Crybaby but he refused to desecrate the sacred works of his Grandpa. Thus you have a straight ahead cover of Ramblin' Man.  I guess he didn't want to fuck with any of Merle Haggard's work either.

Have you heard Isobel Campbell & Lanegan's cover of Ramblin'  Man?

[Schnabster]

Superb review, Arendal, I read it all without getting bored a second.

[Erikkerik]

Thanks guys.

I forgot to mention that they didn`t sell any t-shirts, which kinda sucked since I for once had money. Also forgot to lament that I missed both Bare Egil, Boredoms and the Shining.


Thanks for the Hank info Grim.

Have you heard Isobel Campbell & Lanegan's cover of Ramblin'  Man?

nope

[norecess]

Cheers for the review!

[Lunica]

Sounds like you had a great time even though you had to work!
Did you find anything suspicious in the ladies purses?