Concert

The concert Sunday night… Lovely. I think I’ll write a review here despite the pointlessness of writing a review in English of a concert where all the songs were in Norwegian and where the artist is highly unlikely to ever tour outside of Norway…

Anyway. I can’t even remember which Bjørn Eidsvåg record I first heard. I think the first one I bought was ‘Alt du vil ha’, and it would have been around the time that ‘Tatt av vinden’ was released (his record, not the classic movie, I’m not that old…). So. I suppose it would have had to be a pretty disappointing concert for me to be dissatisfied.

However, how could a concert that opens with ‘Klovnar’ and ‘Gammel drøm’ possibly be disappointing? The former is one of my favourites (as is the latter, and most of the rest of his songs, sorry, just bear with me will you?) – the song starts like this:

Her e gråt og her e klage
her e bitterhet og død
her e urett, her e plage
her e aue fyllt av nød
her e folk med depresjonar
her e folk så djupt fortvila
dei e utan illusjonar
og dei kan’kje lenger smila

og me flyr rundt og grine med
og prøve å få opp motet
me snakke om håp og kjærlighet
og trur på orden i alt rotet

me seie: Gud e glad i oss
forstår ikkje at me tør det
me seie: midt i sorgen møte han oss
forstår de’kje sjøl men me gjør det

eg lurar på om det e klovnar me e
te allmen lott og løye
men får me sjå et lysglimt av og te
så får de’kje vær så nøye

(Translation of sense, though not of poetry:
here’s crying and here’s lamenting
here’s bitterness and death
here’s unfairness, here’s torment
here are eyes filled with need
here are people with depressions
here are people so deeply despaired
they are without illusions
and they can no longer smile

I wonder if it’s clowns we are
for the entertainment of everyone
but if we get to see a glimmer of light every now and again
then it doesn’t really matter)

Obviously, most of the songs following were from the new album. No matter, it is a cracking good album, anyway. I was especially caught by these lines:

eg like å elska
men e redd for å gi meg hen
te nåke så risikabelt
som å bli elska igjen

(I like loving, but am afraid to give in to something so risky as being loved back)

If the Ki and Vandien quartet could be said to have a theme, this was it. The courage to take love given to oneself on trust. Songen was also on the programme, which is good, as I would have missed it if it had been left out. It’s the best poetic description of Christianity I’ve heard.

In addition to being one of our best lyricists and a great performer, Eidsvåg is lovely in concert because he exudes genuineness. He’s genuinely happy to be there, genuinely means what he’s trying to say in his lyrics and genuinely laughs at himself. It may be that he’s just very good at dissembling, but as long as I don’t see through it I don’t really care.