For a long time, I had eagerly been waiting for Peer Gynt's debut of their headline tour in Germany. It was a dream getting them back after their last visit in March. To make that dream come true, I made sure to see them play, in fact at as many as possible of their gigs. Bremen was the town, where this tour started. I came over to a hectic town, just like Hamburg, in the advent season, where all people were rushing to buy Christmas gifts for their beloved ones. In the evening, I walked down to the Kioto. However, I lost my way first, before I finally turned into the very small side street in an old residential quarter. It was great to see some posters, put on the walls of the houses. Then, I stepped inside the building, and having had a cappuccino in the nice restaurant, I went upstairs to the Kioto. I was the first one who entered it at 7.45 p.m. It is a small intimate venue for a few hundred people to stand, with some bar tables around. The whole team of the Kioto was very nice, just from the first moment we got along very well. Happily, I got to meet the guys before for the gig, to say hello to them. Time passed quickly as I had a beer and got into a chat with a nice couple who already had spent their holidays in Norway.
Then came show time, and the guys entered the stage! After addressing a welcome to everybody, Peer said: "Have fun!" And of course, we all had a lot of fun during the entire set, right on from the opener, which was To Be Your Man, an energetic, but nevertheless emotive song with significant lyrics, and Peer's fantastic voice on it. They played in front of a smaller, but very attentive crowd, full of energy and commitment, producing a great atmosphere. Peer Gynt, playing the guitar incredibly, and singing so amazingly, has always a fantastic presence within his band, which consists of both the fabulous musicians BP Hovik on drums, and Lars Fish on bass guitar. They also joined in with back-up vocals on some songs. The follow-up was a song called I Aint Beggin', a new one, which I'd never heard before. It is marvellously melodic, yet so powerful and intense. After the crowd pleasing song I Can Tell, the set continued with the cool rock song Suzy Q, which is from Peer's album King of Mountain Blues, released in 1996. I heard it the first time played live and it was that good!! The audience was also quite taken with it.
Another song emerged then, called Homegrown Juice, which includes as well beautiful Norwegian Folk tones, as on many other numbers. Before they kicked powerful into Please Please Babe they delighted us too with the softer played Sams Caf�. It sounded really great. Peer asked then if there were some Jimi Hendrix fans out there in the audience, and he was ensured there were! He wanted to do a tribute to the king and they played an overwhelming and long version of that masterpiece Little Wing. I was deeply touched by Peer's emotional singing, and the guitar sounds were so amazing that it all couldn't went any better. We all were very impressed, and even that young woman, who had been in Norway, came from behind, and said in Norwegian: "Tusen takk!!" which means in English: Thanks a lot.
Announcing it as "Here's something special you may not heard before", they played the wonderful rocking tune Oh Well. This song transformed at the very end into the first chords of the brilliant song Fairytale. Peer showed us he's a real storyteller, not only with his gorgeous voice but also instrumentally, he led us through the mystical fairyland of Norway with his music. It was delivered with an exuberant dose of power chords, fantastic guitar work up and down, all of what this instrument has to offer. Toward the end, we heard some soft guitar and drum/percussion sounds before they powerful brought back Oh Well. We all were absolutely thrilled. Then, they said good-bye, and left the stage. But we all thought that was not enough, so we all tried to call the band back for encores with applause and cheers.
And actually, they returned!! You could see that they really appreciated our reaction. Then they did a long version of the groovy blues number Tell Me. All were enthused by the sheer verve and power of the playing. Magnificent guitar and drum/percussion sounds on that song as well as the vocals of Peer. Afterwards, we were quiet for a moment, as we all were pretty impressed, before we started to applaud a lot. The second encore was the instrumental number Hallingcaster, which they have always done as a very nice closer on every gig I had attended so far. Again all wanted to hear more, and clapped their hands. But then came music through the loudspeakers, and that made us all realise that the show was over.
The band produced an excellent hour of high class, and everybody had a real good time. And I was happy to know that I would experience this all once more at their next gigs.
Lou
Bremen review (this page)
Bremen pics
Schwerin review
Schwerin pics
Hannover review
Hannover pics
Neuss review
Neuss pics
Lorsch review
Lorsch pics
Main Peer Gynt page
Main page
Link to Peer Gynt's official website
