Review: Panzerpappa Live 16/02/07

Review: Panzerpappa – Live in Ås Friday 16/02/2007 by Bjørnar Lunde

Intro:

Being one of Norway’s best prog band’s these days, I decided to check out this band. I went to their homepage and surfed a bit and eventually got curious of their further live shows. I found out that they were having one gig in Ås, about 20 minutes south from Oslo (the capital city here) and a couple of hours with train from where I live. I got very exited and got some samples from a couple of their two latest albums, “Farlig Vandring” and “Koralrevens Klagesang”. After listening to those samples (which I found excellent) over a couple of days, I definetely decided to give this band a try, no doubt about that! The days passed and on the concert dayI travelled to Ås with huge expections. After getting off the train, I got inside the local, which actually was a mid-sized cafè combined with an art gallery. The place was named “Gallery Texas” and the people who worked there was very nice, and after paying for the entrance I quickly found a chair by a table facing the (rather small) concert stage where the band’s instruments etc. where placed. There was about 50 people in the audience right before the band made their entrance, not a very big arrangement with other words, but the atmosphere was really good nevertheless. I had talked with some other people for a while (prog music related topics of course) and after a few minutes, Panzerpappa entered the building. They had a bunch of CD’s with them, all being copies of their two latest releases “Farlig Vandring” and “Koralrevens Klagesang”, I went to them and bought both. After a few beers they went for the stage and everything was clear...

The concert:

After introducing themselves, they started out greatly with “Billettkontollørenes Inntogsmarsj”, a track taken from their first release, “...passer gullfisk”. My jaw was reaching the ground, I had never seen so great musicianship live ever. This is a note band though, everyone but the drummer was reading notes while playing, but still... wow! The band got a nice applause before continuing with the title cut from their newest album, followed by “Snill Sang på Bånd”, also taken from their newest one. At this point I wished the concert would never end. I had a good look at the musicians, they seemed to really enjoy this concert as much as I did and It was really fun to see’em play this über-complex music with ease. They continued with “Hulemysteriet”, “Apraxia”, “Sykkelgnomflåtten” and “Landsbysladder”. On “Sykkelgnomflåtten”, bassist Anders Krabberød used the famous Chapman Stick and I nearly started to drool at this point. Im not a bassist myself, but this really reminded me of Tony Levin’s use of it and Krabberød’s use of it was very impressive. Another impressive thing was Saxophonist/Keyboardist Steinar Børve’s performance. He played fantastickly and even played sax and keys at the same time, which is really difficult among this band’s use of incredibly odd time signatures. Guitarist Jarle Storløkken’s performance made me think of some of Zappa’s floating guitar solo’s during his live shows in the mid-70’s and drummer Trond Gjellum could easily be compared to prog greats such as Bill Bruford or Daniel Denis. After all this thinking, I can now easily rate Panzerpappa as one of the best live bands I’ve seen so far. They finished off the concert with “Ompapaomompapa”, the last cut from “Farlig Vandring” and one of the band’s finest songs. Just as the rest of the concert, it featured excellent instrumentation and blowed the audience away, including myself. Although the gig laster for well over an hour, it seemed way too short though, as with all concerts I’ve been on. Kinda sad, but I’ve promised myself to see’em again. After the concert, I ordered a beer and had a chat with Trond and a couple of the other members. I had a really good time, so good that I nearly missed my train. I thanked for the concert and promised’em to see them again sometime, which I will.

Overall:

Perhaps the best gig I’ve been on so far. Excellent band, excellent musicians. I’d strongly recommend any RIO/Avant prog lover to check’em out. And if you are lucky enough to be in Norway right where they have a gig, DON’T MISS IT! They do not have concerts often, so they are must-see’s!