Markthalle, Hamburg, Germany - November 2nd 2001
Star Club, Dresden, Norway - November 3rd 2001

The following text about the two Madrugada concerts in Hamburg and Dresden in 2001 is not just two simple concert reviews. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are mine, except for where otherwise noted, and other people who went to the concerts might not agree with them. The text also features a bit of irony that some people might get and others probably will not. My apologies for that. I also apologize for the fact that this text will not feature one single negative word about Madrugada, but these two concerts quite simply showed me exactly why I love them. Critizism would be very out of place.


Hamburg (Day One): The German leg of Madrugada's European tour was kicked off at Markthalle in Hamburg. Me and my girlfriend arrived there just before they opened the venue at half past four, arriving at the same time as the support act, Norwegian St. Thomas. We went inside just as Jon and Frode got on stage and started the soundcheck by playing a long instrumental jam where Frode used some special, watery effects for his bass. They were soon joined by Robert on stage to do an instrumental "Nightly Disease Part II". They then started an instrumental version of "Lucy One," with Sivert arriving at the venue in the middle of the song and joining them on vocals for the last part of it. They also went through the last part of "Hands Up - I Love You" and "Vocal," with Sivert surprising me and picking up an electric guitar and playing it during the first of those two songs. He plays electric guitar in his side-project The Rocket Scientists, but I had never seen him do it with Madrugada.

Even though the soundcheck was a bit of a let-down for everyone present as the sound was very bad, they were running out of time and had to leave the stage. I thought it was to let St. Thomas do their soundcheck, but it turned out that they left for a place called Michelle Records do to an acoustic in-door mini-concert. Thanks a lot to the nice people in the band who did not bother mentioning anything about this to us, we went to get something to eat and therefore missed it. I have no idea what the Michelle Records performance was like, as I did not find out about it until two days later.

When we got back to Markthalle a bit before eight, an hour before St. Thomas was scheduled to get on stage, it turned out you needed a special pass even to take a piss there. The people working there did their best to make things uncomfortable and to make getting into a venue as much of a long, bureacratic process as possible. Luckily Jon and the tour manager, Richard Bell, were awfully nice and sorted everything out, even though they were very busy doing promo before the concert. Thanks to these two for making the evening a lot nicer and for making sure that a lot of great pictures from the concert will be available on this page some time very soon.

The venue is quite big, it actually has three different halls with stages. One very small one for intimate, acoustic shows, one medium one and one big one with a capacity of 1.200 people, which is the one where Madrugada and St. Thomas played. The big hall looks really special, it is a bit hard to explain, but basically it is an amphitheatre without the seats. When St. Thomas took the stage, everyone, give or take four or five people in the front, were sitting down, and most stayed like that for the entire concert. It created a very unique setting, Thomas Hansen, singer and guitar player of St. Thomas, said that it reminded him of Woodstock and 1968, with everyone sitting down and just enjoying the music.

Even though I might be a bit biased, being a very big St. Thomas fan and wanting all the good things in the world for them, I think a lot of people were blown away by their performance. As if the good musical performance was not enough, Thomas kept on making speeches between the songs, impressing people with his German knowledge and telling them to clap for the fact that they were signed by German-based City Slang. It was the most funny concert featuring a violin that I have ever been to. In the end Thomas said they wanted to play their biggest hit, "The Cornerman," but that they had run out of time and that people could just as well buy their EP instead. Later I found out they never even planned on playing the song.

Fifteen minutes after St. Thomas left the stage, Frode, Jon and Robert got a totally dark stage. Frode started playing "Black Mambo," and Sivert eventually got on stage to a huge cheer from the crowd. The sound was amazing, even though they had had huge problems with a couple of cables on stage that made awful noises when stepped on and one of the drum channels on the mixing board not working correctly during the soundcheck. The light show, featuring the new light engineer Nick, was even better. On top of that, the band was in a great mood, and Sivert, who the Norwegian press critized for being too quiet on stage, was jumping around like I have never seen him before.

As they were about to start the fourth song, Sivert picked up the electric guitar, and they did a fabulous version of "The Frontman" where Sivert added a lot to the song with his guitar-playing. The album-version is probably the best Madrugada song ever, the new live version is re-arranged and could probably be described as the punk rock version of the song. Sivert kept the guitar for the next song, "Hands Up - I Love You," where he only added a little bit of background-sound, then putting it away for the rest of the concert.

The first part of the set ended powerfully with "Norwegian Hammerworks Corp.", "Lucy One," "Two Black Bones," "We Are Go" and "Rollercoaster," with Sivert going totally crazy and everyone cheering for more. They came back for the first encore, and in the middle of "Nightly Disease Part II," Robert was playing while balancing on his monitor. Sivert was jumping around next to him, and with a sudden, loud bump, Robert was lying on his back between two monitors, on top of a light and some clothes, having fallen off the stage had he not been supported by the people in front of the stage.

Everyone froze for a couple of seconds, not grasping the fact that the guitar player had just fallen, but Robert just kept on playing, hardly missing a single note! When people finally realized what had happened, Richard and Steve, the backline guy, ran onstage and pulled him up with some help from Sivert, while he was still playing and Sivert still singing. The rest of the song went on without further ado, though Sivert could not help but laught a little bit when looking over at Robert.

They went off for another break, and then came back for a second encore. Sivert strummed the acoustic guitar for "Sister," and said that the song was dedicated to his sister, who had flown in to Hamburg for the concert but who he had not seen yet. He asked where his sister was, and told everyone not to step on her, as she is small. They had started playing the song when his sister finally reached the front of the audience, and Sivert stopped playing to give her a hug and a kiss. When they continued the song, Frode added another dimention to the great athmosphere by putting down his bass and walking around the stage turning on the small table lamps that are part of their set but had not been used during the concert. Sivert finished the song while all the others were leaving the stage, and a Class A concert was over.

We went backstage after the concert to say hi to the band. Jon was in a talkative mood, and after having made fun of my dialect, he was given a set of finger paint from my girlfriend. On the last European tour, he was unfortunately overheard saying that he was tired of signing autographs, and that he wanted to use finger paint from then on. It was time to make him take consequences for his actions, but this only led to a series of excuses and the conclusion that it would be very hard to get the other members of the band into the finger paint-business. We got very disappointed, and encourage everyone to request the finger paint upon asking for signatures from the band from now on.

In more serious matters, the band was very happy about the concert, the word 'perfect' was even mentioned. Unfortunately it also has to be reported that Frode is not the only member of the band suffering from severe ear problems. Both Frode and Robert now use special earplugs to protect their hearing, while Jon managed to lose his and just use normal earplugs, even though he said that he has lost parts of his hearing abilities already. He said that the band tried playing with an inner-ear system during the beginning of the tour, meaning they did not have any monitors on stage, just small things to put in their ear instead. But this was not something they liked very much, as it sounded "like listening to a walkman," according to Jon. The band is used to loudness and loud bass, so it is understandable that they have problems going away from this experience when playing concerts.

Jon also said that Portugal and Spain were very successful on this tour, and that Austria had been very good, even though they expected a little more people to show up. Apparantly, The Netherlands is turning into the country where they are having the most success, closely followed by Germany. Their concert at Melkweg in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on the 8th will be taped by Dutch television, while they will come back to The Netherlands for a full day of recording for television in Hilversum. It might also be that the German music television channel Viva Zwei, in form of the program 2 Rock, who present the German part of their tour, will be taping them live some time on the tour. The radio channel Radio Eins, who are presenting their concert in Berlin, might also be taping the show, but both these German tapings are still very uncertain.

After a while every member of the band left the backstage area, except for Jon, who was talking to much it was hard to manage to say goodbye to him. We left the venue and went back to the hotel for a couple of hours of sleep before an eight-hour train ride to Dresden.

Setlist Markthalle, Hamburg, Germany - November 2nd 2001:
1. Black Mambo 2. Strange Color Blue 3. Belladonna 4. The Frontman 5. Hands Up - I Love You 6. A Deadend Mind 7. Quite Emotional 8. Norwegian Hammerworks Corp. 9. Lucy One 10. Two Black Bones 11. We Are Go 12. Rollercoaster 13. Vocal 14. Higher 15. Nightly Disease Part II 16. Sister


Dresden (Day Two): We arrived in Dresden very late, and therefore missed the soundcheck. This was due to a very long train ride from Hamburg, as the connections between the two cities are not very good, except for an awfully expensive five-hour ride that was not even considered. We went to the venue at half past eight, only to realize that the doors were not yet opened, and that a large crowd was situated outside the club.

We also went to Madrugada's performance at Star Club on their last European tour, almost exactly one year ago. The biggest difference between the two concerts was unfortunately not that the band's live performances have improved a lot in one year, as the arrogance of certain employees at the club managed to cast a shadow over an otherwise really nice evening. After having to wait outside in the very cold German winter night for one hour without a jacket, things finally got sorted out, again with the help of tour manager Richard Bell, who was also the person getting us into the troubles.

But Richard is excused, he and the band had lots of other things to think about than the well-being of two of the many cold fans outside the venue. The arrogant guy at the entrance is not excused, though; people do not make up names for tour managers, and walking about five metres to get this tour manager is not going to make the world collapse. Thanks to this moron we missed the first St. Thomas song.

We were not the only people who had to wait a long time outside, though, and unfortunately we were not the only ones who missed parts of St. Thomas' set or more. The Star Club has a capacity of 600 people, 750 people were eventually let in, but a large number of people disappointedly had to walk home without a concert experience. I feel sorry for them, and I am sorry that even though the employees at the club knew the concert was sold out they still let people stand there and wait for an awfully long time.

Once inside, things immediately got a lot better. St. Thomas played a set almost identical to the one last night, even cracking some of the same jokes, but they were still very good and the concert was still one of the very best I have ever been to. They did not play "The Cornerman" this time, either, but they did play "Strangers Out Of Blue" which is my favorite St. Thomas song. After the concert I wanted to say hi to Thomas, as I had been too scared to do it the night before, but unfortunately they had already left. If anyone close to the band read this, then please thank Thomas and his band for a magnificent experience.

Once Madrugada got on stage, it would turn out that they would not vary their setlist or stage appearance much from last night's show, either. The setlist was identical, except that "We Are Go" and the following "Rollercoaster" were skipped. No one fell over monitors, and no sisters hugged lead singers, but it was still a very memorable concert as the musical performance and the sound quality was even better than the night before.

During "A Deadend Mind," Sivert sat down next to the drum set and put on a 'wondering' face that he could not keep once he looked at Robert and has to laugh. The first part of the set closed with an extended version of "Two Black Bones" featuring an improvised jam at the end. Sivert said afterwards that he thought it sounded very good.

He was in a very talkative mood during the concert. Someone screamed a request for a song I did not catch the name of, and he said "We'll do that one later," then a male person screamed "I wanna dance with you" and he said "Come on," laughed, and punched the air. Towards the end someone requested "The Riverbed," and Sivert said "We don't take requests. You just have to listen to the songs we play, whether you like them or not." Some smart guy in the audience kept requesting "Belladonna," even though they had already played it.

When the band came back for the second encore, they did "Sister." At the end of the song, Sivert kept playing for a long time after the other band members had left the stage, it was very beautiful. Then he thanked the audience and left the stage.

After the concert we went backstage, and first met Frode and Robert, who were standing in the hall and looking at the massive amount of concert posters on the walls and ceiling there. Frode asked me if I had liked the St. Thomas performance, which of course I had, and they signed a couple of magazines plus an old tour poster. My girlfriend, who is from Berlin, talked to Frode about him having moved to Berlin, while I went into the bands backstage room. There were no one there but Richard, Sivert, Jon and Sivert's sister. They were all in a good mood.

Me and my girlfriend eventually spent almost an hour in there, but the talk that was going on was of very little use for this page. Jon kept talking enthusiastically about his old band, Supreme Dreams, telling us hilarious stories about their World Tours, stage shows, session musicians, drugs and old song titles. Sivert and sound man Lars, who came backstage after a while, soon joined in on adding details to the stories. The stories were so stupid they ended up amazingly funny. Jon has a history of making up bands and creating stories for them...

Sivert was wearing a blue Madrugada t-shirt with a print of the drawing from the center of "The Nightly Disease" cover. He explained that it is a drawing of a tree and four moons, inspired by Federico García Lorco and also part of the lyrics for "Run Away With Me."

Richard told us that the band is no longer working with their old light engineer Jann, but that a new guy called Nick has taken over. He was fabulous. Richard also mentioned that the band are planning on recording a new record in Spring next year.

Last Spring, a lot of fans had sent me questions that I handed over to the band when they were in Stavanger, Norway on March 23rd. They promised to answer these questions as soon as possible, but I never heard anything from them about it. I asked Jon about this, as he was the one who I handed the papers over to, and it turns out they managed to lose them before they even got out of the building... Jon claimed Frode had lost them, while Sivert's sister claimed that Jon was never able to be in charge of anything. I was told to send the questions to them again, so at least now everyone waiting for answers know what happened.

Sivert's sister asked me which concert I thought was the best of the two I had been to. She thought the Dresden concert was the best one, but I told her that musically they were pretty much the same, but the incidents and the light show of the night before made the last one more memorable for me. She joked that "the thing I ddid at the concert is what made it so special, of course. But I earn so much from it that they can not afford to have me do it at every concert."

A lot of people have been asking why Madrugada albums are not available for sale at the bands concerts. It is actually due to Virgin policies. They demand that records are sold over disk, so that it has an impact on chart list and such. "They released the album in, what, March, it's not gonna chart now anyway," Richard said. They are working on getting an agreement to be able to sell the vinyl version of their albums, and my girlfriend mentioned they should sell the EPs, which they thought was a good idea. They seemed to have no idea that most of their EPs are not available anywhere else but in Norway. Hopefully they can change that now. SIvert likes the idea of selling vinyl records at their concerts, as the collectors will get something great to take with them home afterwards.

As Jon kept on talking about Supreme Dreams and making fun of my accent all the time until they had to leave for the hotel for after-concert showers half an hour after schedule, there was not much of a chance to ask about anything else. But as we were leaving, Sivert excused that he had not written anything for his "The Angriest Man In Norway"-section of this page for a while due to the fact that he has not had proper access to a computer for very long. He promised that he had a lot of things planned for the section, which I am looking forward to.

Setlist Star Club, Dresden, Germany - November 3rd 2001:
1. Black Mambo 2. Strange Color Blue 3. Belladonna 4. The Frontman 5. Hands Up - I Love You 6. A Deadend Mind 7. Quite Emotional 8. Norwegian Hammerworks Corp. 9. Lucy One 10. Two Black Bones 11. Vocal 12. Higher 13. Nightly Disease Part II 14. Sister


Thanks: Thanks a lot to manager Carsten Jøssund, the band and their crew for everything. Very special thanks to their tour manager Richard Bell for being the nicest guy to ever put his feet into Germany. Also thanks to the nice people I met after the concert in Dresden, hope you had a nice trip back to Frankfurt, and to everyone who taped the two concerts, even though I do not even know all of you. Thanks to Franziska for going there with me.

A lot of pictures will be available very soon.

Back to Madrugada Concert Reviews section.