There was a decent choice of cool concerts in Oslo the past Thursday but retrospectively I am very glad I went for the Seid one, as this was one of the three shows where the band celebrates their 25 (or 6, depends how you count) of existence, and most important of cosmic-pirate-rock, a genre that I found very catchy from the first listen and who one doesn’t seem to get very often doses of it around here. So I made my way to Kampen Bistro, where I actually happened to witness Seid before a few years back and I can be glad they picked this cozy location for this new concert, as it adds a big personal/up-close factor to the whole experience. It also made it an appropriate size room for the movie projection, as the evening included the viewing of a 30 minutes horror movie named "Wettlaufers Enke" and for which Seid has provided the soundtrack. I’ve actually never watched a horror movie together with so many other people in the same space, but I now know I should do it again because it ended up being quite hilarious when people notice flaws in the tense scenes and then try to imitate them. But this distracted me from paying close attention to the movie, yet the overall feeling was that the guys did a good job building the right scary-tense-horrory mood.

 

Luckily they are also skilled at building a very cozy and pleasant atmosphere throughout the concert that followed, a concert that turned into a nice journey showcasing each of the band’s albums, including their freshest release "Weltschmerz, baby!". The regular shy Norwegian audience was not very helpful in the beginning, but it seemed like they slowly warmed up and started dancing or discreetly shaking a foot on the groovy cosmic rhythms. I personally can’t understand how one is able to stand still when hearing these grooves, but then again, I haven’t reached that level of ‘how to be a Norwegian’. The music is skilfully arranged so that it blends in both heaviness, psychness (or spacyness, not sure how to explain this in words) and sweetness from the 60’s and 70’s and spice it all up with the inventivity of today. But whatever words and styles one picks to describe the music or what it might sound like, I doubt anyone can contest its grooviness and the joy that it expresses.

To this, one can add the fact that it’s all delivered with a lot of simplicity, both in the choice for the stage show (or the lack of a show actually) and the fact that the whole show is delivered with the same instruments and setup. Bonus, a simplistic drum kit, which for me is usually a sign that grooviness is prioritized over the need to impress through overabused technicalities. Thumbs up to the sound technician(s) who used the buttons in the right manner to give us (or me at least) a lovely audio experience, with easily distinguishable guitars and bass, since this band really knows how to come up with beautiful bass parts.

 

 

The whole space landscape created through the music has been strongly enhanced by the backdrop chosen for the evening: projections of rather trippy moving images, that would go ‘in and out and around themselves’ and were full of vivid colors. I couldn’t escape the question how would that look projected on an even bigger screen, on a bigger stage and, why not, at an event that would be very suitable for this kind of experience. I’m mainly thinking Roadburn festival or Psych Las Vegas, but surely there’s way more out there. Either way, a Seid live performance is a guarantee that you can find a way to forget the real world and leave it behind for a short amount of time and led the odd prog vibe music accompany your senses through whatever trip you’re aiming for. Seid surely makes for the perfect soundtrack.