TROLLFEST – Oslo – Skuret

After their appearance at Inferno 2012 under the stagename and show "TrollfesT & The Devils Dangleberries Inferno Balkan Madness", the crazy Trolls haven’t really spent much time playing live in their home country. Instead, they had travelled the world, or well, more specifically Europe and the Northern American continents and made sure to gain more and more fans with each performance. I had seen photos and videos along the way so I knew they raised the madness level on stage, hence, when the Oslo show was finally announced, I jumped around with joy and invited everyone to come along to the small bar in the middle of the city.

There was an opening act that took their time until they started singing, but then again, people decided to start showing up more or less after 10:15PM. After that, Aleister Kane kicked off with their rather interesting mix of all types of sounds that might confuse you a bit, but in the end make you decide it’s worth another try as soon as their full length release would be available this year. One rather special side of this concert was that it was my first ever metal show experienced while sitting on a sofa in front of the stage. It felt ‘classy’. Another nice memory from the concert is a pair somewhere in their late 50s or 60s who were dancing like crazy during the show. No idea if they were family members of anyone in the bands or simply people enjoying life, but it was such a joy to watch them.

After a break needed for rearranging the instruments and microphones on the stage, but mostly for the trolls to finalize the make up and the clothes changing, we piled up in front of the stage and realised it’s way too hot already. So we made water supplies. Which partially ended up on the floor, but that’s another story.

The 7 trolls and one trollette (?) entered the stage with their white robes, black painted faces and odd masks, all meant to introduce us to the world of Kaptein Kaos, the hero of their latest release and apparently the inventor of the troll village – according to the album leaflet. I spotted the evening’s playlist which must be the most elaborate one I ever saw. Too bad that most of them got so soaked that they couldn’t be taken home at the end of the show. It’s well worth framing.

I seriously have a hard time deciding which aspects of the concert to talk about. One of the most intense memory of the evning is the heat. I think I went at least 3 times to the bar to ask for three glasses of water, and the same amount of time to the toilet to get my hair wet. I recall that the bass player tried crowd surfing, but he was so sweaty that people couldn’t hold him so he ended up on the floor. Twice. I really admire the band that, given the circumstances, they played all the planned setlist, jumped, headbanged, screamed, played their instruments and kept being silly all the way until the end. The ‘being silly’ part is not easy to explain in words, especially when I don’t have photos to prove it. It’s about making faces and jokes towards each other and towards the crowd. It’s about having a second drummer on the stage who has a somewhat linear drumkit decorated with small rubber ducks and pink handcuffs. And whose outfit is not quite the regular stage clothing. It’s about the singer also having a small stand that held a few cowbells (and a rubberduck on top), that he occasionally plays on during some songs and making faces to match the funny sounds. It’s about songs having latino rhythms while they still make you headbang or jump as if you were at a, let’s say, more serious metal concert.

Despite the heat and the fact that various parts of my body didn’t agree to the jumping/dancing treatment in such conditions, I took the time to study the show and I must admit you can really tell they leveled up when it comes to a live show. It takes some skills to integrate a all that multitude of drums, the accordeon, the violin and to make it seem like it’s the easiest thing on earth to perform that fast paced music. It was also the first time I saw them with a violin on stage I think, and I must say I totally loved it. The lady did a fantastic job and I hope it won’t be her last appearance with the Trolls.

The show ended with "Helvetes Hunden Garm", the only song when I hear the crowd and the band going "Wof, wof, wof" together. It was the last song of the 3 of the comeback and I honestly have no clue where both the band and the crowd got the energy needed to go through them and to not collapse while jumping and screaming.   

Trollfest totally deserves a bigger stage than the one at Skuret, but I am so happy to have had the chance to see them in such an intimate context. At the time I am typing this text, I have a very hard time moving my neck in any direction and I hope that everyone gets to experience a mad Trollfest show at least once in their lives. If not, your life would be incomplete.