Behind the scenes: GREEN CARNATION – Another Night Under the Dam

The Norwegian band ‘Green Carnation’ is associated by many fans in the metal music with the band who played a concert under a dam in Norway. This happened back in 2006 and, after having had seen the DVD with the footage of the event, many might have wished to have the chance to witness it live. And as the band stopped playing pretty much after that, many gave up the hope that the chance would arise again.

Yet, at the beginning of 2014, announcements of ‘Another Night Under the Dam’ started to pop up on the WWW and so the date of July 31st was set for the second Green Carnation concert held in the majestic surroundings of the thirty-meter-tall dam Nåvatn-3, close to Kristiansand (Åseral, Vest-Agder, Norway, to be more specific). It turned out that this was also the last ever event with the name ‘A Night Under the Dam’, since the place is going to be rebuilt and it won’t be possible to organize further concerts there.

A major difference between the first night under the dam and the one from 2014 is that the latter offered a mix of both ‘Acoustic Verses’ songs and heavier songs from the entire Green Carnation discography. As a plus, some of the heavier songs were also arranged so that they’d integrate the orchestra sounds offered by the talented musicians from Kristiansand String Quartet.

At a personal level, ‘A Night Under the Dam’ is ranking quite high in my favorite live DVDs, so this is mainly the reason that I spammed Kjetil Nordhus’ inbox with mails about me wanting to see as much as possible of how the band and the orchestra rehearse together before the concert, what it actually takes to organize a concert in the middle of that fantastic location, and, most of all, to get the chance to document it in a small movie. The result of my curiosity, can be seen in the clip below, a clip that mixes images from the rehearsal with an on site interview with band members and some concert footage.

I have to add a very very big thank you to Kjetil for offering me the chance to do this, but also gigantic thanks to every person on (and around) the stage that evening. I am thanking them both for the show that they put together, but mainly for being so welcoming and treating me with so much warmth. This is the best payment one can get for a freelance job.