KAMELOT + supp. live at Sentrum Scene, Oslo, March 2023
- Posted on 04-04-2023
March 24th was a cool concert evening in Oslo, as Radar Booking made it so that the American power metallers Kamelot visited again to perform at Sentrum Scene and bring along three support acts, Myrath + Eleine + League of Distortion. However, being a week day, and with another usual train delay or transport issue, and so the first act was already finished when I arrived. But the advantage of arriving a little while after the event has started is that there is no queue and it took less than 2 minutes since I sat foot inside the venue and I made it to a place where I could see/hear something – had to stop by the merch and as much as I’d love to support all the bands whose performance I attend, that’s no longer a realistic wish. So I decided to save the decision on who gets some of my $$$ until after the shows.
While walking towards the stage, I must say that the vocal part of the performing act sounded way off. I thought it was the fact that I was moving through the venue, but it sadly didn’t get any better as I got closer to the stage. I admired how the vocalist made it clear that she had requested for those idiotic quick flashing lights to stop and she won’t do more than one song without this demand to be followed. I wish they were less popular, but well, guess I should stop going to metal shows for this wish to come true. back to ELEINE’s performance, I was not sold. For a support act with a very short time for their setlist, they really did A LOT of talking and a lot of asking the crowd something where the answer would be a ‘yeah’ scream. But if that’s the image they go for, I wish them good luck. They’re doing it right. March 24th happened to also be the day when the band has just released a new single, thus performing it live made quite an impression. They did please the crowd and set the right mood for the rest of the evening.
Myrath is cozy prog rock from Tunisia. I wathhed them live before, I loved that show and the good energy back then, and I loved it even more this evening. I can’t imagine how it is to be that one band from your country known across the borders in this music genre, but if that’s what puts the band members in such a good mood and has them be so playful and jovial on stage, then it really has a great outcome. And they brought a long this rotating keyboard stand which kinda added sparks to the whole show and made the Arabian rhythms flow even better within all the proggy and poppy melodies. Singer Zaher Zorgati is simply delightful to watch live and to listen to – no more complaints about the vocal sound for this one – and whatever time they had to perform was enough to charge my batteries with the most awesome of moods. Oh, and the ending of their show was so epic. Now, I don’t really recall if all these happened within the last song, but it all started with a cool drum solo, followed by a ballad in which the crowd lit up their phones and made the whole venue look damn cool and ended up with a vocal play along for the song ‘Believer’. Zaher got half of the venue to sing ‘Believe and Carry On’ and the other half to hum a ‘Oooh, ooh, ooh’. Which was just pure brilliance.
The stage make over to prepare for Kamelot’s more majestic show went by rather quickly, as I believe they do work with a ton of professional ‘ants’ who know their role and how to move with highest of efficiencies to avoid being in the way but also have their tasks finished asap. Have you ever bothered watching all those ‘non artists’ in action in between shows? Because most of the bigger shows are not possible without them! And the level of attention to detail goes to new heights when the show will have pyros and all the items require extra care to not be placed at a wrong angle or distance and not endanger anyone.
The level of catchy good energy and great mood continued for the evening as Tommy Karevik’s fantastic voice and intensity was well supported by a continuous moving around, small crowd interactions, smiles, pick throws, winks, hand shakes, both from him and also mr Youngblood or Sean Tibbets and his long dreads. All while Oliver Palotai and the band’s new young drummer, Alex Landenburg, kept the tight and fact pace of their newer tunes or some of the more famous hits from old and recent albums. I must admit I have kinda lost track of their releases and I was familiar with very few of the tunes performed that evening. And while I only have praise words for their live interpretation, the actual musical content didn’t catch my attention much, but I’ll hopefully get a chance to explore the newer albums soon. I tried to hear more from their recent “The Awakening”, but my attention got carried in other directions.
The show didn’t lack the usual female appearances, both from their touring vocalist but also the singer from the first support act, League of Distortion who helped on Sacrymony. There were also four girls in red for ‘New Babylon’ and that was a nice moment of vocal collaboration on stage. The beginning of ‘March of Mephisto’ saw Tommy being lifted on a platform in the back of the stage, with his palms lit with fire. That surely was very dramatic and spot on for the song. And man did they also make one of the longest ‘introduce band members’ moment I’ve ever witnessed. It was cool, full of fun and jokes, but it was unexpectedly long. But it added to the good vibes of the evening and so I made it for the exit before their ending song, so that I can both catch a quick shopping session – Myrath won my support for the evening – but also avoid the ‘exit jam’ and sprint for the train station. With a big smile on my face.
Full photo galleries, courtesy of colleague Karina Noctum, can be found here
https://eternal-terror.com/2023/04/04/kamelot-supp-oslo-24-03-2023/