Kaizers Orchestra live. Paradiso Amsterdam, Saturday 16 March 2024

Photo: Wout de Natris

Ompa til du dør alright. Eleven years older and finally, finally we were able to go and see a Kaizers Orchestra show once again. I had missed the last one due to illness. Had I know, I would have elevated myself alright.

In 2024, the podium looked familiar. Two oildrums, the old-fashioned pump organ (shape) with all the draperies and props around it. An old-fashioned garbage bin as part of the drum kit, an old upright bass. It was all there and of course the logo with the gasmask hanging in the back.

An instrumental track started playing in the typical Kaizers style, like a loop, repeating and repeating. Keyboardist Helge Risa walked on stage, his gasmask on and a suitcase in his hand. A man going to his desk job in the city, sharply dressed in suit and tie. Except that in his theatrical way, his desk job is behind this pump organ, where he sets in motion the Kaizers' set with an atypical rhythm played on his organ.

What other song should Kaizers Orchestra return to the stage in Amsterdam with than this one: 'Ompa til du dør'. This is the band's declaration of intent. In the second song the signature rhythm section comes across in a fantastic way. Nearly all bandmembers get at it in ''Bøn Fra Helvete, when' they all start ramming on the oil drums with big sticks and car wheels are hit with a crowbar. All are in full swing in the song. All have different accents rhythmically. I honestly do not know how they do it. It sounds fantastic though but is also hard work.

The band did not tour after a new album. There is a "greatest hits" out, but like singer Janove Ottensen siad, "we are a no-bit wonder", until 2011 when they scored a hit in Norway with 'Hjerteknuser'. It turned the band into a one-hit wonder. Not for us in NL. Paradiso was packed with "Scandis". For them every song was a hit, as all were sung along loudly around me. The weight of the show was on the debut album for certain. 'Umpa Til Du Dør' allows for so much audience participation with all its hallelujahs, umpas, oohs and ahhs, that it only makes sense it did.

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Yes, caught the moment! Wout de Natris

I don't speak Norwegian, and only understand rudimentary words here and there. It doesn't matter. The music tells it all. The title of the song and the first album of the same name, are the blue print for what this band does. It mixes polka, umpa, (surf)rock, Tom Waits and the Netherlands' own De Kift into music that is totally charged, inimitable. In all ways the most original band I know, with De Kift that is. Despite how complex the music is, the melodies are always superior. Had I known Norwegian, I would be able to sing along to all the songs. They are that kind of songs. Totally pop but not for the average pop fan.

The return to the stage can only be called glorious. The band is so good, the music so exceptional. The big stage antics of singer Janove Ottensen finishes it off. With his greying hair, shaven to the skin, he even looks like Ferry Heijne of De Kift nowadays. The two could be brothers from a distance and certainly totally have the same presence on stage. Ottensen is able to lay down his will on the audience. The fans completely do what he wants them to do. "We would like to sing with you", when we got the encore's encore, not on the setlist. It ended that we sang "Polizei" for the band. It became our song with the band listening to us. And then we were sent off into the dark. In the hope of getting new music by the band in the near future and a new tour in 2025.

Photo: Wout de Natris

Was there nothing to complain? Yes, a little. I would have expected something like three or four songs more and not playing 'Mr. Kaizer' is near unforgivable. The only song I can sing along to in part in Norwegian, as I have accompanied my son several times during Covid when we performed it for our neighbours in our front and back garden. (And will do again coming Saturday to celebrate the four year lockdown reunion.)

Kaizers Orchestra is the best band of Norway. Sorry Madrugada, Sivert, Motorpsycho and Soup. Maybe it's a consolation that Kaizers Orchestra is better than most bands from anywhere. There's just no denying here. Man, have I missed this band. 'Live At Vega' is probably the DVD I have watched most over the years and now I'm reminded why. The real thing is back, thank you!

Wout de Natris