Kaizers Orchestra at Sentrum Scene.

Now you don’t have to go to New York, London or LA to be updatet on what’s hot and what’s not. Oslo and Atlanta have been declared by The Independent as the two main trend-setting cities. For Oslo, much of the honour goes to the showcase festival by:Larm. But there are other important contributors to Oslo’s new status that deserve to be mentioned.

Fucked Up at Øyafestivalen.

Not too many years ago Oslo was a slow and boring city when it came to music. In the 80s there were some good clubs for live music, specially new wave and related styles, but then it dried up in the 90s. But in 1999 the first version of Øyafestivalen started. The festival had a policy from the start to book new and interesting bands, a policy they are still keeping.

Seasick Steve at Café Mono.

Another and equally important contributing factor is Café Mono, a small club in the center of Oslo, the home of the indie bands. The club was started in 2001 and very soon it became the place to be seen for musicians and assorted hangers-on. They have been true to their ideals all these years and many bands have started their carreer at Café Mono. If you want to play at Café Mono, be aware that “bands that play funk, grunge, reggae, hardcore, hip-hop, nu & old-metal wil not be first in the line”.

Audrey Horne at Rockefeller during by:Larm.

There are many other clubs for interesting and good bands in Oslo, and also the Rockefeller Music Hall, Sentrum Scene and John Dee. These three venues fill the gap between Mono and the 7000 capacity venue Oslo Spektrum, and at least one of these venues have live bands every night. Every Easter the Inferno Festival is held at Rockefeller and John Dee. So next time you wonder where to go on holiday where you can choose between many venues close by each other where all have good music, go to Oslo.

Dimmu Borgir at Oslo Spektrum with The Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra and Schola Cantorum.

Øyvind Holen has written a good article about the club scene around Youngstorget in the magazine D2. It is in Norwegian, but Google translate can probably make it understandable for you foreigners.

Insense at John Dee.

The pictures are all taken at one of the venues mentioned in this blog post. They are all © All Rights reserved, Per Ole Hagen, and may not be used without written permission.