Dagny had a good summer in 2023, headlining several festivals. The photo is from Bergenfest.
Here is the second part of my personal favorite photos from 2023. They are not ranked, but all of them are special to me in one way or another. You will see 30 photos from different settings and genres. They may not be from the same genres, but they are all taken at a Norwegian festival or venues.
One of the great advantages of photographing concerts, is the opportunity to attend many concerts and festivals. And instead of limiting myself to one or two genres, I try to attend several different ones to get a variety of different artists and situations. And while some genres are known for bad lightning and little action on stage, that means I have to plan the shoot differently from the more visually exciting ones. All photos here are licensed to Getty Images, except the Kiss photo which was taken for Dagsavisen.
Håkan Hellström was the headliner at one of the days during the Øya festival in Oslo in August. His stage show is super active, almost frenetic, and we got quite close to him during his show.Another super active musician is the keyboardist from Waterboys, Brother Paul Brown. Here he plays his keytar at the Notodden Blues Festival.Shooting pyro can be a challenge because of the difficulty in getting the right settings on the camera in the very short bursts. With Behemoth it gets a little easier, because of the amount of flames, so you get many chances to get it right. Also because of their creative use of the pyro. Here they played at Tons of Rock.Kaizers Orchestra had a super year in 2023 on their comeback tour with 56 sold out concerts in four cities during the fall. I saw them at one of the last concerts at Sentrum Scene in Oslo, 21 years after the first time I photographed them and 10 years since the last time.Gåte is another baand I have photographed many times during the last 20 and some years. They have stuck to their very successful formula of mixing Norwegian folk music with metal and hard rock, creating a unique sound. Their fall tour presented a darker version of the band, with singer Gunhild Sundli dressed in black instead of the many different white dresses she has used earlier.Gåte also introduced a new element in their show this fall. The dancer Håkon Odden from Frikar was given a lot of space, and for a photographer, that is a great challenge and opportunity.Old rockers on stage at Trondheim Rocks – Vince Neil and Nikky Sixx from the rock shockers Mötley Crëe. Not the best concert tjhis year, but fun to see them live again, almost 20 years since the last time.Talking about old rockers – Stage Dolls are just as vital as ever, and played a great set for more than 20.000 fans at the Tons of Rock festival in June.Iggy Pop is another rock veteran, and I saw him twice this summer. First at Bergenfest, then at Tons of Rock where this photos is from. I have no complaints about any of the two performances!I saw several artists twice or more this year. Zara Larsson is one of them, and she performed at the Neon festival in Trondheim and also at Bergenfest where I took this picture.Ane Brun has been a favorite artist for me for around 20 years. If I remember right, 2002 at the Molde Inter-national Jazz Festival was the first time. I can truly say that she has developed her music and her style since then. This year I saw her at Vossajazz in early April and at Sentrum Scene in November, where this pic is from.Norway have several female artists on par with their best international colleagues. I have already mentioned Dagny, Ane Brun and Gunhild Sundli, ane this is Susanne Sundfør, who I have followed since her debut in 2007. Here she performs at the Øya Festival in Oslo in August.Sigrid is maybe Norway’s most successful international artist these days. I have always liked her natural look as opposed to the heavily styled artists who inhabit the charts nowadays. Kudos to Sigrid for being as she is. Í saw her four times in 2023, at Bergenfest, at the Neon festival, at Sentrum Scene and at the Øya Festival where the photo is taken.Aurora is Norway’s other successful female artist these days. She has also kept her own style since the first time I saw her at by:Larm in Oslo in 2015. Here she is the headliner at Månefestivalen in Fredrikstad in July.Inger Helene Håvik is the singer and also the main songwriter of Highasakite.They have had great success with their electronic indie pop. The band has excisted since 2012, and my first time to see them was in 2013. Since then they had a bad split in 2017, but have kept on as a duo with Håvik and drummer Trond Bersu with great success. The photo here is from their concert at Slottsfjell in Tønsberg in July.Vanessa Collier was a very nice surprise for me at the Notodden Blues Festival this year. A great singer, great sax player, and also a very positive and gentle person. I hope to see more of her in the future.Sweden has several other good female artists besides Zara Larsson. Veronica Maggio is one of them, and I saw her twice in 2023 – first at Bergenfest, and then a week after at the Neon festival in Trondheim.The last concert I photographed in 2023 was with the Swedish ESC-winner Loreen at Rockefeller Music Hall in Oslo. Not my favorite music, but I can take lights like she had any day!Ayra Starr from Nigeria was an interesting artist at the Øya Festival, mixing Afro Beat and R&B. Another interesting, and super intense band at Øya were Amyl and the Sniffers from Australia with the Energetic Amy Taylor on vocals. I love punk bands like them!boygenius was one of the most hyped bands at the Øya Festival this summer. The female supergroup consists of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker (the picture). Big Bang has been one of my favorite Norwegian bands since the first time I saw them at the Norwegian Wood festival in 1997. They have stuck to the trio format all these years, but at the Blues in Hell festival they had expanded it with horns. Nevertheless, Big Bang is very much guotarist and singer Øystein Greni, and here he entertains an enthusiastic crowd in Hell!Dregen is a Swedish guitarist who plays in several Swedish bands – Backyard Babies, with Michael Monroe and here with The Hellacopters at Bergenfest.Since the concert at Tønsberg in July probably was the last time I will see Kiss live, I have included a photo of Paul Stanley doing his trick with the plectrum in his mouth.Amund Maarud has been one of Norway’s best guitarists in the expanded blues genre for more than 20 years. Here he played with the US sniger Jace Everett at the Notodden Blues Festival.My first concert with Britpop band Suede was at Norwegian Wood in 1999. This year they played at Bergenfest, and singer Brett Anderson was, if possible, more punkish in his performance than 24 years ago.Last year Damon Albarn played with his band Gorillaz at the Øya Festival. This year he came with his old band, Blur to the same festival and showed us why they were my favorite Britpop band in the 90’s.Zakk Wylde is one of the best guitarists in the metal genre, having played with several metal bands and artists over the years. This year he played with the US band Pantera at Tons of Rock.Sondre Justad is the last artists here, and he is also one of the several artists I saw twice this year, at Slottsfjell in Tønsberg and here at Bergenfest. Sondre is very “audience friendly”, and great fun to photograph!
Artist Pictures Blog 