Friday at Bergen Fest had a noticeably younger audience than the first two days. The reason was obvious, with local hip hop hero Lars Vaular as headliner and bad boy YelaWolf, plus the British boy wonder Jake Bugg, this was the day for the young crowd. We also got the Canadian indie boys in Half Moon Run, a tropical party with Rudimental and the new British soul star, John Newman. (Photo above: Lars Vaular)
Bergen Fest 2016 – Friday with Lars Vaular, Sivert Høyem, YelaWolf, Half Moon Run, Jake Bugg and more
1
Thursday at Bergen Fest had a couple of my favorite bands – live and on album – plus some new ones. Wilco has long been a favorite since I saw them the first time at Norwegian Wood in 1999. I have seen Ghost several times the last years, and love their pop version of black metal. Sigur Rós isn’t my personal favorites, but they always make a great live show. Here are the artists I saw last night. (Photo above: Ghost)
Bergen Fest is usually my first summer festival every year, and I always look forward to this festival. They have a good booking, the organizers are extremely professional and also friendly, and there is a good spirit there. This year’s festival started out Wednesday night with Biffy Clyro as the headliner, and with top performances from Vintage Trouble and many other artists. (Photo above: Ty Taylor from Vintage Trouble)
I have seen many great guitarists in my time, but few of the calibre of Steve Vai. What he can make a guitar do for him is amazing. He has also understood that a live performance is part music, part visual, and he gives the crowd value for their money. Sunday night Steve Vai played a packed Rockefeller Music Hall in Oslo.
Every year when I am in Austin, I discover one or more artists that I haven’t seen before, and that I like. Two years ago I discovered 
Turbonegro is one of Norway’s internationally best known bands. They started out in 1989 and have been active since then, except for three years between 1999 and 2002. They have also changed personnel during the years, going through several singers, drummers and guitarists. The two founding members who are still there, are Happy Tom and Rune Rebellion. On May 16th they played at Sukkerbiten in Oslo.
Two years ago I saw 
Anne Lise Frøkedal has been around the Norwegian music scene as a solo artist and as a musician with others for about 10 years. Lately she has put together her own band, Familien (the Family), and in February they released their debut album, Hold On Dreamer. Last night the band played support for a-ha in Oslo.
Norway has a small, but eclectic number of bands and artists who are known outside of Scandinavia, a-ha being the foremost and commercially most succesful. So far the band have sold more than 100 million records. They also had the official Guinnes record for the biggest paying audience to one concert in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1991, with 198.000 people paying to see them, three times as many as those who paid for Guns ’n’ Roses or George Michael at the same event, Rock in Rio.
Fifty years after the start, Roky Erickson is on tour with his band The Hounds of Baskerville playing the songs of his famous band The 13th Floor Elevators. His career since the 60s has gone up and down, with more downs than ups, but since around 2005 he has had a slow and steady upwards movement. The concert at Rockefeller last night showed that Roky Erickson is still capable of playing good concerts.
Artist Pictures Blog 