This year I have seen something between 150 and 200 concert at some 15 festivals, and at different venues, and I have had the chance to photograph most of them. Concerts in many different styles: jazz, folk, country, metal, classical, rock, hip-hop, pop. Here are my Top 15 concert experiences of 2012.
This will also be the last posting here at Artist Pictures Blog in 2012. More to come in 2013.
It is the time for Christmas and the yearly lists of the best albums of the year. Different magazines and radio shows have their own lists, and the forums have eager discussions about these lists. One of the music styles that causes the most discussions, is metal rock. Here are a few of the candidates for this year’s best metal rock album, international and Norwegian that I have photographed this last year and before. (Picture above: Enslaved, from the last Hole In The Sky Festival in Bergen 2011)
One of the most popular Norwegian bands in the late 80’s and early 90’s was Return from Stange, a small place some 70 miles north of Oslo. Their biggest hit, Sing Me A Song, stayed for a whole year on Norsktoppen, a popularity chart show on Norwegian radio, NRK P1.
Norway have had a few artists with international success, a-ha the most successful of these. But in the 80’s Stage Dolls were on their way to something big with a single on the Billboard chart and a record contract with Big Time Records.
The Norwegian Blues Union and the magazine BluesNews celebrated their 15 year birthday yesterday. The party was held at Victoria Scene in Oslo with most of the best Norwegian blues artists during the last 40 years. (Picture: The editor of BluesNews, Rune Endal, and the leaders of the Norwegian Blues Union the last 15 years.)
The Norwegian record company Duplex is responsible for many bands in different styles. One of the central persons in Duplex and many of the bands, is Egil Hegerberg. He has his own band, Bare Egil Band (“Only Egil Band”), he is a member of the “kitchen appliances band” Hurra Torpedo, and he plays in Black Debbath. In January they will release their sixth CD.
The Norwegian band Hellbillies released their 13th CD two weeks ago to great reviews in newspapers and blogs. Some have held this as their best CD so far. Saturday night they held their 20 year anniversary concert as a recording band at a sold out Oslo Spektrum together with some good artist friends.
One of Norway’s hardest working bands are El Caco. They are a trio, playing dark and heavy music somewhere between stoner rock straight rock and heavy rock. In January they released their 6th CD, Hatred, Love and Diagrams, and they have toured this album extensively this year. Yesterday night they played at Rockefeller in Oslo.
Brad Paisley is one of the most celebrated newer country artists. He is also more rocky than many of his colleagues on the country scene. Last night he played Oslo Spektrum for an enthusiastic audience of between 6 and 7000.
If you like progressive metal and bands like Tool, Gojira is the perfect alternative. They are on an European tour this month, and played at the Parkteatret in Oslo yesterday night. In January they are going to Canada and US, and my advice is to check out their tour schedule and be there when they play near your place.
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