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Black Maria I Saw The Light Mad Afraid Mercenary Gun Courage Weakness Strike Pissin Today Bardo Panic Manup Couldn't I Just Tell You I think this was the most civilised festival that I’ve ever attended! The people were really friendly, with lots of them taking the time to talk to people around them. There was also no pushing and you could more or less stand wherever you liked. People sat on the grass in the amphitheatre area in front of the stage and just before the next act came on stage, anyone who wanted to would wander down to the front to stand in front of the stage. When there, people would wander off to get a drink and their space was just left empty until they returned! I stood in more or less the second row and had plenty of room which was great! As usual at these festivals there were loads of stalls around the perimeter selling food, drink and merchandise but unusually for a festival there was a swimming pool within the grounds! During one act some people brought round some complimentary tubs of nuts and there were children going around the audience all day collecting the empty plastic glasses (I presume that they got some money back on them but Oslo has considerably less litter than London anyway). The weather forecast was that it was only going to be 53 degrees with a 70% chance of rain but in fact it was about the early 70s with no rain so was perfect!
 There were two stages. The main acts (The Pretenders, Todd Rundgren and Big Band) were on the big stage but between their sets some other bands played on the smaller stage. Unusually for a festival, they kept very much on time with The Pretenders going on stage almost dead on 5.15pm and Todd taking the stage at almost exactly 7.00pm. The sun wasn’t due to set until 10.40pm so it was bright light through all their set. The Pretenders were really good and Chrissie Hyndes’ voice was very strong, especially considering she’s 57. I didn’t think I knew many Pretenders songs but in fact there were 4 that I recognised. They played for exactly an hour with no encore.
 For Todd’s set there was a good crowd in front of the stage. I think there was slightly more for The Pretenders’ set but Todd’s fans were more lively! Lots of them obviously already knew the songs on the Arena album. Todd came on stage at almost exactly 7pm. However when Todd played the first note of the first song (Love In Action) he broke a string on his green ("Foamy") guitar! As he changed guitars, Kasim joked "Thank you and good night!" which Todd then repeated to loads of laughter. Todd then played his black guitar for LIA and went back to Foamy for the remainder of the gig. The sound was really good at this gig (especially considering it was an outdoor gig) and Todd’s voice was very strong. Kasim’s voice was louder than normal in the mix (at least where I stood) so that was brilliant to hear too!
 Tonight they played most of the songs on Todd’s normal Arena Tour set list but unfortunately they omitted two of my favourites at the beginning (Black And White and Trapped) and some from the encore. I Saw The Light was obviously recognised and went down really well with all the crowd (even those still sitting on the grass). Todd then said that they were going to be playing his Arena album in its entirety (and made his usual joke about people getting their cell phones out to record it) and said that Arena had only just been released in Norway. I wondered how they were going to manage this as it was already 7.20pm by then and I thought they were only due to play for about an hour. I also thought that Todd was missing a trick as most people at the festival won’t know the Arena album so I would have thought that he would have been better playing more of his known songs with just five or six of the more popular tracks from Arena mixed into the set but if Todd’s set his mind on something…! Todd said at the beginning of his set that he wouldn’t be talking too much but he did say after Mad and Afraid his usual line about the two titles and that Mercenary didn’t have the title in the song.
 Despite having only flown into Oslo at lunchtime today (after long flights from California so that he could record Meat Loaf’s new album for as long as possible), Kasim looked extremely chipper on stage and made lots of eye contact with people in the audience. He especially seemed to enjoy throwing guitar pics today and they whizzed across the audience as the wind caught them! Unfortunately in all my photos he looks bloody miserable but I want to stress that that is not how he was on stage at all! I think the problem is that I like to just take a few photos during some of the songs that I like least (rather than through the whole set) so most of my pictures were taken during Bardo and Kasim doesn’t sing in that song. Instead he stood on the edge of the drum riser playing his guitar. Also, due to Kasim having flown in from California and not his home, it meant that he didn’t have any maracas with him so he couldn’t play them during Pissin as he usually does. (The rest of the band arrived the day before the gig.) The more times I hear the Arena album live, the more it grows on me but it’s still not my favourite Todd album by far. I think that’s exacerbated by the fact that Kasim doesn’t play bass on the tour so for over half the set he’s “stuck” at the keyboards. Some of the songs like Strike and Courage I really like but personally I feel that there are too many fillers on the album. Tonight, just before they played Strike, Todd gave very brief instructions on the arm action in the song but most people around me joined in with gusto so obviously had already known what to do. I did notice that Rachel only did the strike action for part of the song. There was a large clock on the side of the stage and by the time they played Panic it was well past 8.00pm so I wasn’t surprised that they omitted Mountaintop. (I think it was on the set list as it appeared to me that Todd had to tell the band that they weren’t going to play it.) They then played Manup, waved goodbye and left the stage. The audience were calling out the Norwegian version of "more" or "encore" but I was really doubtful that they would come back out as The Pretenders didn’t. Thankfully I was wrong as they came back and played Couldn’t I Just Tell You! The audience all obviously recognised that song as it received loads of applause and most of the people at the front were singing along to it! They then did the band bow and left the stage at about 8.20pm.
Comments by fans posted to various messageboards and mailing lists include:
"It was AMAZING!!! And yes, his voice was sounding really top notch."
Other websites:
NRK TV here have streamed Todd Rundgren's set.
The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
The Summer leg of the tour lasts 22 days and they play 10 gigs (with a week off during the tour).
The gig tonight is the only one in Europe and is the first time in several years that Todd Rundgren has played in Norway. The Norwegian Wood Festival is a large annual festival that has been running since 1992. Artists who have played there in previous years include Johnny Cash, Jethro Tull, Sting, David Bowie, Tori Amos, Brian Wilson, Alanis Morissette and Foo Fighters.
This year Neil Young performed on Thursday, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds yesterday and Keane and Duffy will headline tomorrow on the final day of the festival.
Today the other acts on the bill are The Pretenders at 5.15pm and Big Bang (a popular Norwegian group) play at 9pm. Todd Rundgren is due on stage at 7pm.
The festival sells 8,000 tickets for each day. A day pass costs NKK525 ($82). (That's how they can afford to fly these bands to Norway for just one gig!)
Unfortunately the weather forecast for when Kasim is due on stage is only 53 degrees with a 70% chance of precipitation. On the plus side, being so far north, sunset is not due until 10.40pm.
The name of the festival refers to The Beatles famous song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).
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