To the appropriate background strains of ‘Crazy Nights’,
Turid, Anne Marit , Solveig and Marianne took a well-deserved bow after
playing yet another scintillating Katzenjammer show. For this, their second
batch of UK venue dates in 2015, the intoxicating Norwegian quartet included Birmingham
on the schedule and thus the first chance for many West Midlands fans to hear
the songs from the new album ROCKLAND live. Disappointment was not on the agenda as the girls
literally weaved through a chaotic set lasting just over ninety minutes and
exuding gallons of exciting, mainly acoustic mayhem. First time fans were literally
blown away, while seasoned Katzenjammer watchers probably never get to grips
with the multitude of instrumental exchange and energetic buoyancy radiating
from the stage.
Although active as a band for ten years, Katzenjammer only
came to my attention this year through an addiction to ROCKLAND, their third
album, and a ground breaking show, well for me anyway, in Nottingham. Festival
goers at Cambridge Folk and Cropedy also had the opportunity to see the band during
the summer with it being unsurprising that fans on the folk and roots circuit have
taken to their style of upbeat organic music. However it is difficult to
believe how they can beat these indoor shows with a couple of hundred people packed
into a smallish venue. The Library room at Birmingham Institute is ideally
contained to capture the magic of a Katzenjammer show with the girls on full
fifth gear power mode this evening.
It was a Friday night and the band wasted no time in rousing
the crowd with the smart choice of opening the set with the singalong favourite
‘Rock-Paper-Scissors’. The tone was
established for a trawl though material from all three albums with ‘God’s Great Dust Storm’ and ‘Land of Confusion’ joining the opener as
a representation from 2011's A KISS BEFORE YOU GO.
There was an increased serving of songs from the LE POP record with
numerous tracks vying for the show’s golden moment, or should we say moments.
The final three songs before the encore all came from this
2009 record. ‘Demon Kitty Rag’
signalled the start of the finale, before Solveig raised the atmosphere to
crescendo levels when playing the trumpet parts in ‘A Bar in Amsterdam’. This was the cue for further creative use of
the venue’s light system and Marianne slipping into demonic mode while
wallowing in ‘Hey Ho on The Devil’s Back’
from the keyboards. Playing catch up with Katzenjammer’s previous albums has
been highly enjoyable this year and an honourable mention is deserved for the
live rendition of ‘Mother Superior’,
also from LE POP and an inspirational piece of joyous accordion-led, European
upbeat, sway-inducing bar music.
Any review of a Katzenjammer show cannot fail to mention the
continual exchange and array of musical instruments used. The number 18 has
been read somewhere and that seemed about right, headed by the band’s cat-faced
contra-bass Balalaika and pink piano, with electric bass being almost the odd
one out amongst a concoction of acoustic. For so much on-stage manoeuvre and
switching, the pauses are relatively short, with the wider Katzenjammer team
precision-tuned in this operation.
The songs from ROCKLAND were rolled out in a steady
procession with perhaps one notable absentee being ‘Shine Like Neon Rays’ which did not grace the pink piano when it
was brought out. Similarly to the Nottingham show, Marianne explained the
background to ‘Lady Grey’, but a
Katzenjammer show is defined by the musical chemistry rather than the between-song chat. To further this theory, ‘Old de Spain’, ‘Curvaceous Needs’ and ‘Bad Girl’
continue to evolve and excel in a live setting with the title track ‘Rockland’ being one of show’s occasional
restful moments.
Katzenjammer has been one of the finds of 2015 and has
almost left a lasting legacy from seeing a couple of their shows. They are the
epitome of the phrase ‘the sum is bigger than the parts’ with each band member
playing near identical roles with only the odd instrumental exception. Truly egalitarian in
their approach to music making, Turid, Solveig, Marianne and Anne Mariet have
emerged as a treasured quartet and proudly present Katzenjammer as a band doing
things the right way: skilfully, authentic, organic and totally enthralling.