Archive for the ‘Cast In Steel Tour’ Category

Barcarena and Paragominas concerts

Paragominas, 3 October (Picture from ORM News)

Paragominas, 3 October
(Picture from ORM News)

a-ha played two outdoor concerts in the Pará area in Brazil last week, in cooperation with Hydro. According to Hydro, 14,000 people were in the audience at the Cabana Club in Barcarena on 1 October, while 18,000 people saw them at Estádio Arena Verde in Paragominas on 3 October.

The setlist in Barcarena was identical to the twenty-song set they did in Buenos Aires, opening with “The Wake”. The setlist in Paragominas hasn’t been posted anywhere yet, but appears to have been a bit different, as they opened with “I’ve Been Losing You” instead.

Before the first show, on 1 October, they did a press conference in Belém, after a chaotic arrival at the airport the day before. In between shows Morten has contributed to a reforestation project, while Magne has held art workshops. Check out more pictures and video clips on Hydro Brazil’s Instagram page.

Barcarena links:
Photo gallery (ORM News)
YouTube: Full concert
YouTube: Concert highlights

Paragominas links:
Photo gallery (ORM News)
YouTube: Hunting High and Low
YouTube: Morten climbing the stage scaffolding (!)

Photographer Just Loomis has been following the band on the road, like he did in 1991, and some of the photos he has taken so far can be seen in this official “Forest Fire” slideshow video – which also features an alternate mix of the song.

a-ha make successfull return to Rock in Rio

Getting a big applause from the Rio audience at the end of the concert

Getting a big applause from the Rio audience at the end of the concert

a-ha made a successfull return to the Rock in Rio festival on Sunday night, playing in front of 90,000 people at the Palco Mundo (World Stage). Although the conditions were difficult, with heavy rain coming down as a-ha entered the stage, they put on a solid performance that thrilled the Rio audience.

Paul rocking out on his Fano ML6 guitar

Paul rocking out on his Fano ML6 guitar

The concert was streamed live online by AOL. If you missed it, the whole show has been uploaded by a fan on Vimeo.

VG’s Stein Østbø, who gave the Buenos Aires concert a 3/6 review, also attended Rock in Rio and was impressed by what he heard this time – giving the concert a 5/6 review:

“Tonight’s concert turned out to be completely different than the rusty viking ship that performed at the tour opening in Buenos Aires on Thursday night. This time they appeared as a revitalized band. (…) Suddenly Morten Harket was more focused and quicker in his movements, instead of the slightly lazy frontman and vocalist we saw in Buenos Aires just a few days earlier. It seems like he’s struggling harder to reach the highest notes, but by all means – he gets there!

Paul Waaktaar-Savoy was a monster on the guitar – hard rocking, brilliantly setting the mood and providing crystal clear riffs. And when Magne Furuholmen finally hits all the right keys on his synth – and we even hear the sound – it couldn’t go much wrong. Add to that an excellent arena sound with lots of oomph! in the basslines, you get an a-ha that fits perfectly on a giant stage like this.”

The setlist:
01. I’ve Been Losing You
02. Cry Wolf
03. Stay On These Roads
04. Move To Memphis
05. Scoundrel Days
06. Crying In The Rain
07. Sycamore Leaves
08. You Are The One
09. Forest Fire
10. Hunting High And Low
11. Foot Of The Mountain
12. The Sun Always Shines On TV
13. Under The Makeup
14. The Living Daylights
15. Take On Me

"A fantastic audience", Magne said after the show

“A fantastic audience”, Magne said after the show

The heavy rain made Magne a bit concerned, he told VG backstage after the show:

“My keyboard was swimming in water, and I was the only one [of us three] who was plugged directly into the electric system. The whole thing could have exploded, there was a lot of water in there. But it was a fantastic audience!”

The tour continues at the Cabana Club in Barcarena on 1 October and at Estádio Arena Verde in Paragominas on 3 October. These two shows, held in connection with Hydro’s anniversary, were originally only open for Hydro employees and contest winners. But due to high demand, both shows are now open for everyone. Tickets are free, but requires a donation of school equipment to local children.

Brazilian articles:
Rolling Stone: Rock in Rio: mesmo com chuva, a-ha prioriza…
oglobo.globo.com: A-ha leva o rádio FM para o palco em show saudoso

Globo TV interview with Paul and Morten in Rio:
Entrevista exclusiva com integrantes do A-Ha

‘Cast In Steel’ Tour opens in Buenos Aires

a-ha on stage in Buenos Aires, 24 September

a-ha on stage in Buenos Aires, 24 September

a-ha opened their Cast In Steel Tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Thursday night, in front of 10,000 people at the Luna Park indoor arena. This was their first concert in almost five years and the first of 40 concerts on the 2015-16 tour, which is now set to end on 1 May 2016 in Oslo Spektrum, after an extra concert was added.

Picture by Marcelo

Picture by Marcelo

The Moods of Norway suits are gone, they have a new bass player, and some of the songs have a rockier edge, but – judging from the YouTube clips – the concert wasn’t too different from what they presented five years ago. And although this is the Cast In Steel Tour, the title track was actually not performed. Only a mere three (3) songs from the new album was included in the setlist on Thursday.

Before the show, Magne told VG that none of the songs on Cast In Steel are really working well enough in a live setting yet. Hopefully more of them will be added later.

Picture by Marcelo

Picture by Marcelo

Apart from “Sycamore Leaves”, “Soft Rains Of April” and those three new songs, all the other songs in the setlist were also played during the Farewell Tour in 2010. Although this time they played full band versions of “Crying In The Rain”, “Early Morning” and “You Are The One”, instead of the acoustic versions they did back then.

Breaking it down by albums, they played 3 songs from Hunting High and Low, 6 songs from Scoundrel Days, 3 songs from Stay On These Roads, 3 songs from East Of The Sun, 1 song from Memorial Beach, no songs from Minor Earth, Major Sky, no songs from Lifelines, no songs from Analogue, 1 song from Foot Of The Mountain and 3 songs from Cast In Steel. Quite an unbalanced setlist.

But the audience at Luna Park didn’t seem to care much what they played, giving the band a warm and enthusiastic response.

Picture by Marcelo

Picture by Marcelo

VG’s Stein Østbø gives the concert a 3 out of 6 rating in his review, saying that he had expected more from a-ha this time around:

“The tour opening in Argentina came across as a continuation of the Farewell Tour that ended in Oslo Spektrum five years ago. Where was the new a-ha? Where were the changes that would bring the trio into another new phase?”

As for the visuals, although there were plenty of new graphics on the three screens behind the band, much of it was also re-used elements from the Farewell Tour. Oddly enough, footage from the music videos for “Dark Is The Night” and “Lifelines” was shown during “Scoundrel Days”, for some reason.

Here is the correct setlist, with links to YouTube-videos:
(the setlist on a-ha.com is wrong…)

01. The Wake
02. I’ve Been Losing You
03. Cry Wolf
04. Stay On These Roads
05. Move To Memphis
06. Scoundrel Days
07. Crying In The Rain
08. We’re Looking For The Whales
09. Sycamore Leaves
10. Hunting High And Low
11. The Swing Of Things
12. Early Morning
13. You Are The One
14. Forest Fire
15. Soft Rains Of April
16. Foot Of The Mountain
————————-
17. The Sun Always Shines On TV
18. Under The Makeup
19. The Living Daylights
————————-
20. Take On Me

There were several moments during the show that didn’t work quite as they should, including Magne messing up the beginning of “The Swing Of Things” and the sing-along in “The Living Daylights”:

Magne and Paul interviewed by VG after the show

Magne and Paul interviewed by VG after the show

“It was really fun, a great atmosphere and much enthusiasm! But I feel I’m a bit out of practice. I guess I did every mistake you could possible do during one show, enough for the rest of the tour”, Magne told VG backstage after the concert.

“But those mistakes were really good! Let’s add them to the show!”, Paul joked.

“It wasn’t all smooth sailing, but there was a great atmosphere all the way through”, Magne said.

“A very cool audience and we got through it fairly well. It felt good to be on stage”, Paul added.

Norwegian press about the Buenos Aires concert:
VG: Konsertanmeldelse: Tidløse a-ha (25 Sep.)
VG: Furuholmen etter a-ha-comebacket: – Gjorde alle feil jeg kunne gjøre! (25 Sep.)
VG: a-ha med kontroversiell plakat under Buenos Aires-konsert (25 Sep.)
VGTV: Harkets dom over turnéstarten (25 Sep.)
Dagbladet: – Det overrasket meg at de spilte «You Are the One»… (25 Sep.)
Dagbladet: – Hvis jeg ikke besvimer blir dette den beste kvelden i mitt liv (25 Sep.)
VG: a-ha: En nygammel suksess (24 Sep.)
VG: a-ha frykter «gnål» før comeback-konserten (24 Sep.)
Dagbladet: – Det gjør en glad å komme hit… (24 Sep.)
VG: Argentinske Pilar (12): Har vært a-ha-fan siden hun ble født (23 Sep.)
VG: Kaos i Buenos Aires da a-ha ankom (22 Sep.)

TV2 also has an 8-minute video interview with Morten and Magne, which was done in Oslo before leaving for South America: Se eksklusivt intervju med A-ha

The tour continues with the big Rock in Rio concert on Sunday night. It looks like the festival concerts are streamed online at aol.com/rockinrio/. So keep an eye on that page. a-ha are scheduled to play at 10:30pm local time (3:30am CET).

Drammen rehearsal concert, September 9th

Union Scene, Drammen, September 9th (Picture by Rune Tønnessen)

Union Scene, Drammen, September 9th
(Picture by Rune Tønnessen)

a-ha played a 50-minute rehearsal concert at Union Scene in Drammen, Norway yesterday, in front of around 600 people – most of which had won tickets at a Platekompaniet signing session in Oslo the day before.

The band has been rehearsing at Union Scene over the last few weeks to prepare for the upcoming South American tour, and this was the final dress rehearsal before heading to Luna Park in Buenos Aires, although the full shows are likely to include twice as many songs.

A 14-minute video with clips from all the songs performed in Drammen has been posted on YouTube, courtesy of Rune Tønnessen.

Three songs from Cast In Steel were played live for the first time last night, while “Sycamore Leaves” appeared in the setlist for the first time since 2004 – now with Morten singing it instead of Paul. “Early Morning” was played as a full band version, instead of the acoustic version they’ve usually done in the 2000s.

The biggest surprise was probably “Soft Rains of April”, which has rarely been played live since the late 80s – apart from the HHAL/SD concerts with the Oslo Philhamonics in 2010.

Setlist:
(with links to other YouTube clips)
1. The Wake
2. I’ve Been Losing You
3. Cry Wolf
4. Hunting High and Low
5. Forest Fire
6. Early Morning
7. Sycamore Leaves
8. Soft Rains of April
9. Under The Makeup
10. The Sun Always Shines on TV
– – – – – – – – – – – –
11. Foot of the Mountain

Just as on the two previous tours, a-ha are joined by Karl Oluf Wennerberg on drums and Erik Ljunggren on synth/programming, while new bassist Even Ormestad is going on tour with the band for the first time.

Reports from some of the fans who were at the show seem to indicate that the sound is less polished and more rock-oriented than it was in 2009-2010, with Paul bringing out his Gibson SG Fano Alt de Facto ML6 guitar for some heavy riffs.

Concert reviews:
VG: Konturene av et nytt a-ha – for tredje gang…
Dagsavisen Fremtiden: Gøy på øving
Rock and Roll Dreams: Klar til avreise

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