10-05-2011 Susanne Sundfør

Supports: Susanne Sundfør; Venue: Brotfabrik, Frankfurt (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Tonight I was at Brotfabrik in Frankfurt. Many people had gathered in the beautiful cultural venue somewhere in an urban district of Frankfurt. I personally have never been in that venue before, but I instantly liked it. There is nothing special about the venue itself. Except for a certain vibe. But maybe it was just because of tonight’s show. Two amazing singer-songwriters from Norway were going to perform tonight: Susanne Sundfør and Thomas Dybdahl.

Susanne Sundfør is a Norwegian singer-songwriter. She and her band were opening tonight’s show. Her new album “The Brothel” is to be released on May 20th in Germany, but Susanne already had it available at her merchandize stand. The stage was filled with music equipment. There was not much room to move around, but Susanne Sundfør and band did not need to move around to get the audience to do so instead. The musicians rather focused on creating a breathtaking sound and atmosphere. Together with two female back up vocalists Susanne sang her beautiful songs to the audience. Slow music together with a whole lot of emotions. The light flashing and dancing around, sometimes just floating, completed the atmosphere and let you forget time and place. All eyes were locked on the stage. Speechless and totally quiet the audience tried to grasp everything that was going on onstage. The music Susanne Sundfør and band created was like magic. Indescribable and brilliant. It seemed like the show was lasting forever – in the most positive way. Simply amazing.

After being able to catch some breath and get your mind prepared for the next amazing act, Thomas Dybdahl and band entered the stage. Thomas Dybdahl is a Norwegian musician in the singer/songwriter tradition. All were dressed in suits, bass player and Thomas himself wore straw hats to complete the outfits. The stage was still crowded with music instruments such as a banjo, an organ, two keyboards, several guitars and of course drum set and bass player along with all the monitors and amps. Some of the amps were very nostalgic and behind one amp there was a painting, leaning on the organ. As odd as it seemed it fit perfectly well. The music of Thomas Dybdahl was somewhere between Chris Isaak and Cold War Kids. Unless Susanne Sundfør Thomas talked a whole lot to the audience, made jokes and answered questions, introducing the band and so on. The music was taking your mind off all the troubles and seriousness of the world and let it float freely. The music was a little faster than Susanne’s and people were dancing around, singing along and cheering out loud. The drummer of Susanne joined Thomas for percussions and such, Susanne also joined for one song to sing along with Thomas. During the encore the band encouraged people to dance up on stage while Thomas Dybdahl was playing guitar next to his fans down in the audience room.