The Australian musicmagazine The Dwarf has tasted I was a King’s exquisite sweets.
Track three, Golden Years is a definite standout number that bounces around the eardrums with a catchy riff and drawn out lyrical persistency that makes the corners of my mouth smirk both unintentionally and unequivocally.
Read more here
Seattle June 14th, Neumo’s
Seattle, our final destination. We had an in-studio performance at KEXP before we headed over for an in-store at Sonic Boom Records. The day and the tour ended at Neumo’s.
We had a lovely night at Neumo’s and said goodbye to Constantines and Crystal Antlers. We’ll meet Crystal Antlers again at the Øya festival in Oslo this summer. So long, comrades!
AL
Portland June 13, Doug Fir Lounge
The scenery on our way to Portland was not too different from what you would find in Norway, though the trees in the Redwood Forest were a lot bigger. The water started tasting really good, and it was almost like being home again.
AL
Solvang & San Francisco, June 11th Rickshaw Stop
The return of the original Solvang
There are so many good things about San Francisco. But before we go into details, we’ll have to start with Solvang, a city we passed on our way there:
Solvang, California looks like a German or Danish city. We had to stop in this weird place because of Kristoffer (our drummer), who’s last name is Solvang. He had told us more than one story about his ancestor who was an honored member of this little town. And now he finally found the Solvang merchandise he’s been longing to get for all these years…
We thought we were running late in San Francisco, entering the Rickshaw Stop less than 30 minutes before our show was supposed to start. But Crystal Antlers beat us, they came after their show was supposed to start. But their show was sure worth the wait.
Wonderful Raphi from the Fishermen Three was kind enough to show us some nice parts of San Francisco the next day. And…YES: They had more Kambucha than we could ever dream of. And we met people who were building dog houses for a charity auction. Nice!
AL
Los Angeles June 10th, Echo
First stop: An Internet TV session with livedaily.com where Frode and I did three songs. After we’d finished there was even time to visit a few music instrument shops and see some famous parts of the Sunset Boulevard (Whisky a Go-Go!) before get in at the venue. We really wanted to get a view of Los Angeles from Mulholland Drive, but there was no time.
The Echo was pretty crowded and we had a good night!
LA
San Diego June 9th, Casbah
The Norwegian convention
We had a wonderful time on stage, unaware that Casbah in San Diego would turn out to be something close to the navel of the world: All kinds of Norwegians (as well as other nice people) came to see us. We met a few students from Egersund, Frode’s small hometown (which he for the most of the tour has claimed to be the capital of Norway), Thomas Seltzer from the legendary band Turbonegro and TV host Mona B. Riise. But we met some Americans too: Marty from the great band Blitzen Trapper gave us valuable info on what to see and do in his hometown Portland. He explained that Oregon is the size of Norway and the amount of people living in central Portland is about the same as in Oslo. So we expect it to feel like home when we cross the border in a few days.
When all these unexpected encounters took place there was a continuous chain of planes landing virtually next door to the venue. Crazy. How could this be anything but a great night?
AL
Australian TwoThousand acknowledge their weaknesses in I was a King.
We all have our weaknesses. For some it’s a hairy chest, for others a blonde fringe.
Kid yourself that the attraction’s intellectual, emotional, even spiritual; but really, we’re always attracted to the same half dozen traits in different configurations.
Read more here
Austin - Phoenix June 8th
Rattlesnake shake
Between Austin and Phoenix is a pretty long ride through Texas, New Mexico and into the heart of Arizona, The Grand Canyon State. On this journey we passed endless open areas of sand, stone formations and cactuses - a lot of them! We had spent 12 hours in the van the day before just to be able to drive the Apache Trail north to Roosevelt Lake and southwest towards Phoenix this day.
On our way we drove through the first Indian reservation so far, the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. Visiting a reservation was a bigger dream to some of us than others, but with our tight schedule we only got to see the worn-down houses and the litter by the side of the road. Let’s call it an anticipated disappointment.
The Apache Trail’s beautiful, desert landscape with forests of cactuses and weird vegetation in general couldn’t let down anyone. 20 miles of the road was unpaved, and even though we were aware of this, we didn’t predict how many hours of bumpy, steep and curvy passages we were about to go through. But the scenery was wonderful, and when we at the end of the trail met a fairly annoyed rattlesnake we were super-exited and all shook up again - but this time not just because of the struggles of our poor van.
Rhythm Room, Phoenix
It might have been the Apache Trail that exhausted us, but we’ve had troubles with remembering what really happened in Phoenix. Ole Reidar emphasizes the fact that everything was in mono this night. The rest of us have a vivid memory of Frode absently eating most of the paper around his teriyaki wrap. During our show there was a problem with my guitar cable, so Frode had to do a few songs solo, which in turn made the set list turn out a bit weird. But all in all we’re almost certain that Phoenix was good.
AL
Austin June 6th, Emo’s
The sweet sound of Austin
In Austin we were to do our first show with the two bands we’ll be joining for the rest of our tour: Crystal Antlers and Constantines. A lot of people showed up this night, we even sold an LP to the sweet lead singer of Girl In a Coma. Unfortunately we didn’t recognize her before her band played on a different stage later.
In Austin they have made an effort to bring the downtown area to life by moving the business area further away from the city centre. And it works. To us the city was most famous for hosting the music business conference South by Southwest, and music surely seems to be a part of everything here. There is a PA and a stage in basically every bar, hotel lobby or café, and you can hear live music wherever you go.
AL
Alternative Media Group in Australia is heading in the same direction as I was a King on a two-way street.
The melodies are striking, so often amiss in this type of music, particularly the nicotine-soaked love-rock of “Step Aside” and the joyous “Breathe”.
Read more here.