My sister came along with me to this show, and it was her first time visiting Koncerthuset. As she is an engineer and loves buildings, we spent some time taking a wee tour around the place and admiring it - it really is just a gorgeous place, perfectly suited for playing and experiencing music in.
We had seats on the front row right at center stage. The band came on and started with The Pilgrim's Song (as far as I remember, I am writing this a month after the fact and have been unable to find a setlist online).
Songs would mostly start slow and build to massive crescendos, and it was mesmerising watching these brilliant musicians fall into their music - Martin Hayes and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on their fiddles - Caoimhín made noises come out of his instrument that I had thought were from a completely different instrument on the record, just unbelievable - Thomas Bartlett at the piano (made me think of Tori, watching him), and then of course singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, of whom I've been a fan since the second Afro Celts Sound System album.
Each of the members, except for Dennis Cahill, took turns talking to the audience, and Iarla thanked us in Danish. The three Irish guys mostly talked about inspirations and sources behind songs and stuff, but Thomas (American) talked about his favourite places to eat in Copenhagen and what lovely things he'd had for dinner the day before. I think both Iarla and Martin also commented on the wonderful space they were playing in, same as Tori had done a couple of years before. They were clearly enjoying themselves on stage, and I always love seeing that.
The whole show was just pure magic for me, from start to finish - I nearly made myself cry when I closed my eyes and thought 'that's Iarla Ó Lionáird there a couple of feet directly in front of me, singing so beautifully, and in Irish'. I also kept wondering how many of the Danish people in the audience were wannabe-Gaeilgeoirs like me :)
As I said, I can't remember all the songs played, but in addition to 'The Pilgrim's Song', there were also 'Oisín's Song', 'Fáinleog', 'Cucanandy' and 'Saoirse'. Probably all of the instrumentals from the second album were played as well, but I couldn't say for sure. I had hoped for 'Samhradh Samhradh', which is my favourite from the first album, but that was not played. Oh well, maybe next time :)
My sister enjoyed herself too, although this is not really her type of music, but I was so happy that we got to share the experience and had a bit of sister-time to boot.
