Like Always, (pun intended), your fearless psyhonaut in service brings
you the first Bergen report. It's late, I won't write much. Here's an
approximate setlist, order of the main set is probably screwed up
and/or missing songs:

Fade to Grey
Never Let You Out
High Time
Like Always
Go to California
My Best Friend
All Is Loneliness
Upstairs-downstairs
The Other Fool
Kill Some Day
Hey Jane
The Nerve Tattoo
Song for a Bro
----------------------
Shalalalala
Walking With J
I Believe
Black to Comm
----------------------
Stained Glass

The concert started out really good, I think. Fade to Grey was OK, I
hadn't heard it (neither live or on CD) since fall '98, so I didn't
remmber much of it. Some of the others (met lots of nice psychos,
including Anders, Jürgen, Øystein, Kjetil, Leslie, and another Italin
girl whose name escapes me right now...) siad it had been rearranged
*again*. High Time was brilliant tonight, Baard was on fire on that
one, and Go to California another highlight. Like Always was great to
hear for the first time. My Best Friend started out *very* Grateful
Dead, in fact, I thought at first that they'd started to play Dark
Star (check out "Live/Dead"). All Is Loneliness was similarly jazzy,
if maybe a little too ambient. It didn't really take shape, IMO. The
"pop" songs very all very well played, and the sound was good. Finally
I got to hear a good version of Kill Some Day (the only other I'd
heard was last fall at Garage, when Bent broke a string). However,
I've heard The Other Fool, Hey Jane and Nerve Tattoo quite a few times
the past year, so...On the other hand, they only take 15 minutes to
play, so I don't complain. Thank God, no sing-along "The One Who Went
Away".... Song for a Bro was a pretty good version.
However, I thought the encore utterly sucked...Until then the concert
had varied between good and great, but all the energy and invention
seemed to have been spent by then. What followed was the new
Shalalalala, which didn't impress me much, Walking w/J, probably the
best of the encores, but not a fave of mine, I Believe, which I didn't
think much of, and a completely dull Black to Comm. Definitely the
weakest version I've heard...Compare with 231099, and you'll see what
I mean... 
The final encore was a live premiere of Stained Glass. Nice, but kind
of anti-climactic, IMO. We'd heard them do it at the soundcheck, so it
wasn't really a Big Surprise (yes, pun intended....).
All in all, a great main set, although with few surprises, and a
pretty dull encore. Reactions were mixed; Anders thought it was a
really bad show (although I think his point of view was influenced by
the audience, which sucked, and the people at Kvarteret, who also
suck), others thought it was really good, and the majority, like
myself, found it OK, but nothing special.
I missed quite a few songs...The 3rd, Other Other Fool (new version),
The Witch, Sideway Spiral III. A real shame.
I should also mention that they started *way* too late on a
Monday. The posters said 20:30....but the doors opened at 21:15, and
they didn't go on until 23:15 or maybe even later. It was also a
relatively short gig, less than 2 hours I Believe (pun inte...oh
well...). That may be because Kvarteret can only sell alcohol until
0100, and people have to be out by 01:30.........

I guess this only means one thing....I have to go to Oslo and
Aas.....;-)

Thorleif S. Hoff