The good people of Mighty Music had created an event this evening in their own honour and called it Mighty Fight Night. Here they had three of their signed bands playing, and three unsigned bands were doing the actual ‘fighting’ as it were, contesting for the grand prize of having one song recorded by renowned record producer Jacob Hansen (Hansen studios, Invocator) and Jeppe Andersson (Scarred By Beauty), which would later be distributed as a digital single through Mighty Music and Universal Music.

But we were here for one reason only, and that reason was Vanir.
Having seen them twice (once reviewing) before, we had a pretty good idea about what kind of party these pagans in young form can create, and we wanted to be part of that.
Vanir was the first band to hit the stage after the three fighting bands were done, and had because of this the (un?)grateful job at picking up where two young, hungry metalcore type of bands had left of, and where most of the audience looked like they were either parents of the earlier bands, of school-mates. Maybe not the optimal crowd, but who cares? As the logo on Vanir’s shirt says; ”Now’s the time for drinking and fornicating” (or, Nu’ det tid til druk og hor, as the shirt is in Danish)!
Vanir actually had a pretty long setlist worked out, but as time was pressed (there were six bands playing after all) they were just going to play for as long as they could. A wise decision, if ever I heard one.

So, how about it then?
Well, as I said, time was a big factor here, so the band pretty much hammered their way through the set as Thor through so many annoying giants on a foul-tempered day, which left only limited room for audience interaction between songs. Actually, it was nearly none existent. However, the band members, some more than others, instead did what they could inside the framework of the songs to get people going. Especially the new guitarist Lasse Guldbæk Jensen was constantly shaking hands and giving knuckles to the people around him (how on earth he had time for this while playing I cannot say though).
I’m not sure whether or not you are at all familiar with the expression; ”If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain”, but I am sure there were a couple of pink-shirted guys in the audience who were; at least they decided to get up on the stage during Rejsen Til Udgårdsloke and dance around like a pair of misunderstood Viking transsexuals. All in the name of entertainment, eh?
Anyway, keyboardist/vocalist Andreas Bigom also tried to make deal with the assembled people, saying; ”If you’re not in the back drinking, you should be in the front moshing!”. Sadly, this only meant the pressure on the barmaids went up…

Ok, so the crowd wasn’t overwhelming in any way, and most of those who were there had come for something completely different than good-natured Viking party music, but I still felt that there reigned a pretty good vibe throughout Vanir’s entire gig. Their song Heimdals Kvad, with the somewhat Ensiferum sounding lyric Lai Lai Hei, got a good old sing-along going, and people were generally as welcome on the stage as they were off it.
Due to the restricted playing time, Vanir had to cut their gig a song short however, and they were uncharacteristically fast off the stage when they were done. After this there really wasn’t much reason to stick around anymore, so we made an equally early return home this night.

Vanir should not be confused with the many other Viking-themed bands out there who pride themselves on being wickedly brutal; this band is all about getting drunk and having a blast!
That being said, and also not forgetting that there was a nice atmosphere at the gig, this concert sadly did not reach the same heights of greatness as the other two we’ve been part of. There can be any number of reasons for this, which we will not dwell further on here. We’ll simply wish a band with a good portion of potential good tidings for future endeavours.

Setlist:

Niddings Dom
Holmgang
Rejsen Til Udgårdsloke
Thyrfing
Elverkongens Brud
Togtet
Langt Over Havet
Gildet
Lokes Listighed
Heimdals Kvad
Særimners Kød