I can’t help thinking about Art and Paul as I close my eyes and let my ear see the voices of Erlend  and Eirik while their guitar gently speak of the little lifes of people in this world. 

Usually photo-restrictions in concerts mean trouble, but as long as I don’t have to sign a release giving the artist all copyrights to my pictures I count myself lucky. Yesterday Kings of Convenience demanded that there weren’t to be any photography during the first 30 minutes, and no proffesionals were allowed close to the stage. Also, they closed the bar, special band… I can easily live with not shooting the first half hour. Usually the light improves over the course of the show, and as artists and audience warm up I get better pictures. But I couldn’t picture myself sitting in a dark corner far back at the end of my telephoto lens, so I went for a slightly different approach.

I left my Nikon-kit and bag in the office, put my press-pass away and walked into the front of the audience with Fioleta, my trusty Fuji X100, and pretended to be any ol’music-lover waiting to hear one of his favourite band and maybe grab a picture or three. The first 30 minutes was blissfull, looking with my ears and not my camera (I haven’t trusted my eyes for a while), taking in the sweet voices and the gentle strokes of the guitars. To men, twelve strings, half a world away.

After half an hour Fioleta got to play with the lights and shades, doing her thing and doing it well. I was singing along to songs I don’ know as the concert went on, and dancing with everyone when the band came to play. A fantastic show, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. King of Convenience got a new fan tonight.

More photos to come at www.folken.no/bilder