Group: Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band
Venue: Folken (Stavanger, NORWAY)
Date: 2004-10-22

Half-way through the show and I’m sweating beer and adrenaline by the bucketload. In a last-ditch effort at salvaging what remains of the objective eyes and ears of the observing music journalist, I try to clap only half-heartedly along with the lush electronics and blasting rhythms served up by Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band, and jump up and down on the swaying floor with a restrained enthusiasm. But who am I kidding? Ralph Myerz are fantastic, their live alter ego being less lounge and far more energetic than anything they’ve been able to cut to wax thus far. And anyone who goes to their show is guaranteed not to escape the primal urge to get funky.

From middle-aged to underage, Folken is packed like the sardine cans Stavanger was once so renowned for. After an ironic laugh with the by-now obligatory live introduction of “Gloria, Gloria”, the band catapult themselves onto the stage and throw an epileptic attack of funky beats, a dazzling frenzy of coloured lights and various electronic samplings, blips and beeps. Everyone is cheering. Everyone is dancing without restraint, in a thoroughly un-Norwegian, beer-induced fashion. Someone even manages to spill their beer on my head from the second floor. I can’t seem to rouse myself enough to care though, being thoroughly mesmerised by the Bergen boys who play it loud and fast, like they were ten in number and roaring high on every synthetic drug known to mankind. The double percussion/drum batteries bongo away. “Casino” comes on and everyone goes wild.

And then it’s all over, dead in a hearbeat and the hypnotised zombie crowds are left to stumble away, suddenly lonely and disconnected into the night. The electronic wizardry is packed up into metal cases and shipped off along with the rest of the band to the next city, to new and adoring audiences.