Storm Weather!

You might expect a weather update from that headline, but instead you're getting a concert review. Last night Rauland was graced with the rockin' presence of the Storm Weather Shanty Choir, http://www.shantychoir.com. The six members of the band sing to their own accompaniment on a variety of instruments. They sing everything you would expect from a Norwegian shanty choir. That is to say they sing shanties in Norwegian and English and sometimes a little of both. If you're lucky, you get to hear them sing sad songs about love lost; if you're really lucky, they break out their boy-band moves.

It seems natural that there is a healthy serving of audience participation in their performances. If everyone is going to be singing along anyway, why not make them sing out? Håkon Vatle, the head shantyman, is also a great performer and can get a crowd of any size singing and shouting and doing pretty much whatever he wants.

After the concert, we had the usual sequence of events. We clear the chairs, students play for dancing; people either dance, drink, or go home, and probably all of the above.

At one point, I was standing at the edge of the dance floor listening to my classmates play a really lovely waltz after a string of nordlandspols. It struck me that one of the things I'm really missing here is a really good waltz once in a while. I think I've danced one since school started. It's just hard to beat that feeling when the music is just right and you and your partner are moving perfectly together.