Published: October 27, 2024, at 00:58 Last updated: October 27, 2024, at 09:08
—
4
CONCERT
Ramón
Oslo Spektrum
—
Ramón took over a sold-out Oslo Spektrum with his biggest concert to date, featuring the carnival from his second album “Torres Tivoli”, a fantastic dance ensemble, and the odd splashy comment to the fans. And of course, with some of the biggest Norwegian hit songs of the last couple of years, most of which are quite sad from the outset. A concert in Oslo’s largest venue had to be a challenging balancing act between the sad and the dreary, and the desire to create a good mood for thousands of attendees.
Ramón Torres Andresen from Ski has quickly become a pop star with a lot of heart, but also pain on the surface. The song “Ok, I promise” and the album “Of course it hurts” resonated with many who have experienced the pain of love, but also more personal issues related to self-image, body, family, and belonging. This year’s “Torres Tivoli” is a generational document that does not limit itself to the 26-year-old’s own upbringing and background, but an album with both painful and processing songs about parents who fail, body pressure, bullying, love, identity, breakups, and heavy thoughts. He nevertheless has an ability to see and, not least, use humor regardless of how dark the backdrop is. As he sings in one of his best songs, it’s about: “collecting losses as if they were trophies”.
Also read: Review of new songs from Resa Saffa Park and Highasakite, featuring Emilie Nicolas
Ramón and Torres Tivoli in Oslo Spektrum
The concert starts with a literal curtain drop. Lines snake around Oslo Spektrum and into Torres Tivoli. When the gigantic curtain in front of the stage falls, the band, dancers, and a colorful backdrop with video screens among other things are already in full swing. Of course, “Clown” is the song that thematically takes us right into the carnival, the circus, into the evening’s biggest party in Oslo for about 9,500 audience members. The gender distribution on the floor, at least, is roughly 90 percent girls.
The voice is effortless, powerful, and formidable as he continues with “Tivoli”. This is the song about an unpredictable childhood: “My dad took me to the carnival / I smelled the alcohol but said nothing / I wanted cotton candy / Dad can you get me some cotton candy / then I promise not to tell mom”, resonating throughout Oslo Spektrum. The clown as a concept has always smiled through the unfortunate. But Ramón does not smile inopportunely. It’s a good introduction.
Review of new songs: Myra needs a hand and ULD won’t wait
Sing-along in Oslo Spektrum
“Rodeo” follows up with flames licking up to the ceiling, before he throws off his ruffled shirt and takes on his perhaps hardest song, “Angry, Hurt & Sickly Jealous”, which energetically kicks off. We are going to pick up the pace. When he mumbles from the stage that he has a problem, it’s established hits that are in play. With the dancers backing him, “Oops!” ends with him dividing the audience into two camps and asking them to compete on who sings the loudest or best, whichever it may be. That trick might have come a bit too early in the concert, but Ramón does not give up. He goes back to 2021 with the words “let me hear you!”, and encourages a sing-along in “Smile Nice”. Just smile back.
Ramón does not hide how great it is to be in Spektrum. The audience is screaming, as they often do when there are “Pop Stars” on stage, and in this very song, he is alone on the catwalk in the light of thousands of mobile phone lights. Video clips in the background from the viral water humor on TikTok suggest that something is brewing. No, he doesn’t have a stamp on stage, but a well-used and effective concert stunt where he, along with the guitarist, appears on a small side stage in the middle of the hall. A quiet acoustic “Forever” with Spanish strings starts the session on the floor, before a tender version of “Risk” gets vocal accompaniment from half the hall.
It creates an intimate setting around the whole thing, with some of his best songs, “Wow” and “Stand in Line”. With the latter, the trumpet solo reopens the stage and gives Ramón time to run back. In shiny black lacquer and with a crowded catwalk. A lovely conclusion to a dark song, and when he sings “A party turned into more than throwing up from the balcony / Before you used to drink a beer, now you make angels in the snow,” the snow falls from the ceiling.
Review of new songs: Kaizers honors family and Emily Hammer steps in between
“I love you, but”
Ramón acknowledges that it has gotten sad here now, but still asks for broken hearts. He then repeats the ritual where he gets a whole hall to boo an ex-girlfriend to a random audience member. Here it is Emma who raises her hand, and she has had her heart broken. He hardly needs to sing “I love you, but” himself. The audience takes action themselves and Emma is certainly satisfied. The named ex, of all places in Oslo Spektrum, finds no friend in Ramón.
Ramón has quickly become one of Norway’s biggest pop artists, while his songs are not crowd-pleasers in an outgoing way. He creates thoughtful and pointed songs that everyone can relate to. A few thousand of them came to Oslo Spektrum. They got what they came for, but perhaps not much more. Ramón laid the groundwork for a show, sing-along, and dance.
He got what he came for, too, but all in between, the nuances, the close contact with the audience – other than the sing-along from the core fans and “are you still having fun?” – he had to work hard for. Ramón is seasoned on stage to the point of professionalism, but becomes almost too self-assured, with complete control in the choreography and hardly a nerve in his body, apparently.
Highasakite and Ramón
He performs a stellar version in Norwegian of Highasakite’s “Since Last Wednesday”, interpreted under TV 2’s “Hver gang vi møtes” as “Ingen har sett eller hørt”. A new costume change, “blood” on the shirt, and a sharp pop song before it’s carnival time again with “Chupa Chups”. A fun party moment with the introduction of the dancers and a scene bathed in pink that matches the costumes. This seamlessly glides into a medley continuing with “1 minute”.
The voice is right where it should be, controlled, then flows seamlessly into “I Just Want to Dance”, which is a crowd-pleaser from another world. It’s a smart sequence of songs, thoroughly arranged to perfection and with a band where guitarist Jens Idsø Andersen leads and impresses with his own solos and fine coloring. Then they unexpectedly glide into “Porque”, where welcome Spanish percussion and heavy drums create contrasts in the playful and flamenco-inspired song that deserved an even bigger audience.
“Racer” starts quietly but lifts when Gabrielle comes on, before “Confetti” builds up to a small rock version of “Torres Tivoli’s” perhaps best pop song, “Hands in the Air”, now in pink and black and with the guitar out front. Also originally recorded with guest appearances, but here in Spektrum, Ramón manages just fine without Swedish Daniela Rathana.
Review by Frank Hammersland: Final farewell to a great artist
Ramón wins with Jonas Benyoub and Gabrielle
“17. May” is his biggest hit in the heavier section, and he gets Spektrum to jump “hip hip hooray” in black and pink checkered patterns, before “Ok, I promise” culminates with Jens Idsø Andersen out on the catwalk in a duel between guitarist and vocalist while heart fingers are raised across the entire hall. It’s a work victory against all odds, and it is secured.
But it can’t be over yet? No, we must get one more “Winner”, one of Oslo’s finest who comes in for a rap cameo here that shows what the Ramón concert could have been if he had been a little less focused on having full control all the time. Also Jonas Benyoub, like Gabrielle in “Racer”, makes a brief appearance near the end of “Winner”.
These star encounters Ramón could have made so much more out of. But no. Hey, a verse, then off stage again. The last part became a short but big highlight in a concert that turned out to be a tad mechanistic, where the free-flowing emotions and the emotionally driven spontaneity in Andresen’s songs had a bit too limited room to play. But regardless, Ramón confirmed in Oslo Spektrum a unique ability to move the masses from his personal standpoint.