Tromsø Scene Report

By Carl Christian Lein Størmer

Tromsø – often referred as “The Paris of the North” due to it’s high density of bars/clubs/restaurants – is a urban hot spot deep inside the arctic region of Norway. Most Tromsø natives tends to look upon themselves as continentally abled and with more than 10% students within the population the cultural scene is in general highly potent, at least given the extreme geographical location. So is this reflected in HC/punk point of view? Yes and no.

Short rock’n'roll history lecture, dep. Tromsø:

In the 60’s we had the Pussycats (whom opened for Rolling Stones and are generally considered the first true rock stars originating in Tromsø), in the 80’s a bunch of more or less anarchistic punk acts stirred it up (Norges Bank, 666, Bols) and even Fugazi came to town. In the early 90’s a few rock/punk bands a la Diddy Wah Diddy made their effort to re-claim the throne from the rapidly growing electronica scene (Röyksopp being one of many successfull acts to come out the early 90’s electronica scene in Tromsø) but then it just died. When we (Turdus Musicus) started out in 1998 however, there was absolutely NO scene. The only venue putting on occational “band nights” was Mackkjeller’n and practically no national/international punk/HC came to town. Within the next three years things started to shake up. Robert Dyrnes initiated the “Yellow Snow Compilation”-series, putting out music from local bands, Egon Holstad promoted shows at Kaos and Blå Rock (Blå Rock was the only venue where The Hives played two shows on their worldwide tour in 2001) and the national music conference by:Larm came to town in 2001 giving the local scene the energy and opportunity to broadcast their music to record companies and promoters from across the country. Most people thought things were about to go off…. Did it? Not really.

In the meantime Dyrnes kicked off the first Fucking North Pole Festival (and with it Fucking North Pole Records), a biannual event bringing national and international punk/ska/HC acts to town, over the years including Link 80, Dead Kennedies, Amulet, Drunk, Randy and more. In 2004 Dyrnes et al put on the first Bukta Open Air Festival, the biggest rock fest in the area which in addition to bringing more mainstream international artists presents several underground HC/punk acts every year.

The scene today:

There’s no big HC/punk scene in Tromsø. There never was. But there’s definitely things going on. Turdus Musicus (hardcore/metal), Box of Mothers (hardcore), Rumbling Retards (punk/HC) to name a few. Thing is, even if there’s no clear cut HC/punk scene there’s still a lot of people into these genres, so putting on a show and drawing people isn’t to hard. With the opening of Bastard Bar in september 09 (ex-Kaos) the hopes are high for a revitalization of the scene meaning more bands and more shows. Come visit!

Venues:

Bastard Bar: Recently opened up in the same location as the legendary Kaos venue. 120 cap, great sound, great vibe, best in town.
Driv: The student bar. Two venues, 500/300 cap. Mostly bigger domestic acts but definitely worth a shot.
Flyt: “Action sport” bar. Rarely hosts shows but every now and then bands do play there
Meieriet: Kind of corny place that recently started putting on shows during the weekends, could evolve into something… Or not.
Blå Rock Cafe: Legendary venue. You need to draw at least 200 to get in.
Tvibit: Only all ages venue/Youth House.
VT: Trendy place that every now and then put on shows (Ungdomskolen played there once recently)