>> TNT <<

As a long-time fan of this great American-Norwegian band called TNT, I haven't been able to see them play live before (thanks to my parents....). But no the time has come as the band are back in action with the classic line-up consisting of Tony Harnell, Ronni Le Tekro, Morty Black and Diesel Dahl (with Dag Stokke helping out on keyboards). It was a must for me to catch some shows......

Kapp Båtforening, Kapp, Norway
Saturday July 26, 2003

In the middle of the summer vacation, the band wanted to show the people in Tekro's native district that they're still alive and well. Even though the weather was a bit unstable it didn't affect people to come.

The band started their show as previous on this tour with the newbie "Give Me A Sign" followed by "As Far As The Eye Can See". Difference from the previous shows I've seen on this tour is that no songs was omitted. "Listen To Your Heart" wasn't played in Oslo, but they did it at Vinstra. Same with "Forever Shine On". Just like I wanted :-)

The bands performance this night was the best of the three shows I've seen on this tour. The band was as thight as they can be. Diesel was even more steady on the drums, and Tony sang like he never done before. Except from the few inevitable small faults, the band is at their peak :-)

Now we're all looking foreward to the upcoming new studio-album, and the following tour.

Rockefeller Music Hall, Oslo, Norway
Saturday June 21, 2003

When this sunny day and a great grill-party the night was set for me to witness a second show from my favorite band. This night the southern part of Norway was pleased to be introduced to the heavy-joik band INTRIGUE. Their mixing of 80's heavy rock with the traditional north scandinavian joik took the audience by storm. The "joiked" along from the first chorus. With their great performance of the 8 songs they played, I'm pretty sure they grabbed some more fans this night :-)

Then, TNT entered the stage and kicked off with "Give Me A Sign" and then, different from the Vinstra gig, "As Fas As The Eye Can See". Because of a smoke-injury last night in Trondheim, Tony was a bit reduced, but he did a great job anyway. Well, the whole band was better this night. They needed a few warm-up gigs to refresh their veins from the hey-days.

They played much of the same set as Vinstra with the exception of "Listen To Your Heart" and "Forever Shine On" and the already mentioned addition of "As Far...". A great and tight performance from the band and a enthusiastic audience made the place rockin'. Like any bands, the inevitable small faults was there but nothing to worry about.

This night "Intuition" worked much better (Ronni's guitar was fixed by now). During the encores, vocalist Kai from Intrigue entered stage to sing duet with Tony on "Everyone's A Star". And I need to say that Kai did it great, and he reached the high notes with no problems (might he be the next Tony Harnell?).

This night proved the bands comeback and their strenght as the great band they was.... and still are! Welcome back!

The show kicked off with the new song "Give Me A Sign", and the band was about to prove that they still are as strong as 16 years ago the 4 of them last shared the stage together. We got most of the songs off the new EP as well as the many classics. The band played well, but with some faults now and then which told me that the band needs a few warm-up gigs to get it all in shape.

"Intuition" was the song that didn't worked out well at all. Something was wrong from the start here, you couldn't almost recall what song it was. More of the songs off the post-Dahl era albums had more straight ahead drumming which gave the songs the feel of the classic mid-80's TNT-sound. The voice of mr. Harnell was quite good most of the time with a few exceptions. Also some of Ronni's solos weren't all good. Said that, it was all in all a good start for the tour.

Of course I missed some songs. I can mention "As Far As The Eye Can See", "End Of The Line", "Child's Play", "Knights Of The Thunder" and many many more... Maybe later on during this tour? Anyway, these guys can still rock!

Thanks Tony, Ronni, Morty and Diesel for being back!

The set-lists:

KAPP:

Give Me A Sign
As Far As The Eye Can See
Downhill Racer
Satellite
Listen To Your Heart
Hey Love
Caught Between The Tigers
Guitar Solo
Forever Shine On
Seven Seas
Intuition
Break The Ice
--
10.000 Lovers (In One)
Everyone's A Star

Review and pictures  by Per Erik Jansen

OSLO:

Give Me A Sign
As Far As The Eye Can See
Downhill Racer
Live Today
Satellite
Hey Love
Caught Between The Tigers
Guitar Solo
Seven Seas
Intuition
Break The Ice
--
10.000 Lovers (In One)
Everyone's A Star

VINSTRA:

Give Me A Sign
Downhill Racer
Live Today
Satellite
Listen To Your Heart
Hey Love
Caught Between The Tigers
Guitar Solo
Forever Shine On
Seven Seas
Intuition
Break The Ice
--
10.000 Lovers (In One)
Everyone's A Star

Review and pics by Per Erik Jansen