Krantz & Krantz Rocky Road 3

This is Krantz & Krantz, 2015. The family band was formed in 2007 in Harnosand just for fun. Today the group travels all over Sweden and has a full calendar. Hang out with them from north to south. Ups and downs. On stage and behind. Part 3 by Krantz

Trading places
Did you think the rock band thing was about playing and singing?
Nah, there are two million Swedes who can play guitar.

Having a band is an industry. Equipment for hundreds of thousands of crowns, bookings, travels, bus accidents, speakers to be repaired, posters to be sent, press releases, times, locations, stay overs and driving schedules for band members. What you see on stage for 45 minutes is the easy part.

Without musicians
The plan for Osterbybruk, dating six months back, was Emil on bass and Jakob on drums. Three days before the gig Jakob got sick and we discovered that Emil had been wrongly informed about the date. We stood without the backbeat, the groove motor – no blame on neither Jakob nor Emil. They are great guys that get the job done as long as they are informed in time and are well enouh for upright position.

Great band members
Wife Myran threw her self on the phone. As we reported earlier, we have two defense pairs… Drummer Matti gets into the car and drives down from Piteå. Bass player Fabian who had planned to be vacant this weekend, took the bass under his arm, flipped up his collar and got on the tour bus.

No bus driver
Krantz is on a week long road trip for the magazine Worldkustom and will arrive to Österbybruk on his own. Ake Tjernell, usually Controller at the Krantz Challenge events, drives from Norrhassel to grab a slightly larger steering wheel.

Osterbybruk
In Osterbybruk we are treated as royalties. Jarmo Rahkonen is the mighty man of the village and the car club. He holds the door to the pizzeria, yelling:
– Y’all eat as much as you can – it’s on me! And to the owner:
 You close this place up so the whole town will go to the party and not sit around here meowing.
I wonder if that really happened. If he closed?

Sunliners
Jarmo has arranged with stagehands so we enjoy the pizza as helpful locals get their hands dirty. We will share the stage with a band called Sunliners.

It’s always exciting to meet other bands along the way, sharing the stage, sharing amplifiers and sharing experiences. Sunliners consists mainly of a father and two daughters.Kind of fun because Krantz & Krantz consists of a father and two sons. Although in the picture Jarmo has taken the father’s place.

They decide to go mainly with our stuff but to use their own bass amp, a Gallien/Krueger with better chugalug.

Our bass player puts their amp to work and our sound engineer Godfrey mixes Sunliners to a sweet sound.

Foul play in the woods
We have been through a lot over the years. When sharing audio system it has happened that the other band kept our volume lower in order for them to have the fatter sound. Two small bands playing in the middle of nowhere and there has to be squabbling about the audience’s favour.That shit is not for Krantz & Krantz. Myran has operated the smoke machine manually for Peter Jezewski with our little six shooter when their large cannon broke down in Vasterbotten. We will help as much as we can when we are out and rejoice bands with the same guts and feel. Cold and rain

In the evening, the sunshine from earlier is gone and it creeps down to five degrees celsius.

Sunliners starts. Then it starts to drizzle. I look at organizer Jarmo. Some young girls run by in skirts.

These amazing girls around Sweden that dress for summer and warmth when they go to a party. These heroes. I also see old men in winter jackets.  There is a steady flow of people throught the entrance. Beer tent filled. Jarmo looks happy. It is ten o’clock. It is time to get on stage. Sunliners has drawn people to the dance floor. We do not have to start with an empty room.

Ellen Kay stepped in
Ellen Kay is a Krantz, in between brothers Alfred and Godfrey. Ellen Krantz started in Krantz & Krantz and was involved for several years. She later moved to Sala and started Ellen Kay Band along with the good guitarist Thomas Palin.

Just right. Children will develop and move forward. There were albums and tours abroad for Ellen Kay Band. She has come to Osterbybruk to visit as it is close to her home town. Then it happens! Ellen Kay jumps into Krantz & Krantz.

Reunion.
After four years of absence, she stands with us on stage and we stomp into Sweet Home Chicago as never before. All children fronting and man… she shure can sing! People rush in. The brothers back her up 200 percent, and bam, it’s 2008 again, though everything is better, groovier, richer, fatter. The crowd roars and applauds. She grabs one more from to the past, we hang on and soon she is in perfect sync with the comp as if the little powerhouse never had been away.

– I’m off now, she shouts through the stage bustle as we kick off the next song.
– I love you, I say, and watch her blonde hair bob away through the chilly night.

Lots of people after all
The guys dig in. Over 500 people enter the park in cold and rain. Our job is to make it worth the entrance fee. The event profits with good margin and will return in 2016.It just crazy-explodes and the floor is full. 

We thank everyone who came, the cheerful local band Sunliners, all stagehands who appeared in the night, Jarmo and his wife Lillemor and Tessan and Madde and Lolle and the old pizza man who shut down. . . (if he really did) and. . .

– Osterbybruk became a mega party in many ways.

Åke the driver has slept and takes the night shift home.

The beds are waiting in the bus, but first…
…the obligatory hot dog.

Next gig in six days. Söråker’s People’s House, May 23.

We have promised to play “I want to be yours, Margareta”.