Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
In recent years, Norway’s KAL-EL has become one of the more respected names in the realm of underground stoner rock.
Their reputation was rigidly cemented into place with the release of their third studio album, ‘Astrodoomeda‘ [stream], via Argonauta Records in late 2017. Before that reputation, before that respect and recognition, the Stavanger band would have to commence their campaign of rocking the masses.
That original, fateful event took place in their hometown of Stavanger at a spot called The Martinique back in 2013. What better way to celebrate the half-decade anniversary of the band’s existence than a return to that venue for a fresh new live performance?
Recently, the four-piece of vocalist Ståle “Captain Ulven” Rodvelt, guitarist Rolf “Roffe” Eilertsen, bassist Elisabeth “Liz” Thompsen, and drummer Bjørn “Bjudas” Stornes did exactly that! KAL-EL commandeered the stage and delivered a discography-mining set of tunes culled from all their recorded offerings.
Pulling numbers from ‘Astrodoomeda’, 2015’s ‘Echosphere’ and ‘Cosmic Void’ EP, and their 2013 début ‘Pakal’, KAL-EL gave witnesses a once-in-a-lifetime live blessing. The set was captured in its entirety by Blackie Davidson, for the hour-long plus live document “Still Here After 5 Years“. Now, you can enjoy it today with the presentation of the video here.
KAL-EL‘s Captain Ulven commented on the show:
“February 9th, 2013, was the date Kal-El played our first show after becoming a band. That happened just a few weeks before at Martinique Bar in Stavanger, Norway. We all came together after rehearsals and decided to give it our best and give the band a shot. So it was quite natural for us to have an intimate show for friends, fans and family. We have been doing tours all over the world, played all over the world, met our heroes, played with our heroes and been praised by our heroes met loads and loads of cool bands and guys, and all that in just five years. We have truly been blessed in a lot of ways, but still we can’t cracked the code on how to get the attention of the DesertFest guys so we could play on that festival (all of them!).
The show itself was amazing, even if extremely intimate and hot, we had a good crowd, friend on stage, friends offstage, loads of beer and only smiles and good times all the way to the promised land.“
Dig into KAL-EL‘s “Still Here After 5 Years” live video!
