The building housing Blå Rock was probably built just before or just after the Second World War. It's painted blue - Blå Rock literally means 'blue rock.' Think music rather than huge stones, though. Inside, there are five partial floors - they're galleried, which means there's air between them so you can look from the fifth floor down to the first. That's rather strange, because normally a house of this size has only two floors. Still, the point is obvious - let's just do something that makes this normal little house seem bigger. It works.

Guitars signed by famous (and less famous) artists are prominent throughout the interior, and there are some drums fixed upside-down to the ceiling, although there are no signatures on those. There are also lots of band posters all over the walls (some with signatures), along with many photos of famous musicians (all signed, though they may not necessarily be authentic), and album covers (just in case you aren't following the general theme, there are signatures on those as well). There are also some film posters and other posters, which, refreshingly, bear no signatures.

If you're sitting somewhere on the fifth floor, you'll suddenly see the phrase 'Stay Sick' written in yellow and red letters. Many people ask why it is there, but only a select few know the answer: Stay Sick is the name of an album by seminal sleaze-punk band The Cramps. Blå Rock has a lot of posters and 'stash' from the band hanging all over the house; including a beautiful hand-painted picture on the third floor. 'Stay Sick' is a kind of a tribute to the band, an ironic alternative to putting up a relatively feeble sentiment such as 'Take care of each other.' 'Stay Sick' is also written on the beer glasses and the T-shirts of the people working at Blå Rock.

Blå Rock has a jukebox, of course, but using it is a waste of money - if you intend to stay there for a while, they'll play everything on it anyway. Otherwise there's not really any point in it being there. They also have a pinball table. Currently, it's a Guns 'n' Roses Flipper, which is OK. The toilets are awful, though they work perfectly well, and finally, because of the floors, there are an awful lot of stairs there and no lift.

Alcohol

At night, the bar on the second floor serves vodka, whisky, cognac (which Norwegians are very fond of) and so on and of course there's lots of beer. To stay in this area at night you have to be 20 years old - you can stay on any of the other floors if you are 18 or 19. On the third floor, there is a bar serving beer and some other (silly) soft drinks. However, this does mean that if you're disabled, and above 18 but under 20, you can't stay in Blå Rock - because of all the stairs and the absence of a lift...

The very good thing about Blå Rock is that they have 75 types of beer, including local brewery Mack, Koff (Finnish), Grolsch (Dutch), Newcastle Brown Ale (English), Murphy's (Irish), Budweiser (American), Budvar (Czech, and much better than Budweiser), Carlsberg (Danish), Erdinger (German), Leffe (Belgian) and so on.

They also have all the normal and not-so-normal types of spirits. Fernet is a good one - people claim that you can drink as much of it as you want for the rest of the evening without being sick. Don't believe them!

Hamburgers

Blå Rock claim to have the best burgers in town, and they are right. They can be bought at any time - except at night, which is a pity. The hamburgers are named according to what's inside them; just use your imagination: Elvis, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Dead Kennedys, Astroburger, Dinosaur Junior and so on. All of them can be bought in 100g or 200g sizes, except the Dinosaur Jr. which is always a bit of a mouthful at 500g. Blå Rock also serves other food, but you wouldn't want to eat it. Not because it tastes bad, but because the burgers are so good!

People

The people working there are nice, some more than others, but they're generally pretty friendly - quite a few of them are musicians as well. The clientele are a mixture of musicians and others, which means that the ratio of musicians compared to 'normal' people is higher here than anywhere else in the town of Tromsø. That's generally considered a plus, because musicians are (mostly) positive people and (mostly) good at singing or playing an instrument.

Other Things to Remember

Don't sit down at the table next to the bar at the second floor - it's reserved for the people working there and their friends. This means that it's never free anyway, and if it is, nobody will say anything if you sit down. So in real life it doesn't matter that much...

Ask before ordering a burger, they are very popular and if you are in a hurry you might not be able to eat it - it takes time to make really good burgers!

At night you may have to pay 30NOK (£3/$4) to get in - but mostly only on Fridays or Saturday nights¹. Blå Rock also hosts good and frequent concerts (for example The Hives and Flaming Sideburns) - on gig nights, the entry fee changes accordingly. You'll usually have to pay something between 100 and 170 NOK (£10-17/$15-24).