Spring Break
Lekman brings Scandinavian charm
The indie singer-songwriter from Gothenburg, Sweden graced the stage at the Paradise Rock?Club Friday night.
by Andrea Fineman
Managing Editor
Arts | 4/8/08
Posted online at 11:59 PM EST on 4/7/08
/ Last updated at 12:57 AM EST on 4/7/08
"Tonight feels special," Jens Lekman said archly to the audience upon taking the stage. From the beginning, Lekman and his five-person backing band exuded the charm that audiences have come to expect. Even Lekman's most poignant tracks off recent albums Night Falls Over Kortedala (2007) and Oh You're So Silent Jens (2005) contain an element of the Swedish singer's sweet, almost twee sense of humor. The all-female band (save the world's skinniest laptop technician, who was a man) and the coordinated stage dress (all on stage wore silver antique keys around their necks, along with white shoes and simple indie-style clothes in shades of grey, light blue, tan and white) was thus an appropriate group to bring Lekman's songs to life Friday at the Paradise Rock Club.
Lekman began the show with the song "I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You," off Kortedala. His voice sounded strong, like on the album, and he and the group provided visual interest with their clear excitement for performing. Many of the songs he played throughout the set merged into each other medley-style, adding to the energy streaming through the crowd.
The dance-party feeling continued when, halfway through "The Opposite of Hallelujah," Lekman's skeletal laptoppist sampled The Chairmen of the Board's 1970 hit "Give Me Just a Little More Time" as Lekman and the other musicians broken into a seemingly spontaneous and random but actually choreographed dance on stage, only to return to their posts seconds later to finish "Hallelujah." It's often disappointing when bands have to rely on prerecorded sounds (in Lekman's case, for xylophone and harpsichord passages), but Lekman et al made up for the weakness with Scandinavian charm and long but very entertaining stories about the sources of the songs. Topics of on-stage discussion ranged from Lekman's move to the "worst apartment in Gothenburg" (When the landlord told him that it was the worst apartment, and Jens asked why, the landlord said that the previous tenant had drowned in the bathtub and remained there for three months before his body was discovered) and the American customs officers' use of Wikipedia to check his credentials ("I like that the American authorities use Wikipedia as a reliable source").
Lekman began the show with the song "I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You," off Kortedala. His voice sounded strong, like on the album, and he and the group provided visual interest with their clear excitement for performing. Many of the songs he played throughout the set merged into each other medley-style, adding to the energy streaming through the crowd.
The dance-party feeling continued when, halfway through "The Opposite of Hallelujah," Lekman's skeletal laptoppist sampled The Chairmen of the Board's 1970 hit "Give Me Just a Little More Time" as Lekman and the other musicians broken into a seemingly spontaneous and random but actually choreographed dance on stage, only to return to their posts seconds later to finish "Hallelujah." It's often disappointing when bands have to rely on prerecorded sounds (in Lekman's case, for xylophone and harpsichord passages), but Lekman et al made up for the weakness with Scandinavian charm and long but very entertaining stories about the sources of the songs. Topics of on-stage discussion ranged from Lekman's move to the "worst apartment in Gothenburg" (When the landlord told him that it was the worst apartment, and Jens asked why, the landlord said that the previous tenant had drowned in the bathtub and remained there for three months before his body was discovered) and the American customs officers' use of Wikipedia to check his credentials ("I like that the American authorities use Wikipedia as a reliable source").
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Ted
posted 4/08/08 @ 3:24 PM EST
The whistling substitution was for Friday Night At the Drive-In Bingo!
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