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July 27, 2006
Jens Lekman/ Frida Hyvönen/ Beirut, Live @ the Bowery Ballroom, New York City, 07.21.06
photos by Devon Banks
I barely remembered I had tickets to this show in the run up, and only a slightly anal retentive e-calendar system had my back. I liked Jens Lekman's Oh, You're So Silent Jens compilation well enough, but it sort of fell into the "nicely executed, but not very exciting" category for me. So with more of a, "well I bought the ticket", than a, "Holy shit tonight's finally the night!" attitude, I filed down to the ol' BB for a night of slightly better than average indie pop. Thankfully, they were all out.
What I got instead was run away showmanship, humor, and Swedish good looks channeled into a top 5 of the year type show.
But first, in order to avoid any type of tortured Tarantino flashback structure, we start at the beginning...
Beirut
Since we last checked in with young Zach Condon the lad has shot up on the musical growth chart significantly, his Sharpie mark now at shoulder height on the metaphorical doorframe. Some of this is obviously just the steep curve of constant gigging, and even more of it is the successful recruitment of a large touring ensemble. Without having to interrupt his singing duties for a trumpet break on every song, Zach could take better advantage of his relaxed stage presence, and only pull it out for a more meaningful accent, while the more textural horn work was sub-contracted out. Set highlight was a just cracked live version of "Scenic World" with the sleepy electronic touches handled by xylophone and plucked strings giving it kind of a bouncy Islands feel. Also fun was a lively bossanova version of Kocani Orkestar's "Siki Siki Baba" (don't worry, I had to Google that). The crowd was enthusiastic throughout, with some crowd-hole yelling "You should have been second, not opening," at a down moment. A tacky thing to yell, considering that even at it's most complementary it only gives its recipient second place. As usual, Zach handled it gracefully, saying "oops" and promising they'd be back soon. Worth checking out if you're still on the fence.
Frida Hyvönen
The set up for Frida Hyvönen, once the stage had been cleared of ukeleles and accordions and upright basses and who knows what else, was just a microphone and an electric piano. Her bare bones approach a nice palette cleanser in a night of sprawling band make-ups, she gracefully sauntereed out dressed all in red, and fanning herself playfully with a black fold out. On stage and bantering in between songs she had a smart but spacey charisma recalling Terri Garr in her 70's film heyday. Frida's songs were short and tasteful, filled with funny, human lyrics delivered in a clear voice free of the fashionable trilling you get from current Regina Spektor types. Carole King is a press release touch point, but not an unreasonable one. I'm not as enamored with ladies and their pianos as my redheaded colleague might be, but there was nothing in her set that was objectionable. I felt like if you stumbled into a nice wine bar and she was playing it would blow you away, but in the context of an indie rock show it was just sort of a pleasant placeholder. Male interest took a spike in her last song when she welcomed a grown up Swedish girls' choir to the stage for subtle backgorund support on a lilting ballad called "Oh, Shanghai." When she announced they'd be back later there was a tangible sense of relief, that could only have added to her ultimately warm crowd reception.
Jens Lekman
Jens' first big laugh line of the night came via t-shirt before he had opened his mouth. The second came immediately after, as he explained that he was going to wear a "I Love New York" t-shirt but decided he loved himself a little bit more. Impossible to miss even in the face of his comedy act was the bright white girls' choir filing in behind him and taking hold of all assembled instruments. Each with a slightly different look, from the Von Trap child on base, to the elegant Gwen Stacy type standing over a drum set, to the mod Nancy Sinatra on keys, etc, etc, etc. Jens was like a Swede Robert Palmer fighting for the forces of good instead of evil. The scene taken in full, it was close to impossible to not declare him a total badass. So why resist?
Set opener, one of "14 songs" he declared his intention to play, was "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill." The chant along "Ba ba ba ba ba" chorus, and foxy brass section managed to replicate the record's retro party feel even with the sampled cocktail chatter stripped away. The re-claiming and surpassing of sample-centric tracks was a persistent thread throughout the show. You have to give Jens some honesty points for calling such attention to the indie forebears he borrows from on record, especially in a genre that typically has such a tenuous grip on originality, but the live versions sounded so much more effective and organic. Jens sweetly sung "I'll come running with a heart on fire," pulls the song out of novelty territory as compared to the fathoms deep Calvin Johnson baritone that intrudes into the recorded version. Similarly, the lifted Belle and Sebastian keyboard on "Black Cab" was still present, but as played by Nancy Swede-natra was more invisible, letting the lyrics take the lead.
Since foreign acts like Jens are relatively new to American audiences, it's easy to assume they are new to music in general. Jens is owner of numerous Swedish chart hits and more importantly a seasoned performer. His demeanor when dealing with the audience was easy and well polished, refreshing in the face of alot of the fledgling acts hip New York coughs up. Recounting all of his one liners would take a seperate post, but unlike an act like Art Brut say, (and for the record I totally like Art Brut) the humor is not dripping with irony. Harder still, he got many laughs in-song. A new one, "A Postcard to Nina" got a Cheers studio audience type reception. That reaction was expertly set up by JL, giving us a snippet of pre song narrative about having dinner with a friend (Nina)and her parents in Berlin, being told to pretend he's her fiancee, etc. With that background knowledge, the slowly unfolding story of his unrequited crush on his lesbian friend got alot of laughs that weren't very joke-y at all, just driven by warm characterization, boding well for their eventual shelf life.
More than just humor, and more than any other standout element, Jens just knows how to put on a show. During the encore he came out on his own, easily proving he could be compelling without the dreamboat lady spectacle. Once established, and once he got another clever quip in (this one about how he didn't actually know any English and learned all lyrics and banter phonetically) he summoned lady Frida back to the stage, this time in a much more flattering cocktail dress. They then sang a lovely song in conversational Finnish. Just because. He followed that up with "Julie", lulling the audience in with a dreamy ballad, before deploying stealth brass charges in the form of his ninja girl players hiding in the balcony. The collective delight in that trick "earned us another song." The dramatic build in encore material culminated with a truly unadorned reading of "Maple Leaves," slipping between English and Swedish effortlessly.
The crowd, having been expertly manipulated, cheered loudly for more, and Jens claimed he didn't want to ruin the moment with any more tunes. A quick set check shows that "Maple Leaves" was lucky number 14 as predicted, a plan laid out form the start. But it felt real. Authentic. Probably took alot of practise to pull that one off.
More pics beneath the fold...
Tags: Jens Lekman, Frida Hyvönen, Beirut, Bowery Ballroom
Posted by Jeff Klingman at July 27, 2006 05:33 PM
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