Jens and the Corner
The Yarra River I reckon, about 3 minutes from where I paddle... at least it looks like it =s
Sometimes, you go to a live gig, and for some reason things just don't quite give you exactly as you thought they would. Sometimes you go to a live gig and just remember exactly why you like an artist and reintroduce yourself to the music in a way that only a live gig can do. Last night, was one of the latter gigs. Starting out with a song that is about 'cutting through all the bullshit and just saying it as it is' we got a spectacular I am Leaving You which magically morphed into Opposite of Hallelujah (ah, funny how artists pull out something so pertinent to your life sometimes). At the end of Opposite he stretched out his arms and mimed played the bells at the end of the track.
Then he stopped and talked to us for a bit, telling us a story of when he was last in Istanbul, a dude came up to him at the end of the concert saying that Jens had not played his favourite song. So Jens asked him what it was, and the dude's reply was 'the one that goes... daaaa daaaa', and Jens went, 'ok, um, any lyrics?' 'No no, just the one that goes... daaaa daaaaa' (now he's imitating this dude with being unable to hit the same notes, little details like that in a story teller are not to go unnoticed) 'Um, ok, how about titles... or albums?' 'No, it goes daaaa daaaa'... funnily enough, at the end of this whole story, he still figured out what song this guy meant. Then he played it for us, of course, once you figure out it's Black Cab, it makes a lot of sense.
Taking it back a notch then came It was a strange time in my life and the new album version of Your arms around me which I still sing the old lyrics to. We were then given a description of Kortedala and how ridiculously hard it is to find, to such a point that cab drivers used to ask him to print out google map directions of how to get there, of course, there comes New directions. Friday night at the drive in bingo was more than I remembered it could be, and got the whole room going, all whistling along for effect.
Nina I can't be your boyfriend started with the most incredible storytelling thing - think almost serious Dmitri Martin - with Jens explaining that he had some time to kill, so thought he'd go to Berlin. He investigated and found a 20 hour bus trip, for 33 Euro, and then found an easy jet flight for 38 that would take 2 hours, of course, he was always one for value, so decided to save the five Euro and head on down on the bus, 'You can go crazy for five Euro in Berlin', and when Nina at the bus station met him asked if he was hungry and he said 'Yeah, I've been on a bus for twenty hours,' 'How much money do you have', 'Five Euro', 'You can't get anything in Berlin for Five Euro', 'I know.' Going on to explain going to the parents' house for vegetarian German cuisine and just as they get to the father's door, she says 'Oh yeah, Jens. I told them we're engaged' and then Jens says to us 'And then the door opens, and there's Nina's father, a big German guy and he stares at me in silence, and I stare back at him, in more silence' [insert stare into the audience here] 'and the song goes like this...' and then he started playing. Story was dotted through the song, but man, this was awesome. Comparing to a gig I went to on the weekend, where they felt they needed to explain the whole story behind everything and their reason to write it, and this, which was subtle, but rounded things out... man, the dude is a pro.
Also, the sound kept cracking up, and then at the end of this song he asked for it to be fixed, because when he's telling a story he doesn't like to hear popping or angry microphone noises... these sounds went away very quickly.
We get Maple Leaves which got me much harder than I've ever heard it on an album. Something about hearing a song about making sense of things, well, it rung true somehow. He disappeared after singing Sipping on the Sweet Nectar, which caused raucus applause. When he ran back on stage for what we thought was an encore we got 'I've been travelling around for a while. I don't know if you've noticed, I haven't been here...' and then a story about how when he was last in Florence he said how much he loved it, and thought it was such a beautiful city, to be greeted by four blokes at the end of the show who said to him 'We don't need you, to come here and tell us how beautiful Florence is... when we know what a shit hole it is, don't you tell us how fucking great it is, it's horrible!' and he feared for his life. So, as a result he's been very careful about saying things about people's cities and has been treading it finely. So, he just wanted to say last night 'Fuck you Melbourne. Fuck your sprinklers and your trams and your gardens, I'm going to play this song, but it's not for you' Oh and then he played You are the Light with a whole brass contingent too... and my heart nearly cracked in two. Followed by A Sweet Summernight on Hammer Hill heart falls in two again. Then he played Sherin and disappeared again. He came back one more time, just him and a guitar, and said 'I want only those of you with dark voices to sing along to this one... doesn't matter if you're girl or boy, but just, dark voices' and finished the night with Pocketfull of Money... if there were a better end for me, I don't know what it was...
This dude is seriously amazing live, and for all those of you who do the live music scene, this is one to find and locate and go go go. Whole entertainment all over the joint. I love Jens.
On a side note, sounds like he may be moving to Melbourne... which is kinda cool. I'm not sure I could cope!