swedish troika
last night i saw the triple bill of anna ternheim + lykke li + el perro del mar.
anna ternheim = lovely and wonderful. she was so unassuming: not dressed up, no makeup, and i think she may have briefly run a comb through her hair before stepping on stage. it was very similar to her set, which highlighted her voice (it makes tingles run up and down my spine) and musicianship (guitar and piano). she played one request, for "wedding song" which i have never heard before. apparently she wrote it when she was 16, and it was the one happy song she has ever written. she didn't have a band with her, just an ipod with background tracks on it, which she finds "very handy". i picked up her latest ep, and it has been on infinite repeat all afternoon. unfortunately, she didn't bring any copies of her latest cd to the show, but promised if we gave her money she would send it to us. i didn't see her after the show - but i would have trusted her and taken her up on the offer.
now, lykke li has gotten a lot of press lately, but i hadn't read any of it, so i don't know if it brought up that the lykke looks like (ooh, that alliteration) the goth-y olsen twin, with a strange nasal voice to match. the music itself was quite good, but it was just such a strange visual picture that i got distracted. she was wearing this full-length, puffy-sleeved black dress with lots of giant silver bling (more than one large chain-link chain, a peace sign, and other stuff) and had these jerky dance moves and hand movements. really, it was quite entertaining. they did a good job with lighting effects, which just added to the strange goth theatricality of the whole thing.
also, there was a man in a white shirt (highlighted by the black light) who alternated between doing swooping interpretive dance moves and just jumping up and down like a bunny rabbit. he was directly in my line of sight, and therefore, uber distracting. i had to appreciate that he was so into it, though, and just simply didn't care what other people thought of him.
i saw el perro del mar in the bathroom before her set, and she looked pretty rough - i suppose that's what stage makeup looks like when you're not on stage. her set was cute, but i realized i'm not such a fan of her music. it's kind of lounge-y swedish pop with high vocals and lots of repeated lyrics, and it's kitschy and cute but not really my thing. anyway, she did a good job anyway and came out for an encore with lykke li for this rocking song that i had never heard before. it was good.
also, note to heuteistmeintag: if anna ternheim brings her new full-length cd (not "somebody outside", not the "shoreline" EP, and not the new EP "lovers dream & more music for psychotic lovers") to the gig you go to, could you please pick up an extra copy and send it to me? i will reimburse you, fo shizzle. let me know.
anna ternheim = lovely and wonderful. she was so unassuming: not dressed up, no makeup, and i think she may have briefly run a comb through her hair before stepping on stage. it was very similar to her set, which highlighted her voice (it makes tingles run up and down my spine) and musicianship (guitar and piano). she played one request, for "wedding song" which i have never heard before. apparently she wrote it when she was 16, and it was the one happy song she has ever written. she didn't have a band with her, just an ipod with background tracks on it, which she finds "very handy". i picked up her latest ep, and it has been on infinite repeat all afternoon. unfortunately, she didn't bring any copies of her latest cd to the show, but promised if we gave her money she would send it to us. i didn't see her after the show - but i would have trusted her and taken her up on the offer.
now, lykke li has gotten a lot of press lately, but i hadn't read any of it, so i don't know if it brought up that the lykke looks like (ooh, that alliteration) the goth-y olsen twin, with a strange nasal voice to match. the music itself was quite good, but it was just such a strange visual picture that i got distracted. she was wearing this full-length, puffy-sleeved black dress with lots of giant silver bling (more than one large chain-link chain, a peace sign, and other stuff) and had these jerky dance moves and hand movements. really, it was quite entertaining. they did a good job with lighting effects, which just added to the strange goth theatricality of the whole thing.
also, there was a man in a white shirt (highlighted by the black light) who alternated between doing swooping interpretive dance moves and just jumping up and down like a bunny rabbit. he was directly in my line of sight, and therefore, uber distracting. i had to appreciate that he was so into it, though, and just simply didn't care what other people thought of him.
i saw el perro del mar in the bathroom before her set, and she looked pretty rough - i suppose that's what stage makeup looks like when you're not on stage. her set was cute, but i realized i'm not such a fan of her music. it's kind of lounge-y swedish pop with high vocals and lots of repeated lyrics, and it's kitschy and cute but not really my thing. anyway, she did a good job anyway and came out for an encore with lykke li for this rocking song that i had never heard before. it was good.
also, note to heuteistmeintag: if anna ternheim brings her new full-length cd (not "somebody outside", not the "shoreline" EP, and not the new EP "lovers dream & more music for psychotic lovers") to the gig you go to, could you please pick up an extra copy and send it to me? i will reimburse you, fo shizzle. let me know.