930 Forums
=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: Bags on August 02, 2007, 12:34:00 pm
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Starting a new thread, as the discussion's overtaken "Just Announced."
Just listened to four songs on MySpace. Hmmm...very sweet. I can see the Magnetic Fields comparison. I haven't listened to MF much, either.
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Well he hasn't sold out the Cat, yet.
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He's playing the Black Cat and might sell it out, too. I got my ticket already. You might like him in concert.
I believe this is his first time in DC. Check out the first two albums! Do you have emusic? Can I invite you so I can get free downloads? :)
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still not a black cat sellout
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Any ideas what time Jens will take the stage on Thurs if there is someone else playing the closing set??
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I think that closing set is a dj set. Not sure if this still means they'll still have the same 8:30/9:30/10:30 set times or if it'll be pushed back a bit since Jens is still the headliner.
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Yeah they'll definitely have to push things back.
My guess: 8:45/10/11:30
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Wish there was a way to know for sure. May be coming in from out of town....
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i'd say Jens will be on stage on or shortly before 10 pm.
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I guess this has turned into a roll call, huh? I'll be there.
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i'll be there. possibly a little late... not sure, but my kickball championships are that night too.
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Originally posted by miss pretentious:
i'll be there. possibly a little late... not sure, but my kickball championships are that night too.
You're turning into quite the female Bo Jackson, aren't ya? Rollerderby (congrats), kickball, midget bowling . . .
Miss P. is my hero.
*sigh*
;)
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Originally posted by TheDirector217:
Originally posted by miss pretentious:
i'll be there. possibly a little late... not sure, but my kickball championships are that night too.
You're turning into quite the female Bo Jackson, aren't ya? Rollerderby (congrats), kickball, midget bowling . . .
Miss P. is my hero.
*sigh*
;) [/b]
haha. thank you thank you.
and i need your help picking my derby girl name. i'm PMing youuuuu
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Has anyone seen Jens live? I'm already seeing Spoon this week and I'm wondering if I'll be missing a great show if I pass on Jens. Kind of tired- saw Of Montreal and Gogol Bordello last week. Thanks!
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this person has
http://www.leedsmusicscene.net/article/6355/ (http://www.leedsmusicscene.net/article/6355/)
Originally posted by dhs122:
Has anyone seen Jens live? I'm already seeing Spoon this week and I'm wondering if I'll be missing a great show if I pass on Jens. Kind of tired- saw Of Montreal and Gogol Bordello last week. Thanks!
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he's probably even more handsome in person.
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Originally posted by dhs122:
Has anyone seen Jens live? I'm already seeing Spoon this week and I'm wondering if I'll be missing a great show if I pass on Jens. Kind of tired- saw Of Montreal and Gogol Bordello last week. Thanks!
I saw him at the Pitchfork Festival in '06, he had an all girl band (which I don't think he's bringing on this tour) and was pretty good. I think he'll probably be better in a smaller place like the Black Cat. It'll certainly be less of a spectacle than Of Montreal or Gogol Bordello, but he doesn't hit these shores as often.
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i'm probably looking forward to this show more than anything since the Shins @ black cat in '03
and it just goes to show you why i'd be a horrible booker-of-shows ... i really thought there'd be more pent-up demand to see Jens after he's skipped DC so many times before
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I bet it sells out eventually.
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I'll be there, and so will my Hej Hej co-DJ. We're really excited for this one!
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It's odd that the two shows my wife would most want to see all year, Jens at BC and Ceu at the 9:30, are on the same night. But instead she'll be home singing Ava to sleep.
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Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
It's odd that the two shows my wife would most want to see all year, Jens at BC and Ceu at the 9:30, are on the same night. But instead she'll be home singing Ava to sleep.
will you boo and make snarky comments if she doesn't sing alt-country?
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So there is no way to find out exactly what time he goes on? Thanks!
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Originally posted by dhs122:
So there is no way to find out exactly what time he goes on? Thanks!
Club: 202.667.7960
Concert Line: 202.667.7960
Bar: 202.667.4490
Email: info@blackcatdc.com
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Can you just call for us? I'm feeling lazy today.
Thanks-
nkotb
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Originally posted by dhs122:
So there is no way to find out exactly what time he goes on? Thanks!
Club: 202.667.7960
Concert Line: 202.667.7960
Bar: 202.667.4490
Email: info@blackcatdc.com [/b]
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No. But if you want to skip the opener, I'd say get there no later than 9:30 pm.
Originally posted by dhs122:
So there is no way to find out exactly what time he goes on? Thanks!
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I called the club. They said between 9:30-10pm.
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Clubs always lie to get you there early to buy more alchohol. This probably means 10-10:30.
Originally posted by daves122:
I called the club. They said between 9:30-10pm.
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Can't believe this hasn't sold out yet...there were a bunch of ppl buying advance tickets last night, though.
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I can't believe you guys think he's so popular. That's what pitchfork will do to you.
His album is only #392 on the usually indie friendly Amazon sales chart.
My friend who is going to the Hold Steady show has never heard of Jens. My friend who is going to Tragically Hip has never heard of Jens. Indie is the new mainstream, but Jens aint Arcade Fire, and Secretly Canadian aint Merge.
Perhaps ticket sales will get a boost from the big writeup in today's Weekend Express.
Originally posted by bellenseb:
Can't believe this hasn't sold out yet...there were a bunch of ppl buying advance tickets last night, though.
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Plus, there's pretty decent pop competition tonight...Annie Lennox at Lisner, Brazilian songstress Ceu at 9:30 Club, Cowboy Junkies at Birchmere, the singer from Concrete Blonde at Jammin Java, and Norweigian popster Magnet at DC9.
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I did consider going to CEU for a while. Bet that'll be a great show too.
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the dilettante
Sweden's Greatest Musical Export
No, it's not ABBA. It's Jens Lekman.
By Stephen Metcalf
Posted Monday, Oct. 22, 2007, at 10:42 AM ET
"What is your favorite music?" my 4-and-a-half-year-old daughter asked me last night. I had fallen into a reverie listening to Veedon Fleece, Van Morrison's astonishing 1974 document to his recently deceased marriage. (Quick plug: Veedon Fleece is finally available on iTunes. How is this not his most beloved album? All the vatic jazz of Astral Weeks, more of the pop structure of Moondance or Tupelo Honey. Whatever. Ignore it at your own peril.) I had to think twice before answering my daughter. She's a watcher, and has already started collecting evidence for the dossier she plans to hand me on her 13th birthday, a catalog of my failures and shortcomings. Me, I'm at about the age when I turn, to paraphrase Santayana, from a human being into an endlessly skipping gramophone. (Why? my 13-year-old daughter will ask me. Why did you curdle so easily into middle age, depriving me of a father who could talk to me about, among other things, music? And I'll withhold from my daughter the same answer my parents withheld from me: Because I had children.) I came up with some obvious names: Nick Drake. Nina Simone. Bill Evans. Van Morrison singing "Linden Arden Stole the Highlights."* "What's your favorite music?" I ask her back. "Ballet music," she says, her pet euphemism for classical music. "And Jens Lekman."
Circles square, cosmic harmonies converge, generations in comity meet. My obsession for Jens Lekman is no less intense than my daughter's. (And by intense, I mean intense: For an entire month, I could not restrain her compliantly in a car seat without playing the Jens Lekman song "You Are the Light.") A little background: Jens Lekman is a Swedish pop musician. To those of you who care, with oenophilic degrees of subtlety, about your pop music, Lekman is from Gothenburg, not Stockholm, which puts him in very good company with the Knife, Jose Gonzalez, and Soundtrack of Our Lives. (Stockhom is better known these days for the Shout Out Louds and Peter, Bjorn and John, ear-easy indie acts when compared with the Gothenburg sound, which is spikier, more introspective.) In Sweden, Lekman's a Grammy-winning, Billboard-charting star; here, he is embraced by a small subset of the vinyl-buying cognoscenti. Lekman's reception in the States has been limited by a couple of minor artistic transgressions. First, he is, yes, it's true, prone to the sort of twee self-regard that converted Wes Anderson, midcareer, from a promising filmmaker into an antique tea table. Second, his influences and affinities are instantly obvious: Stephin Merritt's drone, Morrissey's bite, Belle and Sebastian's atmospherics, with some of Jonathan Richman's wild pitch and yaw. But all this is superficial in the face of one overwhelming truth: Lekman is a fully realized pop genius, and each of his full-length records is its own masterpiece.
Lekman started out about 10 years ago playing bass in a friend's band, then wrote and recorded his own songs, which he distributed among acquaintances. (In one, he referred to himself as "Rocky Dennis," the boy in the movie Mask, and the name stuck for a while.) Lekman emerged from his (no doubt happy, no doubt self-imposed) private label obscurity when one song, "Maple Leaves," went viral and became a minor file-sharing phenomenon. "Maple Leaves" opens with some lush orchestral samples (I believe they are samples) that flow into a simple dance beat, a pitter-patter on a snare broken up by cascading drum fills on the toms. The rhythm steadies, strings converge on a melody, electric bass lays down some flooring, and pop narcosis commences in earnest. Then in his wonderful bandstand croon, Lekman sings: "It's autumn in Gothenburg/ I'm walking home to my suburb/ Rain falls hard on this city â?¦" and later adds:
So we talked for hours
and you cried into my sheets
you said you hated your body
that it was just a piece of meat â?¦ I disagreed
I think you're beautiful
but it's impossible
to make you understand
that if you don't take my hand
I lose my mind completely â?¦
Madness will finally defeat me
She said it was all make-believe
but I thought you said maple leaves
and when she talked about a fall
I thought she talked about a season
I never understood at all
I thought she said maple leaves
and when she talked about the fall
I thought she talked about Mark E Smith
I never understood at all
Worth quoting at length, right? (For those of you with a life, Mark E. Smith was the lead singer of the postpunk band the Fall.) It's hard to exaggerate how good, just how damn good this song is. It's true, you hear Stuart Murdoch and Merritt and Morrissey echo in the lyrics (and on other Lekman songs in the music, as well), but Lekman is a different bird. Morrissey is so preciously celibate, Merritt is openly gay; Belle and Sebastian is â?¦ what? Questioning, as the old college doublespeak would have it, and at moments, even aseptically unsexual. Emotions filtered through a layering of masks can still be moving, but they are also careful and distanced, and sometimesâ??a legacy of the closet stretching back to Wilde and no doubt beyondâ??brittle from self-pity. Lekman is a standard-issue nancy boy heterosexual (takes one to know one) and his music reflects it. Unschooled in hiding from his own longings, he feels deeply and openly (and often about someone else, not a Morrissey strong suit). "Maple Leaves" eventually appeared on Oh, You're So Silent Jens, a collection of the early stuff (among which is "Black Cab," another gem) that plays like a fully conceived album. On his second record, Lekman inhabited the role of boy diva to the hilt, backing himself with an all-female horn band and singing out his little Scandinavian blue-eyed soul. Yet more lyrics:
The Jehovas are standing by your door
And they're offering eternal suffering
Eternal life
But you say No.
Turn on the radio, clean the windows
Do it in slow-mo, as the day unfolds.
Oh how the sun shines inside you, just like I do.
These days are gold.
Lekman's third record, the October release Night Falls Over Kortadala, does nothing to diminish his status as pop's most eminently quotable auteur since Morrissey. "From your mouth speaks your lovely voice/ The softest words ever spoken/ What's broken can always be fixed/ What's fixed will always be broken," he sings in "Arms Around Me," a four-minute pop rapture that tells the peculiar tale of Jens cutting off the tip of his finger while slicing an "ah-voh-cah-doh," in his Swedish accent. Night Over Kortadala is Lekman's most tightly produced record yet, and it is filled more with storytelling than high-flung poetic whimsy, but it is a corker, a beautifully realized record from beginning to end. And the vinegar has only gotten more acetose:
People seem to think
a shy personality equals gifted
but if they got to know one
I'm sure that idea would have shifted
Most shy people I know
are extremely boring
either that or they are miserable
from all the shit they've been storing
I traveled to Gothenburg, Sweden's biggest university town, this past spring, and can report back that they don't order a tuna sandwich over there without first considering the Hegelian implications. I've had to pull over in my car to make sure I've heard Lekman's lyrics right. (My favorite snippet: "One day I'll be stuck in some museum/ Scaring little kids/ With the inscription 'Carpe Diem'/ Something I never did.") Over-arguing the merits of rock 'n' roll is a venal sin, and I hope to dampen no one's enthusiasm for Lekman by saying that his music is a very Swedish attempt to implode some false dialectics. Pop delirium need never come at the expense of genuine wisdom, a thought especially comforting to the middle-aged. Just as I concluded this happy thought, my daughter plunged to the floor, screaming, "I hate this music. I hate Van Morrison. Put on Jens Lekman NOW!"
Stephen Metcalf is Slate's critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2176205/ (http://www.slate.com/id/2176205/)
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Well that article gives me some hope for my daughter's future music taste.
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I was pretty surprised to see the Mountain Goats sell out recently, as did Yo La Tengo at the Birchmere...and both have played here plenty of times, wheras Jens has skipped DC 3 or 4 times and has never played here before.
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Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
the dilettante
Sweden's Greatest Musical Export
No, it's not ABBA. It's Jens Lekman.
that was great, thanks for posting it
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So he hasn't yet built up a following like they have.
Originally posted by bellenseb:
I was pretty surprised to see the Mountain Goats sell out recently, as did Yo La Tengo at the Birchmere...and both have played here plenty of times, wheras Jens has skipped DC 3 or 4 times and has never played here before.
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I'll be there!
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I'm in.
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Nope, ABBA is still the best Swedish export :)
(But I'm really excited about the show tonight.)
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Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Plus, there's pretty decent pop competition tonight...Annie Lennox at Lisner, Brazilian songstress Ceu at 9:30 Club, Cowboy Junkies at Birchmere, the singer from Concrete Blonde at Jammin Java, and Norweigian popster Magnet at DC9.
you cant be bothered to get Johnette Napolitano's name?? Thats a f'ing disgrace. She puts on an amazing show and for Concrete Blonde fans is worth checking out. "Joey" sounded really great last time.
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Sorry, I absolutely hated Concrete Blonde. Perhaps even moreso than 4 Non Blondes.
Originally posted by xneverwherex:
Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Plus, there's pretty decent pop competition tonight...Annie Lennox at Lisner, Brazilian songstress Ceu at 9:30 Club, Cowboy Junkies at Birchmere, the singer from Concrete Blonde at Jammin Java, and Norweigian popster Magnet at DC9.
you cant be bothered to get Johnette Napolitano's name?? Thats a f'ing disgrace. She puts on an amazing show and for Concrete Blonde fans is worth checking out. "Joey" sounded really great last time. [/b]
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I wouldn't go so far as to put them below 4 non-blondes, but I always considered Concrete Blonde to be pretty pathetic Pretenders wannabes with Goth tendencies and more "style" than substance.
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What a great show!
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I concur.
Did anyone stick around to see if there really was another set somewhere else like he claimed there would be?
I do have a recent recording from somewhere in Sweden where he played a bonus set in a parking lot after the main set/encores.
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Fun, fun show! I think I smiled during Lekman's whole set, as I bopped along to his catchy pop songs. Even the slower, sparser songs were a joy to experience. The main highlight for me was "The Cold Swedish Winter". I found Jens to be very congenial and amiable, and I look forward to seeing him again in the future. I'm so glad I went!
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This was a phenomenal show, real tight set list . . . I enjoyed myself so very much.
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i stuck around for more songs but there were none, they didn't seem to know any of the afterparty details either.
what a wonderful show, he had the most charming smile the whole while he was performing.
i think i'll go to tomorrow's.
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Jens was pretty great. I think he should have left his maids in Sweden though. They looked kind of pissed to be there.
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Can anyone post a set list?
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He didn't play "Draw a Dinosaur For Me" from the Insect EP? Blah :roll:
Seriously though, fantastic show. I'm with Hoya when he said he hadn't gone into a show for a while with this level of excitement. I've been fairly obsessed with "You're So Silent" since I picked it up, and the show delivered.
He was pretty sweet and modest without being overly precious, and the songs sounds great live. It was particularly cool to hear the samples done live, and as hokey as it may sound, the choreography brought a smile to my face every time.
Beyond "Julie" and the opening track on Kortedala, I can't think of anything else that I would've wanted to hear. "You are the Light" absolutely killed it for me, and I don't even really like "Pocketful of Money" but I agree I dont' think there was a better way to end the show.
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oh my my my. how fantastic last night's show was. i too was bopping my head all night long. really, really amazing.
i feel for people who missed out on this. post show, a couple of his milk maids were down in the red room playing pinball and continuing to be sickeningly adorable.
and, i do believe it ended up selling out.
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yeah.....where to start...I want more...
"Black Cab" sounded so good, with the strings sounding like the strings from "Higher Power". Did anyone notice?
Probably one of the best shows this year for me. They announced that it was sold out around 9:15 pm.
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Sorry to miss you, Joe & Miss P, but it was too packed to find anyone by the time I got there. I think Joe's right; a guy next to me bought what I'd guess were the last tickets.
Miss P, that off the grid trade will have to wait for Dino Jr.
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Originally posted by nkotb:
Sorry to miss you, Joe & Miss P, but it was too packed to find anyone by the time I got there. I think Joe's right; a guy next to me bought what I'd guess were the last tickets.
Miss P, that off the grid trade will have to wait for Dino Jr.
No worries. I looked around for you all, but:
1) Never spotted you.
2) Don't exactly remember what Joe looks like (sorry, post-SP was a bit of a whirl)
I figured you all would be more likely to find me, I was in a navy and white striped sweater shirt/dress. Apparently I was easy to spot, according to my friends who left the group.
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at doors there were only 50 tickets left
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I looked for you. I guess you were not in the back..
Originally posted by nkotb:
Sorry to miss you, Joe & Miss P, but it was too packed to find anyone by the time I got there.
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Did you look for me? :D
I don't say this much (and if I did it would dilute my words), but this show was fantastic.
Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
I looked for you. I guess you were not in the back..
Originally posted by nkotb:
Sorry to miss you, Joe & Miss P, but it was too packed to find anyone by the time I got there.
[/b]
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I don't think he played the next to last track on Kortedela, which I quite like. Also, I wish he had done Shirin with full band, though it still would have been impossible to recreate the self harmonies. Also wish he did Pretty Shoes.
I also wish he didn't use the prerecorded backing music. Totally unneccessary and slightly distracting, but still a minor quibble.
Originally posted by nkotb:
Beyond "Julie" and the opening track on Kortedala, I can't think of anything else that I would've wanted to hear. "You are the Light" absolutely killed it for me, and I don't even really like "Pocketful of Money" but I agree I dont' think there was a better way to end the show.
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wow, what a love-fest!
i hated it.
(jk)
not to pile on, but i couldn't stop smiling for a long time after the show
ps: is it weird that i don't care that much for sufjan, but jens is one of my favorites?
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anyone that hated last night's show is officially dead inside - cavernous, dark soul hole.
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No, I hate Sufjan and love Jens.
Jens doesn't take himself too seriously and writes great songs with teriffic, timeless melodies, and sings them with a unique, captivating voice. Sufjan is the opposite. The broad instrumentation and slight tweeness is about all they have in common.
Amazing show last night...
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I'm not sure if it's weird, but I feel exactly the same way.
Though I do love Jonathan Richman, who I think Jen's is most comparable to in voice and guitar playing.
Originally posted by Hoya Paranoia:
ps: is it weird that i don't care that much for sufjan, but jens is one of my favorites?
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One more thing...
As a jaded hipster, I generally hate audience particpation, especially when the performer blatantly asks for it. But was anything better than the OH NO's and heartbeat sing-alongs? And having the crowd (who actually mostly stayed on beat) sing the Beat Happening sample from "Pocketful of Money" was fantastic.
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Whenever Jens decides it's time to head for Guyana, I shall follow.
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Setlist, as best as I can remember it, the middle section is gonna be out of order:
Put Your Arms Around Me
The Opposite of Hallelujah
A Postcard to Nina
Black Cab
I Saw Her in the Anti-War Demonstration
Into Eternity
You Are the Light
Sipping on the Sweet Nectar
A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill
The Cold Swedish Winter
Maple Leaves
Encore:
Shirin (solo)
Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo
Encore 2:
Pocketful of Money (solo)
Someone please fix the order, but I'm pretty sure those were the songs he played.
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I would've really liked to have heard "A Strange Time In My Life" but other than that, the show was spectacular.
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Didn't he do "Your Arms Around Me"? You know, the avocado song.
Originally posted by starrdogg92:
Setlist, as best as I can remember it, the middle section is gonna be out of order:
Put Your Arms Around Me
The Opposite of Hallelujah
A Postcard to Nina
Black Cab
I Saw Her in the Anti-War Demonstration
Into Eternity
You Are the Light
Sipping on the Sweet Nectar
A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill
The Cold Swedish Winter
Maple Leaves
Encore:
Shirin (solo)
Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo
Encore 2:
Pocketful of Money (solo)
Someone please fix the order, but I'm pretty sure those were the songs he played.
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Yeah he did. And the first song was "into eternity."
There was a douchebag directly behind me who kept begging for an elbow to the teeth by making this annoying yelping noise between songs and once right in the middle of "cold swedish winter" but other than that, the crowd seemed awesome too.
Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Didn't he do "Your Arms Around Me"? You know, the avocado song.
Originally posted by starrdogg92:
Setlist, as best as I can remember it, the middle section is gonna be out of order:
Put Your Arms Around Me
The Opposite of Hallelujah
A Postcard to Nina
Black Cab
I Saw Her in the Anti-War Demonstration
Into Eternity
You Are the Light
Sipping on the Sweet Nectar
A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill
The Cold Swedish Winter
Maple Leaves
Encore:
Shirin (solo)
Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo
Encore 2:
Pocketful of Money (solo)
Someone please fix the order, but I'm pretty sure those were the songs he played.
[/b]
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
No, I hate Sufjan and love Jens.
Jens doesn't take himself too seriously and writes great songs with teriffic, timeless melodies, and sings them with a unique, captivating voice. Sufjan is the opposite. The broad instrumentation and slight tweeness is about all they have in common.
Amazing show last night...
Have you seen Sufjan post-Seven Swans? I don't really think he takes himself too seriously. I love Sufjan, but think Jens is kinda meh. Maybe I need to pick up his new one - I only have You're Oh So Silent. There are a handful of songs I like alot on that album, "Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song" being my favorite. If I went to the show, I'd be pretty salty he didn't play that...
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If you had the new album, you probably wouldn't care what he didn't play off of previous albums. I found his previous stuff to be hit and miss. He went 12 for 12 on the new album, bringing it to a whole new level.
Originally posted by amnesiac:
Originally posted by bellenseb:
No, I hate Sufjan and love Jens.
Jens doesn't take himself too seriously and writes great songs with teriffic, timeless melodies, and sings them with a unique, captivating voice. Sufjan is the opposite. The broad instrumentation and slight tweeness is about all they have in common.
Amazing show last night...
Have you seen Sufjan post-Seven Swans? I don't really think he takes himself too seriously. I love Sufjan, but think Jens is kinda meh. Maybe I need to pick up his new one - I only have You're Oh So Silent. There are a handful of songs I like alot on that album, "Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song" being my favorite. If I went to the show, I'd be pretty salty he didn't play that... [/b]
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Where were you?
Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Did you look for me? :D
I don't say this much (and if I did it would dilute my words), but this show was fantastic.
Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
I looked for you. I guess you were not in the back..
Originally posted by nkotb:
Sorry to miss you, Joe & Miss P, but it was too packed to find anyone by the time I got there.
[/b]
[/b]
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Originally posted by azaghal1981:
Yeah he did. And the first song was "into eternity."
There was a douchebag directly behind me who kept begging for an elbow to the teeth by making this annoying yelping noise between songs and once right in the middle of "cold swedish winter" but other than that, the crowd seemed awesome too.
hah, where were you?
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Very near the front, on the left near the speaker...wish i had brought earplugs (thus, stage right).
I was just kidding. I wasn't expecting anybody to pick me out in the crowd. I'm not sure I would be able to pick anyone out, other than the few boardies who I've met on more than one occasion.
Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
Where were you?
Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Did you look for me? :D
I don't say this much (and if I did it would dilute my words), but this show was fantastic.
Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
I looked for you. I guess you were not in the back..
Originally posted by nkotb:
Sorry to miss you, Joe & Miss P, but it was too packed to find anyone by the time I got there.
[/b]
[/b]
[/b]
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I was telling GGW outside that the new album hasn't really clicked all that well with me yet (granted, I've only had time to give it 2 listens), but after hearing the songs live, I definitely think it stacks up to the first two albums.
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Sort of in the middle, slightly stage left.
Originally posted by Hoya Paranoia:
Originally posted by azaghal1981:
Yeah he did. And the first song was "into eternity."
There was a douchebag directly behind me who kept begging for an elbow to the teeth by making this annoying yelping noise between songs and once right in the middle of "cold swedish winter" but other than that, the crowd seemed awesome too.
hah, where were you? [/b]
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Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
If you had the new album, you probably wouldn't care what he didn't play off of previous albums. I found his previous stuff to be hit and miss. He went 12 for 12 on the new album, bringing it to a whole new level.
Well, I'll probably get it on my next emusic haul and end up regretting I skipped this show.
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I was hanging with nkotb and bookert outside after the show. I was hoping to spot you. We were going to beat you up and steal your lunch money.
Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Very near the front, on the left near the speaker...wish i had brought earplugs (thus, stage right).
I was just kidding. I wasn't expecting anybody to pick me out in the crowd. I'm not sure I would be able to pick anyone out, other than the few boardies who I've met on more than one occasion.
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I would have thunk the show would have inspired sloppy wet kisses rather than that. Either way, good thing I darted as he was finishing.
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
I was hanging with nkotb and bookert outside after the show. I was hoping to spot you. We were going to beat you up and steal your lunch money.
Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Very near the front, on the left near the speaker...wish i had brought earplugs (thus, stage right).
I was just kidding. I wasn't expecting anybody to pick me out in the crowd. I'm not sure I would be able to pick anyone out, other than the few boardies who I've met on more than one occasion.
[/b]
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Next show it's swirlie time.
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
I was hanging with nkotb and bookert outside after the show. I was hoping to spot you. We were going to beat you up and steal your lunch money.
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Philly roll call? :D
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Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
I was hanging with
not to get too far afield, but did you ever weigh in on the billy bragg show? i was expecting some blabbing, but nothing like that
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After reading of Julian's Philly adventure, I'm sterring clear of Philly for a long, long time. What a useless city.
Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
Philly roll call? :D
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I couldn't make the Monday show, but I've seen him 5-6 times, including his Birchmere gig last year. He's been getting progressively gabbier for the past few years. Fortunately, he's generally entertaining.
Originally posted by Hoya Paranoia:
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
I was hanging with
not to get too far afield, but did you ever weigh in on the billy bragg show? i was expecting some blabbing, but nothing like that [/b]
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Originally posted by azaghal1981:
I concur.
Did anyone stick around to see if there really was another set somewhere else like he claimed there would be?
I do have a recent recording from somewhere in Sweden where he played a bonus set in a parking lot after the main set/encores.
Jens himself never made it to the after party which was at St. Ex but some of his band members did.
Our photographer was a no show - does anyone have any pics they'd like to share?
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So has there been an definitive setlist posted? Thanks!
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The setlist I posted before definitely had all of the songs, I just don't know the order, someone sort that out for me and we'll have a real-deal setlist.
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Just came across
this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkyDAnJVME8)
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i drove four hours in the most hideous cats and dogs rain and traffic for philly last night. the setlist was mostly the same, he played a little of "it was a strange time in my life," and then for the encore since the opener was this a capella group, he played track 11... the one with the swedish title with them doing the ba-ba-bas, and that was cool... followed by hammer hill and friday night at the drive in bingo.
afterwards when he came out to talk to people and sign things he said he'd play some acoustic songs upstairs, so the twenty or so people left are led to the upstairs, and we walk into this tiny chapel with magnificent walls and everyone sits down at the pews. he came in, and took requests. he finished off with pocket full of money and said it was even better than at the black cat. i'm totally smitten.
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Jens Lekman
Jens Lekman is the latest musician to become the face of indie coolness by acting as if he has no idea what the term even means. The Swedish star took the Black Cat stage Thursday night in a garish floral shirt, smiled like a complete goofball throughout his entire set, sang songs with titles like "Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo" and even briefly ran around the stage "flying" like an airplane.
But don't think his newfound status has anything to do with irony. If the boyish 26-year-old isn't yet a certifiable pop music genius, his inspired performance in front of an enraptured sellout crowd proved that he's at least well on his way.
Lekman croons like Morrissey and shares a fey gene with Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, but has more in common with fellow free spirit Jonathan Richman. This is particularly true of his lyrics, which are at one second hilarious and the next touching, but always delivered with the same unflinching sincerity. "I took my sister down to the ocean/But the ocean made me feel stupid" he sang on the jubilant "The Opposite of Hallelujah," the kind of song so catchy that it should appeal to anyone with a pulse, not just MP3-blog readers.
Most songs were bouncy and buoyant, thanks to Lekman's backing band of six Nordic females who played flute, saxophone, guitar, bass, keyboard and drums, all while maintaining icy gazes. If the results didn't necessarily sound like the work of his country's most famous musical exports, Lekman's songs do have the same irresistible immediacy of Abba tunes. The few numbers he played unaccompanied lacked the sizzle of the full-band material but offered a chance for better connection with the audience.
Set closer "Pocketful of Money" took a reliably horrible gimmick -- Lekman and the audience singing a round, in unison -- and made something truly magical out of it. Even Lekman admitted it was the "most beautiful" version of that song to date and to play anything else would simply ruin the moment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102602001.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102602001.html)
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http://broseidon.blogspot.com/2007/10/jens-lekman-black-cat-102507.html (http://broseidon.blogspot.com/2007/10/jens-lekman-black-cat-102507.html)