Live DC: Jens Lekman / The Honeydrips @ The Cat

April 4, 2008 by william alberque  Send to a Friend

all photos: Raisa Patron

Jens Lekman in Heaven, a (sort of) live review

Black Cat, Wednesday, April 2.

Jens returned to (re)conquer Washington DC on a lovely Wednesday night. It was, in a word, triumphant. The Cat was sold out for days, as it was for his last visit (which I missed due to being in another country, natch). Earlier in the day, he fulfilled the requirement for any band to be officially anointed in the States: he visited NPR studios for Talk of the Nation. Last month, he wowed crowds at SXSW. It’s amazing to think he’s been recording for, what, eight years? And yet Americans are just now catching on…

I will say right up front that I make no pretense at being objective, at being able to watch this concert with a critical distance and evaluate what I saw. A very long time ago, I downloaded “Black Cab” and “You Are the Light” at the recommendation of a guy named Jens (coincidentally) who worked for Hot Stuff records (www.hotstuff.se) in
Sweden. I fell immediately in love but was daunted by the difficulty of finding weird, limited, self-produced singles and CD-Rs (and am still kicking myself for not putting in that order on his website back in 2006…). Perhaps part of the limits to his appeal was that his first two widely-available CDs were largely compilations of these odd bits. His 2007 CD, “Night Falls over Kortedala,” changed all that. Suddenly, everyone’s agog over the fey, Swedish songster.

Opener Marla Hansen looked a little lost on stage, standing alone, singing her beautiful songs. I wish everyone had been a little more quiet and listened – everything she did sounded beautiful. And she looked genuinely hurt that no one was paying attention. Well, not no-one. There was a knot of an audience up front, and I assume they were listening. But I barely was. I mean, I should have shut up and paid attention as well – I’m just as guilty.

I can forgive everyone, even myself, because Jens put us all in such a tizzy. I actually was looking forward to the Honeydrips as well, and, shocked to find out it was just one guy, I found my attention wandering as the anticipation built. Honestly, I can’t remember a thing about his set, except a vague sense that I enjoyed what I heard. But once Jens took the stage, all memory of what came before evaporated completely. He is THAT sublime.

The presence of a full band was a big plus (but a smaller touring band than last time, as I’m told). I was half afraid, after the first two acts, that it’d be just Jens and an acoustic guitar. Not that that would be terrible. Just not ideal. Instead, he came with strings (was that a viola?) and keys and a great rhythm section. Opening with…oh, fuck it. I can’t pretend to take the performance apart, to describe it song for song and give you some idea of what it sounded like. It was wonderous. He played…all kinds of great songs. All of ‘em. When he played, “Postcard for Nina,” I was in heaven with Rocky Dennis. I think “The Opposite of Halleluiah” was in there, “There Is a Light,” “Black Cab,” and an unreleased song or two. Even the “bumpa-bumpa-bumpa-bumpa” song that I’m not overly fond of sounded perfect. I’m told his last visit to DC was even better – I think I would have died. Cale was there, and he survived, somehow.

He’ll be back, I’m sure of that. And, like Vampire Weekend, I’m sure it’ll be at the 930 Club, and all pretense of atmosphere, closeness with the audience, and freedom from curious suburbanites will be gone. Those who saw him last night (and last year – was it only last October? You lucky bastards) can count themselves, well, lucky.

 Send to a Friend