• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Sep 29, 2011 By Laura Studarus Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern Jens Lekman

A dark night. An empty graveyard. A vampire-like Masonic lodge. Random bursts of smoke on stage. And…Jens Lekman. Very little made sense about the setting for Lekman’s first show in support of newly released EP, An Argument With Myself. But as per usual, that didn’t stop the Swedish troubadour from redefining charming over the course of his fifteen-song set.

“I feel really really great tonight—which is worrying because I usually feel horribly before the first show of the tour,” Lekman warned the audience. It probably goes without saying that Lekman’s fears of flop were completely unfounded. Commanding the stage with a clever combination of acoustic guitar, well-timed backing tracks, and grinning drummer Addison (who already had a robust cheering section of his own), Lekman mixed new tracks from his EP and forthcoming full-length (details of which are still scant), with old favorites.

The new material went down with cheers, particularly during “An Argument With Myself,” where Lekman felt compelled to act out the line, “Why are you hitting yourself?” (Then again given that Lekman commands perhaps the least-hostile audience of all time this was to be expected.) Other songs, such as “I Broke Up a Fight” demonstrated Lekman’s keen attention to lyrical detail and self-deprecating sense of humor, as he set the scene of him sitting outside an opera house, milkshake in hand, watching a woman get hit by a man and summoning up the courage to help her.

Older songs were greeted like long-lost friends. Unprompted, the audience sang back-up to “A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill,” cheered for a stunning, acoustic version of “Black Cab,” and—for a few more audacious female members of the audience—turned “Opposite of Hallelujah,” into a chance for an on-stage dance party.

“Thank you so much,” Lekman said wryly at the set’s end—clearly pleased he made it through the show in one piece. “You can bury me now.”

Set List:
1. Description
2. An Argument With Myself
3. Waiting For Kirsten
4. I Saw Her in the Anti-War Demonstration
5. A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill
6. I Broke up a Fight (new song)
7. The End of the World is Bigger Than Love
8. Cowboy Boots
9. Black Cab
10. Golden Key
11. Opposite of Hallelujah

Encore:
12. That’s the Way Love is (Ten City cover)
13. Sipping on the Sweet Nectar
14. Every Little Hair Knows Your Name
15. And I Remember Every Kiss

(www.jenslekman.com)