surely time will come to an end soon/ but it's still on your side

Finally some time to sit and write. Or at least to finish up the half attempts at finishing up the post I started last Wednesday. About the first time I've finally gone to a live gig by a Swedish band, and was not disappointed in the least bit all. About the two who I went with without whom I'd not have heard about it in the first place.

Club 8/ Pelle Carlberg ( a double bill!) were scheduled to perform at the Esplanade's recital studio at eight, but dinner and agonizing choices that paralyzed us three over whether to buy their albums at the small counter set up in front of the entrance had to be overcome first. Well Jen got edson and a club 8 album, Grace the legends and another club 8 cd, while I cunningly cheated and bought a compilation of swedish music carried by the Labrador label.

We got pretty good seats as we were early in the queue, sitting ourselves to the left, not five meters away from the band's space. The intimacy and warmth of the studio was palpable and I loved it so, for the sheer proximity and lack of any barrier between us and the band allowed a real feeling of sincerity that was appropriate for the sparse/ heartfelt music to come. Note I do not use the word stage, just space. Until I figure out a way to transfer the pictures from my phone to the computer, we shall just have to make do though.

The spotlights warmed, and Club 8 took their places. Karolina was the last to walk in, but you can tell the whole studio really livened then. Her hair tied tightly back into a shoulder length tail, languid fingers that slowly wrapped themselves around the microphone, she had the whole sense of a coldness that is at once a touch chilling, yet unmistakably *alluring*. The banter was light and at ease, her remarking how pleasantly surprised the band was when they were greeted with a little tropical warmth after stepping off the airport. Sweden is *cold*, she said with a clear and crisp lightly accented english that just about tingled with little crystals at the edges, a characteristic I find common in much of the swedish music I hear.

The highlight of their performance for me would be a close fight between two songs. " The Next Step You'll Take" and their ' famous, or infamous rock and roll song' " Saturday Night Engine". You probably expect this from me now, as both songs were as different from each other as can be.

" The Next Step.." an autumnal and delicately bittersweet yet going along with a spring that belied its melancholy stood out with its particular lyrics, while " Saturday Night Engine" a full blast of unabashed hooky fun that was riffed through with so much energy and sheer life that it just swept me off. The recorded version here does not a single bit of justice to the one we heard. The live version was done twice as fast, sung with an immediancy of *here* and *now* that can never be captured on a mere microphone. My goal now is to hunt down a live version of this song, but still no luck though.

Pelle Carlberg took the stage after the brief interval, and what can I say. Hit songs and ping pong do not usually go together but there he does it. His songs are a fascinating blend of seemingly random inspirations-anecdotes, like when you want to sit down and ' offhandedly' write a poem, spend one hour wracking your brains for any memory to latch on, and finally scrounging out something that does not really matter in the end because it winds up sounding too forced anyway. The only difference is that Carlberg pulls it off. How? I have no idea. A song about a hit song his record label called him up to write? A song about a review of his first album? A song about hearing Im From Barcelona on the radio and being jealous about their chorus?

The thing is that while these were all interesting and catchy, they were too *at the moment*. I get the faint feeling that once the novelty is lost in these songs well they would be probably lost by then. Carlberg covered Mika's ' Grace Kelly' before he left the space. hm I still am just lukewarm towards that song.

There was an autograph session after the gig, which by sheer luck we found ourselves very near the front of the queue. Which meant that we would not feel as embarrassed to pester them with questions and requests then had we begun at the back of the queue and saw how tired they really were. Please allow a bit of embellishment, for a week can do many tricks to the fickle thing memory is.

me: would you recommend other Swedish bands to come to Singapore too?

Karolina: yes, of course.

me: ( before I could stop myself) what about the Concretes?

her: oh you heard of them? you know Victoria Bergsman has a solo album out.. taken by trees i think. You heard it? It's better than the Concretes I think.

me: ( inwardly --- urk! arhjhh! or if there ever is a single word to describe the kind of surprised contentment that comes when something unexpected happily overturns everything else) yes! Any chance you can ask her to come down to Singapore too?

her: yes ok, she has a really lovely voice. Ill be sure to tell her.

here then she smiled.
and my day was made.

Club 8 - The Next Step You'll Take

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for Grace it would be when she was getting an autograph from Pelle Carlberg, and told him how sad she was that he did not play " Sunday, Lovely Sunday".

" ah so you were the one who shouted for it just now", referring to the part of his gig when he asked the floor for any requests. I admit I goaded grace a little I think * innocent look*. An interesting thing would be that the rest of audience was completely quiet, a fact that I only remember now.

So Carlberg, right there and there at the autograph table, serenaded ( yes serenaded) Grace. Jen was visibly impressed too.



Sundays are slow
Never pretentious, oh no
Silent and closed
And we don't really have to know
Where to go

Holding hands with the one I love
She wears mittens, I wear gloves
There must be someone above
Holding hands with the one I love



And her day was made there and then.
Probably for the next few days too.