I have my doubts that First Aid Kit really are the Swedish starlets they claim to be.
First that sound of pining pedal steel was American Midwest, their songs filled with far too much regret, bitterness and loss for performers so young.
And they were not the humourless, reserved Swedes of lazy stereotype – they were crack-you-up funny with their unaffected in-between song banter reflecting their love of performance and comfort on stage.
And with those golden, harmonious vocals they possess, why shouldn’t the Soderberg sisters revel in their performance?
At Saturday’s gig I counted four goosebump, lump-in-the-throat moments that the siblings induced – during the desperately sad Blue, This Old Routine’s chronicle of a relationship gone stale and during slightly cheesy but heartening closer Emmylou.
Most notably the chills ran up and down the spine during an incredible no-microphone performance of Ghost Town which turned the night towards a 1960s peacenik Love-In.
Stripped down was where they excelled, especially when the heavy reverb drums occasionally reached Phil Collins’ proportions on Stay Gold, although the more upbeat King Of The World and Heaven Knows were welcome shifts in tempo.
Hat tips were doffed to mentor Jack White and similarly intertwined harmonisers Simon And Garfunkel by way of covers as well as a joyous, seemingly spontaneous, a cappella rendition of Abba’s Waterloo.
How could anyone doubt their Swedishness?
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