Scandinavian Adult Pleasure at the Scala, London 28 March 2001
rocket.fm
Tonight, this London venue is devoted to and all things Scandinavian (even Per and Christina from the Wannadies are here). The line-up isn’t nearly as varied as at last year’s Swedish Midweek, held at the same venue, but it is still a fairly impressive one. The first band on stage is media darlings Silverbullit from Gothenburg, highly loved by anyone who is anyone in Sweden. Following them are 70’s style rock band Euroboys, straight outta Oslo, maan. But the main reason people have travelled to King’s Cross tonight is headlining band Soundtrack of our lives, Sweden’s own rock veterans. Their previous incarnation, Union Carbide Productions, were universally praised by critics and artists alike (Kurt Cobain, Peter Buck of REM, Billy Corgan and Sonic Youth have all spoken of their love for the
band), but here in England Soundtrack are yet to garner the acclaim they deserve and are still considered a slightly obscure band from Sweden.
Silverbullit are the first band on stage, to an audience of no more than 20 people, all of which were presumably on the guest-list. After having read so much positive things about Silverbullit in Swedish press, my expectations were quite high to see if they could deliver live. They start out in a very shy fashion, probably because of the lack of onlookers, but slowly build up their confidence. Their music is very psychedelic, which is probably the reason they have been compared to Spiritualized, but to me they have much more in common with the Doors and early psychedelia than with Jason Pierce. Singer Simon Ohlsson has the same style of voice as Jim Morrison, and even has the hair to prove the influence. Another name that comes to mind is actually Joy Division, although Silverbullit are slightly more energetic. But on to tonight’s gig. It’s actually a bit of a disappointment. The boys do everything right technically, the experimental jamming and the interesting outros, but unfortunately the performance lacks intimacy, or anything that comes even close to being personal. The set finishes with a long, instrumental song that leaves only the keyboard player on stage, hammering down on his keyboard, and as he shuffles off stage, the last notes blend into A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’. How ironic.
Next up is Oslo’s Euroboys. This was very interesting, as I have never heard any of their stuff; I’ve only read about them. Their music is of the 70’s style rock kind, the proper stuff like MC5 and Stooges, complete with keyboards and "I’m-so-stoned-maan" faces. The singer rather confuses me - he can’t seem to decide what band he is in. It seems he wants to be Mick Jagger, but instead of the Rolling Stones, he wants to be in Royal Trux. You get the idea. The first two songs remind me slightly of Backyard Babies, although it is rather lazy and convenient to compare them to another Scandinavian rock band. In the third song the Norwegians step into blues-y territory, with a lonely harmonica opening what grows into an almost Stone Roses-esque jam session. Bloody clever. Not so clever is the bland cover of ‘Scarborough Fair’, which does no favours whatsoever for the original. This venue is not the ideal place to put on Euroboys, but if you ever get the chance to see them at a festival, then I highly recommend them. They are, if nothing else, quite amusing.
The headlining band of the evening, the Soundtrack of our Lives, enter the stage in front of a highly expectant audience, out of which I’d say at least 50% are Swedish. Before the band come on, a small but devoted crowd are excitedly jumping around in front of the stage, awaiting Ebbot, their prophet. And he doesn’t disappoint them. As they come onstage and burst into ‘Still ageing’ off the new album ‘Behind the Music’, Ebbot reaches out his hands to the people in front of him, his children, his disciples, singing "I’m still ageing so won’t you please come home". And they will. They’ll go wherever he asks them to. So
when he asks them all to sit down during 21st Century Ripoff, they obey straight away. Apart from the “cool” journalists and media people at the back who stay standing, sucking their fags and drinking their Red Stripe. Not even the band’s flagship, as Ebbot puts it, ‘Firmanent Vacation’ can make them realise that what they’re witnessing is one of the best bands in the world today. The rest of us need no further convincing. All the new songs go down well, and when Soundtrack leave the stage to the roars of more from the crowd, I can only pity the people who have shrugged at one of the best live bands they will ever see. In five years time, or however long it will take for the rest of the world to realise the brilliance of the Soundtrack of our Lives, they will all claim to have been there when they considered this band to be nothing.
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