Jens Lekman @ Webster Hall - Sat Apr 05, 2008

Pocketful of Money

Last time I saw Jens, he played twice the city and got together with fans at a rooftop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to play some tunes with just his acoustic guitar in a very cold night of Fall 2007. He promised he was coming back for Spring, when the weather was warmer and he didn't need a pair of gloves to play. He kept his promise.


Jens Lekman got on stage with four girls and a DJ this time. One on violin, one on cello, a very cute drummer, the ever smiling bassist and the guy in charge of sampling live all those catchy songs I don't know and Jens uses in his own songs. The sampling at this show was particularly great because Jens was extending them every time the DJ used them, with his full band and his voice. I felt the man was making a tribute to them, and being cool at it.

Lekman asked the audience not to record the show and post it online for all the world. He wanted it to be special, he wanted to be special only for us, the ones who were there with him, and not for the rest of the world the next day. The band started saying no word and play two or three songs straight through. No time to waste. This was their last stop in this tour and even though they must have been exhausted, that feeling of closing out a great couple of months of playing all over the US for their fans, must have had some soon-to-be-missed king of feeling attached to it too. They looked like they really wanted to play... like if it was the last time. Temporarily, I guess, it was.


I lost the piece of paper where I wrote the names of the songs he played. As always he got stories for us to introduce some of them. An old one now, about his lesbian friend Nina, that nobody minds hearing it again and again, one about his old hair dresser, a new one about a fan wanting to hear the song that has a "tutu" in it (it turned out to be Black Cat) and a very new one for a very new song called New Directions... too many (new)s there! He said he wrote that song, as some others, after looking at a google map for hours trying to find his way out of the most boring place he has ever lived, Kortedala. So is that a real place? I though it was imaginary. Anyway, I hear You Can Call Me Al in it (Jens actually plays it sometimes, but without the chorus), it has a Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo vibe, one of my favorite songs by him, and yes, it rules.

Since I got Night Falls Over Kortedala, that very boring place now I would like to visit one day if the music reflects anything about it, I went back in Jens catalog and consider myself a big fan of all his stuff. He has definitely got way better after his When I Wanted to Be Your Dog, and really got it working for him since Oh You're So Silent Jens. He played only one song from his first album and many many others from his last two. Unfortunately, he didn't play Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig, a song I am currently digging way too much these days. Here is what I remember he played, in no particular order:

I am Leaving You Because I don't Love You
A Postcard to Nina
You Are the Light
It Was A Strange Time In My Life
Sipping on the Sweet Nectar
The Opposite of Hallelujah
Black Cab
Shirin
Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo
New Directions (new!)
A Sweet Summer's Night On Hammer Hill
Maple Leaves
Pocketful of Money
A Little Lost (Original by Arthur Russell)
Your Arms Around Me
Into Eternity

Jens doesn't play with his band all the time. When he is not dancing with all of them on stage like butterflies, he plays stripped down versions of his mellow and not so mellow songs by himself. Standouts Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo and A Sweet Summer's Night On Hammer Hill are good examples of that... they get very good treatments without the extra sounds but his guitar and voice (and some "pom popom popom popom popom popom popom" from the audience), showing you Lekman at his best.


Lekman did two or three encores, or better said he tried to leave the stage two or three times but everybody kept asking him to come back and delight us even more. I doubt he does it for all his shows, but I already mentioned this one was the last one of this tour... it had to be celebrated (there was actually an after-show in Brooklyn where he sang a couple more songs), and we all joined him at it. Among some others, he played my favorite song by him, Pocketful of Money, and a beautiful cover of Arthur Russell's A Little Lost, and I got goose bumps. Jens, I am not a fan of me getting goose bumps, because surely you will make me have them again, but see you next time... for sure. [photos of the show]

♫♫♫♫♫

Were you at the show? How did you like it?

Jens Lekman Links: At NPR, Stream Night Falls Over Kortedala, Official Website, Wikipedia, MySpace, at Secretly Canadian

Jens Lekman at Webster Hall / Music Hall of Williamsburg - Oct 27/28, 2007

Sipping on the Sweet Nectar

It's been two weeks since I went to see The Go! Team and fall in love with Jens Lekman. I went to the city to see The Go! Team after having dinner with some friends, but things didn't happen as planned. My friends wanted to go to the Blue Man Show, which I couldn't afford because it was 80 bucks, and meanwhile I decided to check out a guy called Jens Lekman who was going to play Webster Hall for only 20. In fact, I ended up getting in for free and being blown away by Lekman's charisma , music and voice.


Jens took the stage with a six girl band and one DJ all dressed in white with Jens looking particularly like a chef about to season our hearts. He plays guitar and sings with a very romantic baritone, the girls play different instruments, including saxo, accordion, trumpet, violins and drums, and the DJ is there to sample live all those samples Jens has included in his recordings. I didn't know his music much, except a couple of songs from his new album, but I felt like I had heard his music all my life before. I don't mean that like some people accuse him, of being just a guy ripping off people's stuff, but I do mean it in the sense that it was so comfortable listening to him that it felt like his music had been with me all the time and I instantaneously wanted to enjoy it. Now, I can't stop listening to his excellent new album Night Falls Over Kortedala and his very good compilation of EPs called Oh You're So Silent Jens.

In fact, I liked him so much that when I got home and started listening to the album I bought, I found out he was playing again the next day at the Music Hall of Williamsburg as a solo show. A funny guy, with music that makes me feel warm in these soon to be very cold nights? Of course I had to see him again.


His cool personality was on hand again in Brooklyn for a crowd that had to be full of good fans, as I noticed how everybody knew all his songs in detail. They were pretty much filling in his songs the sampled chorus he didn't completely have that night. He almost played solo, except for some help from his drummer playing the bongos, some backing vocals coming from an iPod, and a loop pedal he admitted not to be an Andrew Bird kind of expert with it. If he was awesome at Webster Hall, he was even awesomer at Music Hall. Jens played more songs, took requests from the public, played a couple of covers including You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon, and was as hilarious as I expected him to be, again.

My favorite song of the whole weekend was A Postcard to Nina (with Pocketful of Money very very close), which is on Night Falls Over Kortedala. Jens introduces that song so well live that every time I listen to it on my CD player, without the intro, I wish I could hear him again talking about him visiting Germany, going to an awkward dinner and feeling his dad's friend's drunk breath way too close. It would have been your favorite song I am sure. But my favorite moment of the weekend didn't happen at Webster Hall, nor at Music Hall. It happened on the roof of 151 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn NY, an address I will hardly forget. After Jens finished his set the second time I saw him during the weekend, he went over to a fan's building to play some more songs while over viewing the city. I didn't really appreciate I had a great view from this guy's roof, because who would be looking at something different from Jens?, but I did enjoy his voice and company while eating some pizza and having some beers his fans kindly brought to share with everybody else. Oh man, it would have been your favorite moment of the weekend I am sure too.


Jens opens his mouth, says whatever, or even just without saying anything but smiling, and everybody follows laughing/smiling. That's how a Jens Lekman's show is. Awesome! I am sure because of him there were new couples in town those nights, new friends (I made one), and lots of people went home with a smile of their own to dream.

So yeah, that was it. I had an unforgettable weekend with Jens Lekman. How was yours? [photos of the show @ Webster Hall][photos of the show @ Music Hall of Williamsburg]

♫♫♫♫♫

Were you at the show? How did you like it?

Jens Lekman links: At NPR, Official Website, Pitchfork interviews Jens, Indiepop.it interviews Jens, A video interview, Wikipedia, at Secretly Canadian