So we went to Melkweg and spilled beers on our arms when we tried to dance to Peter Bjorn And John. And they played new stuff but threw in some older songs as well. And Denis wanted to injure the light man while I thought he was pretty good. 'This song in not about, and will never be about, Rotterdam', Björn said with his base on his stomach before kicking of the first hang over sounding baselines in their Amsterdam tribute song Amsterdam. Other high points was their new single Nothing To Worry About which most people had never heard. At first the giant base caused confusion among the crowd, have Peter Bjorn And John become a hip hop act? Maybe there was fear of a Joaquin Phoenix (Hollywood star turned aloof hip hop pretender) type of development? But at the end there was dancing going on before the band decided to end the evening with my favourite song, Up Against The Wall. This slow building gem was prolonged into a 15 minute whirlwind of energetic rocking which made me wonder how a real rock album from these guys would sound like. After that I bought a t-shirt for 5 Euros that said 'Peter Bjorn And John T-shirt'. This goes in line with the bands backdrop which says: 'Peter Bjorn And John backdrop'. Swedish functionalism has found it's way into contemporary pop. And so had giant hip hop beats, apparently. It could be worse. Much worse.
Maybe you thought that Peter Bjorn And John were a one hit whistling wonder. Well, I forgive you for thinking so, but you were always wrong. The Swedish three pieced orchestra is getting ready to hit back after their monumental album Writers Block, and they're doing it sounding like Lykke Li's Breaking It Up (Bjorn produced her debut album Youth Novels, so you should not be that surprised) mashed up with Teddybears Stockholm. The two first tastes from their forthcoming album shows that they've clearly lost their mind, in the same good way as M.I.A.s clothing always did. The videos for Nothing To Worry About (above, containing Japanese Rockabilly gangsters in black doing choreographed dancing) and Lay It Down (containing ironic dancing with face masks in basement party) shows that the band still have a killer sense for what is contemporary (funny videos on youtube) and still know how to put together a pop song, with Nothing To Worry About being especially impressive with it's big beat and fuck you attitude, not so common in Sweden (excluding big mouthed The Hives).
On the 26th of March they grace Amsterdam and Melkweg with a visit, I've got tickets, you should come too. Last time I saw them here, fall of 2006 in Paradiso's small hall the base player seemed stoned and talked about Skellefteå AIK, a Swedish hockey team, in Swedish.
Later in the week I will write about Brussels and yell at corporate leaders and their lack of communication understanding. It will be great.
