On Sunday night Julio and I went to see the Norwegian musical duo Kings of Convenience

[http://17.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kp7tcrVlSc1qzuqrmo1_400.jpg]
http://www.myspace.com/kingsofconvenience
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_convenience
perform at the Teatro Circo Price here in Madrid. The theater is circular and pretty small so the sound echoes and amplifies in a delightful sort of way. Erica Reisman introduced me to the band back in high school (yes, eons and eons ago) and simply handed me a burned copy of their CD “Quiet is the New Loud” and said “I think you’ll like these guys.” The band recently released their 3rd official CD and I bought it here in anticipation of seeing them live and I don’t regret it. I knew every song they ended up playing except for maybe two so that was quite nice!
The opener was a shy girl from Chile named Javiera Mena who played 3 songs (piano) and had a nice voice in the strong moments but seemed SO nervous overall that her voice was pretty wavery. Sweet and in Spanish with nice chords but nothing tooooo spectacular to write home about (although that’s what I’m doing right now…? Hah not funny).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJu14mejmYQ&feature=related
As soon as Kings of Convenience stepped on stage (just Erlend and Eirik at first, then after about 6 songs a violinist and cellist came on) you could tell they were about as hipster-y as you could get but they were so cute and earnest that you didn’t feel totally intimidated. Maybe that is silly but anyway, they were so dorkily cute, especially Erlend. Just look at his Napoleon Dynamite dance moves (34ish seconds into this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7fVinwH12o&feature=related)
and you will know what I mean.
Some people like live concerts because they get to hear artists perform original/covered music in a different/new way than they have recorded and are bored or disappointed if the concert turns out to basically be a re-shuffled medley of the artists’ music. Other people like to attend live concerts because they like so much what they’ve heard on CDs that hearing it live is a sort of transcendental experience. I’m basically in the second group, at least I was in this instance, because Eirik and Erlend have managed to record their CDs in the same way (a similar way? Same voice quality, for example??) they perform live. Except live is more fun. Did that make sense? Point being, I wasn’t going to the concert expecting a sort of Adam Duritz (Counting Crows)-y wack-o-very-different-from-the-track-on-the-CD-but-still-awesome-in-its-own-special-way experience and I was happy to get what I wanted!
What I like about the group (live and on CD) are their lovely harmonies, the way their voices overlap and switch and mesh together so perfectly (until I saw them live I couldn’t really tell which parts Erlund sang and which parts Eirik sang on the CDs because their voices are so well-matched), for their lyrics, and for how comforting their sound is (has been) to me over the years, especially in the fall. Chilly weather, darker days, nostalgia, etc.
Anyway, back to the concert.
A few songs in, Erlend told the story of how his great aunt (from Norway) was a war correspondent in Madrid during December 1936 (ooh, something related to my honors project? Yessssssss? You have my attention…) and was on top of the Telefónica building on Gran Vía (a 5-minute walk away from my apartment here, p.s.) with other journalists such as “that Hemingway guy, of course” watching Franco’s troops advance towards Madrid from one side and the International Brigades advance from the other, wondering what sort of future awaited her and the whole of Spain…
Watch this clip in which he tells the story (only 2 minutes long) even if you watch none of the others in this post, please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE_fkQRay2g&feature=related
That in and of itself was delightful and totally worth attending the concert for, but then they played this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzhb3-J9Z7o&feature=related
And I cried.
(This song is one of my default Songs to Fall Asleep To and also makes frequent appearances on rainy day, nostalgia-heavy, homesick playlists. It’s called “Homesick.”)
But they kept playing songs I knew and loved and eventually brought on a violinist and cellist and the crowd just got happier and louder and the quartet pretty much brought the house down. I had no idea they had so many fans in Madrid, but it was a unique experience that I am so glad I was able to take part in.
Here are links to some of the rest of the concert (the 2nd half, because we weren’t meant to take photos for the 1st 30 minutes, inexplicably) if you’re interested in that sort of thing (they are really good quality from RIGHT up close if you’re hesitant to check it out):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On1G3ebxvnk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTguZO2Wo_M&feature=related
(one of my favorites, listen to the crowd sing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-a_IglMURo&feature=related
(beginning of the encore)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7fVinwH12o&feature=related
Thanks for reading! (Comments always, always welcome)
Love,
-c-

