måndag 12 Nov 2007, 14:19

Last night I saw the Jens Lekman show at Bimbo's 365. Let's just say I haven't seen anything this musically orgasmic since Daft Punk played at the Greek Theater.

Throw Me the Statue opened, and very unusually for me, I saw the entire opening act. I remembered not really getting hooked on any of their songs before, and their live performance never really grabbed me either. I spent the whole time mostly daydreaming about Jens.

When it was Jens' turn, his DJ came out first and played a few songs from a laptop. He was intriguingly stonefaced while he played mostly old pop songs. I didn't recognize any of them, but it reminded me of Barry White. Just as people started getting impatient, one of the songs morphed into the opening drum beat of Into Eternity, and Jens and his band of six hot Swedish girls ran out onto the stage to explosive applause and cheering.

Jens and his girls were all wearing plain white outfits, each with a different object embroidered on the shirt. Jens had a bunch of roses, the drummer had a red pair of eyeglasses, and the other girls had things like a sailboat, a fish, and a hammer. Immediately after running out from behind the curtain, they launched into the song, with four of the girls playing the hook on flute and piccolo.

Every song was performed flawlessly, and just like Throw Me the Statue predicted, Jens blew my mind. His beautiful, smooth voice hit the high notes effortlessly, and he only noticeably strained once all night. He honestly sounded better live than on his album. Most of the instruments were played live, and whatever weird rhythms or sampled loops were leftover were taken care of by the DJ.

Over the course of nearly two hours, Jens played a full set followed by two encores, including all of my favorite songs: Sipping on the Sweet Nectar, The Opposite of Hallelujah, Your Arms Around Me, and It Was a Strange Time in My Life. One of the most memorable moments was during Sipping on the Sweet Nectar, when all of a sudden the entire band started running around in circles on the stage with their arms extended like airplanes.

Jens entertained us not only with his music, but also with his stories. Most of his songs are obviously written about events in his own life, and throughout the night he added his own commentary to the lyrics of his songs. For instance, between verses of A Postcard to Nina, he embellished his story of traveling to Berlin to meet his pen-pal Nina and agreeing to pose as her fiancé for her father's benefit. He also explained how Shirin (of the song Shirin was his hairdresser at the Kortedala Beauty Center, where he used to get his hair cut. He told the story of when he came to San Francisco a while ago after having been disillusioned with music and selling all his musical instruments. He wandered around the city, dranking wine and watching flamenco dancers. And like almost every band I've seen recently, he remarked that San Francisco is one of the best places on earth.

I really regret leaving after the second encore instead of staying to dance to his DJ's music and meet Jens after the show. I can't wait to see him next time!