Jens, Jens, JENS! I had the pleasure of watching one of my favorite vocalists, Jens Lekman, the first performance of two this week at The Echo on Wednesday night. I was in the front of the audience for once and was delighted to be there watching Jens play with his band. The night started around 9 o’clock with comedian,Tig Nogaro, opening for Jens. The fact that there was a comedian opening for the main music act was a thrilling change. She changed the whole mood of the crowd. The crowd was in a totally playful mood after Tig’s set was through. To give you an idea of the mood of the crowd, there was a girl in the audience that was known as the dolphin girl after she volunteered to give us an impression of a dolphin and we heard it about six times at Tig’s request! Tig did a great job getting us ready for the loveable, funny, storyteller that is Jens Lekman.
Jens‘ voice melted the room with the first note he sang. There were no audible flaws in his voice, it was butter! He needs no music to follow, it’s all natural! His band was amazing, too. The bassist was freaking amazing (is that a technical description? No, but it was the first thing that came to mind). The band sported plain white shoes that resembled those Toms shoes that are really ugly…what? Those shoes are totally ugly, but they are for a good cause, so that means they are cool. Except, the band’s shoes had laces and most likely they were a different brand. The violinist modified the dress code by wearing white cloth open-toed wedges. Anyway, they had some type of uniform they were conforming to and they all sported skeleton keys around their necks.
Around the middle of the set, Jens politely requested that if we wanted to record the show it was fine with them, but he didn’t want it showing up online so as not to deteriorate the intimacy between us and them and after that was said, the experience was that much more intimate.
As the night grew on, so did my heart! He performed many of his most beloved songs including: “The Opposite Of Hallelujah” and “A Sweet Summer’s Night On Hammer Hill.” I was lucky to hear songs that I was not familiar with (‘cuz I’m not a total Lekman head). Hearing songs that I was not familiar with was sooo rewarding because to listen to his lyrics is to experience a story and all his stories are funny or sad and relatable. Even after spending many hours listening to his music , I was surprised that I was able to finally understand a song that I have listened to countless times, I guess that happens during performances sometimes. And, his live performances of some songs intertwined snipets of classic numbers like: “Do You Wanna Dance.” It was really cool.
It was a priceless, wonderful night of rejoicing with fans over beautiful music. Jens is making four more appearances in California between May 29th and June 2nd with stops in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and two performances in San Francisco. If you happen to be in any of those places on those dates, do yourself a favor and catch his show. Or, if you can’t make it, check out some of his tracks on myspace or his website. I am proud to be ad advocate of Mr. Lekman!
C. Sanchez
Tags: Jens Lekman, The Echo
