The night of Tuesday, May 22, 2007 began after a group of Emoes was leading the head of the line to get into John Weston's Troubadour--the tavern where the night would begin with less than a bang, and end with a feeling of consolation—the feeling emerges whenever I see a decent band live.
We entered the tavern, which felt more like a homey wooden cabin, isolating one from the noise of outside. There was a line for the merchandise; purely Mando Diao shirts, albums, buttons, and bags, there was also a small section on the edge of the table with Pop Levi LPs. I stood in line while my friend entered the restroom, apparently the installations are small; and the flushing knob on the toilet comes off--beware when you go to the Troubadour. Apart from the wooden cabin feeling and scenery, the Troubadour is encompassed with photographs of old artists hanging on the wooden walls, and on the wall near the restroom hung a large six foot poster of Jim Morrison. I apologize for descriptions that aren’t entirely necessary.
You would think that some Swedish lads would be humble and glad to share the stage with their opening bands, but that is not the case for Mando Diao. It was obvious that the stage where they were to play was small, but it was even worse for the opening bands. The first band had to deal with a blue drum set—that of Mando Diao's—behind their own red drum set, cutting the front stage space in less than one third of the size of the stage. There was a thin strip, a strip so narrow that you would think that if the members of this band were not as sober as they seemed, they would trip on a chord and fall off the stage. The second band had more space to perform.
The starting band began after eight and a half. The Capshuns, very creative name, but the sound was not only a pop rock construction of old sounds that we've heard with a hint of The Higher—I am using this band to compare them with because they are generic. There were two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer and the lead singer. I feel for the girls in the audience that have low self-esteem--the lead singer had the body of an anorexic woman, no kidding. The instrumentals of the band were decent; there was nothing of great acclaim. The pop sound of the band and the deep voice of the vocalist clashed, making me want to go up to them after their set ended and telling them to get a different vocalist. The Capshuns played a good thirty five minutes, and then led to the half hour intermission.
Pop Levi... [Pronounced: Leevaye]. I thought it was Levee, but apparently it's not, the vocalist of The Capshuns was corrected on stage, so, I mustn’t do the same mistake, or else the fans of [Pop Leevaye] might come kick my arse. This band was not only picky, but also annoying. Their bassist was brought from the sixties; there's no chance in hell that he is from our current era. Pop Levi has a time machine; you should go ask them for it. Their bassist and their backing guitarist were out of place, as was the drummer, I think the vocalist of Pop Levi [Leevaye] should go solo, he can pull it off, he’s a good guitarist and performer. The vocalist was out of this world, no seriously, he was a robot with a hint of insane. He would dance out of nowhere, with these movements that only robots that we have seen on films and television would perform. He had energy, but his band mates diminished whatever he had going on with their inability to belong to his style. I am guessing that the vocalist sang too high pitched because of his tight clothes; he was like a tall pitchfork moving unsynchronized to the well-noted but too simple instrumentals behind his voice. This band played for forty-five minutes, which was fifteen minutes short of the intermission between their amusing performance and that of Mando Diao. They can be compared to any psychedelic band out there, except their lyrics are horrible; a hint of The Velvet Underground and The Black Angels.
As any good European band would do, Mando Diao's stage crew began flashing the stage lights on the audience for some minutes before the band members appeared, all band members wearing black. As Gustaf entered the stage, and stood there smiling at his crowd, I noticed that the man had no shoes on; he wore black socks. Their performance began with "Welcome Home, Luc Robitaille" followed by "Down in the Past." The third song in the first set was "Song for Aberdeen." What surprised me the most was that they included songs from Hurricane Bar and Sheep Dog. From experience bands that headline their concert with the name of their newest album means that they are only going to play songs from that album, and nothing more, but Mando Diao gave its audiences good old songs like "God Knows." The energy that was experienced came more from Gustaf than from Bjorn who has been given more vocal leads than previous years. As far as performance, Mando Diao have energy, and talent but the inability to realize that their instrumentals do not underscore their vocals. At the beginning of the show, their lyrics could be heard but as their performance resumed, it was harder to decipher what they were singing; to the point that sometimes it was hard to figure out what song they were playing. Gustaf's amazing vocals were heard when he sang "Ochrasy." This is the last song on their new album; perhaps the most political that one can relate to. For this song Bjorn was the only one on stage whose presence was underscored. The other band members hid either with their head down over keyboards or on the grown near an amplifier. This was one of their dramatic appeals that we experienced that night. Thirty minutes before they ended their show, they got off the stage. Gustaf and Bjorn placing their guitars softly on the middle of the stage, and everyone except for the drummer leaving the stage quickly. To the inexperienced audience this would have been the end of the concert, but everyone knew that these humble lads were just going out of stage so that they could be brought back by the screaming, clapping, and chanting of "MANDO DIAO." Humble, indeed. After about five minutes of keeping their audience begging for more noise, the drummer—now wearing nothing more than his slacks—the keyboardist and bassist ran toward their instruments. Bjorn came down the stairs of their lair before Gustaf did, and when Gustaf decided that it was time to please us with his presence the upcoming song of the second set began; I don’t recall it’s title, sorry avid readers. Ha.
Mando Diao might not have the deepest of lyrics, but they do have the instrumental abilities that WE seek in bands these days. There is no routine in their sound or in their lyrics. There is power rock, and there is power pop as well; all fused in to create a sound that can't be compared with any other American band that we have heard on the waves (radio stations) or on the local MTV channels. When Mando Diao leaks into the mainstream waves, it won't be because of their worn-out, trite sound, but because of their Swedish sense of sound and performance. Their music is a fusion of Led Zeppelin and Incubus, and a hint of The Beatles somewhere.
--C.S.H.
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