The Swedes took over the HOB on Saturday as Swedish indie supergroup Peter, Bjorn & John and El Perro Del Mar took to the stage. I had seen both acts before and both did pretty well in front of what was a pretty sparse HOB crowd, but the show was also not quite mind-blowing either. This was a self-proclaimed 10th anniversary tour from PB&J, but I’m not sure that really added anything to the mix. They hit some high points and had the regular PB&J energy to bring a solid show to the HOB.

The HOB actually had the back bar closed and everyone ushered into the front part of the room, and it was actually not even really crowded given that. I have to admit I was kind of surprised at the crowd size, but maybe “Young Folks” is too far away at this point and without a real buzz-y single off of their new record maybe they have become a bit forgotten in the current landscape.

When I arrived El Perro Del Mar was on stage. I enjoyed her newest album Love Is Not Pop, though it was unremarkable in some ways, and her set here had some high points (“Gotta Get Smart”) but was ultimately a fairly short set. Her whole band was essentially shrouded in darkness for the whole set and she had some basic mood lighting on her. It wasn’t quite the organic, intimate show as it was when I saw her first at Schuba’s in Chicago, so in that sense I don’t think I enjoyed it as much, but she has also gone in a little more beat-oriented direction (with Bjorn producing now) with the new album and it fits in with that for sure. She made a nice reappearance on ‘Young Folks’ later in the night as well. She once again put on a good show, but I think the venue maybe didn’t quite fit her as well as when I have seen her before.

Before PB&J came out they ran a contest for someone to come up and whistle ‘Young Folks’ with them. This was a bit odd and while a nice treat for whichever fan it was actually kind of distracting once they actually got to the song. More on that in a second.

First, they came out to Writer’s Block standout track “The Chills”. It was nice to get a song from Writer’s Block to kick it off as when we saw them at SXSW the setlist was 100% Living Thing. Not really a bad thing but there are some songs on Writer’s Block I really like. They then proceeded through a lot of material off of Living Thing, including the title track and Nothing to Worry About. Everything was well done and they had a good energy to the show, but nothing really stood out.

Towards the end of the regular set they busted out ‘Young Folks’ and it was a good performance but I think it was somewhat distracting to have the audience member up there butchering the whistling on what should have been probably a triumphant moment for the night. I can also imagine that PB&J want to kind of get away from this song though as well (as indicated by the 180 that their newest record is) so maybe this is part of a tongue in cheek distancing of themselves from their runaway hit. I don’t really know. El Perro Del Mar joined them on stage for the song, which was really nice, and added a nice group dynamic to the song though (see picture above).

After ‘Young Folks’ they played a song off of their instrumental record (which I have not heard) which was a pretty good wall of sound kind of song that had a lot of noise and jumping around within a pretty solid hook. I’m not sure it really fit into the show that well but it was nice to hear something different.

For the encore Peter kicked out a largely solo version of ‘Paris 2004′ which was kind of nice, and then they ultimately closed the show down with ‘Object Of My Affection’ which was the big, epic closing number. Now this song is a really good song and it was done really well here, but I have to admit that I was kind of disappointed they didn’t bring out the song they closed with when I saw them two years ago, the great ‘Up Against the Wall’, which was MIA in this show.

All in all, a good show, but somewhat confusing and split in different directions. I don’t know if the show really ever gelled or was that cohesive, and I don’t know if that is because of the crowd or just generally other reasons, but the show was good but not quite up to the par of when I saw them on the Writer’s Block tour or when we saw them at SXSW.

They clearly still have a great sound and a great energy but maybe it is just that the new songs don’t mesh as well with the old songs and it is too jarring to put them together or something. Anyway, they are still obviously one of the preeminent Swedish bands out there, especially with Bjorn now producing seemingly everything recorded in Sweden, and are definitely worth checking out if you get a chance.

Peter, Bjorn & John – It Don’t Move Me – From Living Thing
Peter, Bjorn & John – The Chills – From Writer’s Block
El Perro Del Mar – Gotta Get Smart – From Love Is Not Pop

1234...121314►

Check out all our past Concert Reviews here on the Concert Review Archives page!