First Aid Kit Concert

On November 17, after coming home from my sister's 50th Birthday Party Roger and I had the privilege of attending the concert of Swedish band, First Aid Kit. They are a delightful sister duo that sing pop/country/alternative fare and put on (as my niece Jesii would say) a show that was quite magical.

 Roger introduced this band to me about a year ago. He is always on the lookout for new bands and they resonated with me from the start. They are young, but seem to have a mature musical sensibility. Other artists I respect, like Jack White, took notice of them early on and they have opened for him in the past. The crowd was just delighted with the whole show and very into it. I loved the atmosphere and how these young performers were able to captivate an audience who politely and gradually pushed closer and closer to them as the show went on.

Being mostly a live vocal performer myself, I know how difficult it can be to sing in front of an audience. Things go wrong in a live performance. Forgotten words, notes may be a bit off key at times and fatigue can set in. Live performances are not perfect. Not like a studio, where you can do take after take and choose the best one and then if needed a studio technician can tweak things to make it sound fuller, more in tune or add (the all too familiar in today's popular music) auto-tune for affect. Many popular artists today sound very different from their recordings because of these factors. So, it is refreshing to hear a band that sound very close to their recording. They don't need much tweaking because the have the vocal technique in place. These girls sounded great. Not perfect, but I loved the imperfections. Nothing too obvious or way off key. Just the sound of two people singing live and doing a bang up job of it. Especially since they do tight harmonies for most of their songs. They made it look easy and above anything, they were having fun.

Above is a photo of them singing without the mics. Everyone had to be very quiet and it was one of my favorite numbers of the night. Especially when they had us join them in singing. I love how music can bring a crowd of strangers together in a very intimate way...magical.

Here is a sample of some of their vocals on one of my favorite songs they sing, Emmylou. Ivy and I sang this song for my recital this year. It was a pleasure working on this song and it holds some very dear memories for me. If you get a chance, research this band and take a listen. If they come to your town to perform, I strongly encourage you to go see them. Enjoy!