Club 8 & Pelle Carlberg @ KLPAC, 25.1.08

Concert-deprived Malaysia has been longing for some decent international live music and the night has come true with the arrival of swedish twee pop duo, Club 8 and singer-songwriter, Pelle Carlberg.

I attended this Labrador Asia Tour on Friday with a friend. An early depart to KLPac had us waiting for more than two hours, but it paid off as we managed to meet Pelle before show, who seems to be very friendly. At 8.30pm, the door opened and we got ourselves first row, just right in front of the stage. Local bands Ferns and Couple were first up opening for the two headliners. They warmed up the crowd with their brand of power pop by playing a set of 4-5 songs each and the audience seemed to enjoy them quite a bit.

As the light went off, Johan Angergård appeared on the stage with a full line up of band, followed by the lovely Karolina Komstedt. After a brief introduction of themselves, the band kicked off the show with 'Cold Hearts'. During the second track 'Heaven', the bassist faced some technical difficulties with his bass guitar and had it changed, before drowning us back into their wonderfully Scandinavian pop melodies. The set consists of 14-15 songs, those I can recall are crowd-favourite 'Whatever You Want', 'Football Kids', 'London', 'Love In December' and 'Jesus Walk With Me'.

Karolina seemed to be rather shy on stage with her soft spoken voice. She contributed the sound of harmonica during the track 'Boyfriends Stay' while Johan injected a different element into the rather peaceful set, playing the rock number 'Saturday Night Engine' during the encore. Things seemed to be a little held back by the flawed sound system but nevertheless, the same groovy, melancholy sound of the band is still there without the loss of any of the heart, soul, and overall fun that characterise Club 8's modern Swedish pop.

After a short interval, Pelle Carlberg appeared on the stage with his band. Pelle is really an energetic and charismatic singer, playing some beatiful guitar riffs while doing dance moves along the way. Tracks played include hits from his latest album - 'Go To Hell Miss Rydell', 'Crying All The Way To The Pawnshop', 'Middleclass Kid', 'I Touched You At The Sound Check', 'Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Mucher More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls' as well as some old materials of his former band, Edson. There is a swing to his music that really got the crowd going. At some points, Pelle explained the meanings of his songs which mostly revolve around situations in his life as a pop artist. The audience was pretty much amused by the imaginative and witty lyrics.

The climatic 'Pamplona' was one of the highlights of the show where everyone was singing along to the catchy 'Na na na na' part as requested by Pelle himself. He also did a wonderful cover of The Darkness’s I Believe In A Thing Called Love with only his acoustic guitar as accompaniment. Duet track 'I Love You, You Imbecile' was the closing piece where Club 8 appeared on stage again to give a hand on vocal and instruments. The show ended off with the band thanking and bowing to the crowd.

Videos:
'Pamplona'

'I Love You, You Imbecile'

Surprisingly there was an autograph session held after that. Pretty weird for some indie bands to do something that normally only pop stars do.

I had an enjoyable night, and money was well spent. I went in not knowing much about the two Swedish acts and emerged a fan after that.