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Jaymay has honed her stage patter after being on the road for months (we last saw her six months ago with Okkervil River and she’s seemingly been circling Europe ever since). She has a voice that marks her out from all the other New York singer-songwriters and songs of a rare intensity: the way she strikes the strings during ‘Blue and Grey’ conveys all the confusion of a relationship not running smooth.
The sold out Scala seems to be packed with giants so when the three piece Bon Iver sit down (OK, so the drummer has to…) it’s difficult for many people to see. But hearing’s a different thing; the band start with a quiet intensity on songs like ‘Flume’ and ‘Skinny Love’ then get raucous as Justin Vernon swaps steel for electric guitar. ‘Blindsided’ and ‘Creature Fears’ are shrieking and feedbacky, the wall-of-sound effects filling every nook of the Scala. The story behind the making of For Emma, Forever Ago might have put you in mind of a quiet recluse but he’s anything but, inspiring audience participation on ‘The Wolves’. It’s a blinding gig, taking the recorded version of the songs to another level.
The sound is criminally bad but the crowd would be just as excited if Jens Lekman were gargling custard through a megaphone full of marbles. It’s strange how, after you’ve been watching someone play live for years in your city, you notice that the audience is enhanced by waves of new fans and new behaviours; indie shuffle is replaced by rugby club dancing, older couples stand next to the young mavens. But it’s the same old Jens: the dry banter with the crowd, the humour in the songs (the wonderful beginning to ‘Postcard to Nina’), and all those broken-hearted songs with infectious rhythms. ‘Sweet Summer’s Night On Hammer Hill’ shows that he’s oriented towards both Jonathan Richman and Martha Reeves while his new use of samples makes ‘Maple Leaves’ sound like the Go Team and he cutely mixes ‘Give Me Just A Little More Time’ by Chairman of the Board into ‘The Opposite of Hallelujah’. The presence of a 7 piece backing band gives Jens the freedom to dance things up tonight, throwing in what appears to be a Swedish conga, but he starts and finishes with more introspective songs, calming things down with a final encore of Arthur Russell’s ‘A Little Lost’, accompanied just by his kalimba and the girls of the string section. It’s a tender end to a memorable night – one that satisfies the new fans as well as the old. One to remember when he’s playing bigger though not better venues in the future.
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