Saturday 10 October 2009

There was a guy with a fez in Berns last night (as Nouvelle Vague performed)

Indeed, one of the things one comes across here in Stockholm is the.. well, good fit. By that I mean that come a concert by Nouvelle Vague - the saviour of French music - the venue had been tuned up to make it a memorable night.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the event due to the laundry incident earlier that day.

The venue

Berns in Berzelii Park was offering, at least ambiance-wise, everything one can hope. Massive chandeliers floating in red mist, fragrant air and sumptuously ornamented theater gets one in the mood for some 60's style bossa nova interpretations of new wave punk and country tracks. Getting the audience in the mood worked very well. As an appetizer before the gig, the DJ played some tasty French pieces from the 60's to modernity, including stuff from Serge Gainsbourg. Try >>this.



Picture: Serge you old hound!

The band

This is the second time I see Nouvelle Vague live. Tripod in Dublin (a venue that is originally the old Harcourt Street train station) was the scene of the previous encounter, and NV was playing the last gig of the tour. The other singer had a pint of whiskey to celebrate that, but she did give it away to a member of the audience eventually. The gig was memorable, and Tripod is a good venue, but Berns wins because of the ambiance side and the exemplary attention to details. This is crucial in creating a memorable event.

NV performed energetically, the girls giving to bouts of wild dancing and.. er, moshing at times. Also, the legendary Dead Kennedys track "Too Drunk to F***" was used as a high point of the show (as was done when I previously saw them in Dublin) with some naughty chatting with the audience and goading the audience to yell the keyword.

The people

Crowd was very international. Whereas in Dublin the audience mainly comprised people in their early 20's, hipsterite students mostly, at Berns it was another story. Many nationalities were represented, and all ages as well. Some old radicals/francophiles/whatnot appeared in their striped shirts and kavajs appeared and we could also see some 60's style dancing and even some bump'n'grind-type of action from an woman representing the over-the-50-yrs demographic. Some wild stuff it was back in the day, I reckon. Also the type of the venue, its restaurant and club and close location to the posh sictrict of Östermalm showed in a troupe of fashion victims. I think I saw a Kylie Minogue. Except that she was more beautiful than Kylie. But very serious indeed with the tastefully hot outfit and those very high heels. Only in Sweden. All in all, an interesting crowd.

And yes, there was a guy with a fez. In a white suit. With a scarf, no less. Monocle, anyone? I was saying earlier something about how everything was tuned to fit well into the occasion and create a mood for the experience. This was an example when this goes too far. Is this the colonial Algeria? Going about the place all blasé? That's an Östermalm Douche Award- performance? No, seriously, got to appreciate when people put some effort to it. Its so rare otherwise. Grey mass. My thanks goes to, as always, to all who want to give an input to the night.

3 comments:

  1. Hello!
    Thank you for your comment!
    So now I get to see who's been reading me in Sweden! I haven't had the time to read much of your weblog yet, but I will read it.
    It seems like you have plenty of interesting posts, and it's quite interesting to see what goes on in Sweden, since I've been wanting to go there myself.
    By the way, where are you based in Sweden?
    Kippis!

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  2. Sorry ... is Kippis Finnish for "cheers" ?
    You wrote "cheers" and I wanted to write the same, but I don't know if that's the way to use the word in Finnish.

    Anyway, take care! :)

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  3. Hi, thanks for your comments as well! Kippis is cheers, yes :)

    I've been keeping this blog an an open diary, if you will, just recording stuff that has come up.

    Hope you are having good time there, take care!

    ReplyDelete