Report: Rockfeedback @ iTunes Festival Night 13 Peter, Bjorn & John, 13/7/09
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By: Alex Lee Thomson
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This year, Rockfeedback is delighted to be the official blog partner for the rather exciting iTunes Festival, taking place at London’s Roundhouse every night in July. Over the course of the festival, we’ll not be missing a night, delivering morning-after reports on everyone from Oasis and Bloc Party to Franz Ferdinand and Kasabian playing intimate sets to fans lucky enough to have won tickets to the shows.
Some bands are such an enigma you’re not sure what you’re going to get from them live. Peter, Bjorn and John’s rare UK touring has led to the majority of fans not having a clue what the Swedish pop trio could be spoiling us with at the iTunes Festival, their dissenting euro-pop style folk, mashed with electro being a difficult recipe to imagine plated up in front of you.
They open on a bouncy, showy intro of bijou vocals and Gary Numan influenced, dirty, keys rolling around in the proverbial hey of grimy yet fantastically bubblegum pop tweeness. There’s a certain naivety to them, a charming Butlin’s Red Coat sense of showmanship and a “let’s get the crowd clapping” ethos. They battle through their new album’s title track ‘Living Thing’, making a mountain out of the weird bleeps that the song throws off every now and again, rattling it through the huge Roundhouse venue like an MGMT afterthought. The vaudevillian antics of Peter Moren, colourfully making the most of the big stage this trio have become accustomed to, seems so exaggerated for their finale; the song people love to whistle, but hate having whistled at them.
‘Young Folks’ may have been played on the radio more times than ‘Candle in the Wind’ circa 1997 in the past year or so, but the Writers Block classic is still an absolute joy to hear. The lighting turns tee-total and the windy riff begins as a wave of recognition rinses over everybody, especially those who had no idea who sang the DIY commercial’s soundtrack. The crowd turns impulsive as the band plays the situation very nonchalant, very cool. Almost too cool. Nobody does pop like the Swedish; that ability to be epically tongue in cheek and ludicrously catchy. Both precious and dark. They topple the song and leave the iTunes Festival in a cloud of praise.
Artists in this article: Peter Bjorn & John
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