The Cardigans will be playing at Ruisrock Festival in Finland, July 6th-8th, 2012.
The Cardigans will also play in Moscow, Russia July 11, 2012.
A summary:
Hultsfred festival, Hultsfred, Sweden, June 14-16, 2012
Ruisrock festival,Finland, July 6-8, 2012
Moscow, Russia, July 11, 2012
Butka Open Air festival, Tromsö, Norway, July 19, 2012
As a preface, I have seen the Cardigans in Providence, Rhode Island February 1997 (picture of Magnus and I)
and in Dallas May 1997 (picture of Nina and I)
At the Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark in July 2003
and at Kulturbolgat, Malmö Sweden October 2003
and lastly at the House of Blues in Las Vegas in August 2004. Needless to say, I’m a huge Cardigans fan. I have been a so-so fan of A Camp. They’re certainly a talented band but I wasn’t entirely sold on the side project. After seeing them live, I’ve changed my opinion. They are enjoying themselves immensely by getting to play songs that they want to play.
The show was at Kilby Court in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had never been to this venue before. When my wife and I were driving around, trying to find the place – we thought we had missed something. In order to get to the venue, you had to go down a long alley and take a left. A Camp’s bus was parked there and as we got closer, I could see that Nathan Larsson was just sitting on a porch of the house next to the venue chatting with some fans.
We got our hand stamped and went into the “venue”. It was a courtyard to a tin shack where they would be playing. I’m not exaggerating. I walked in to the tin shack and all the instruments were set up to play. There were two other people there already. It was almost like having A Camp play in your living room. I thought to myself that it was going to be us 4 for the entire night. I was a bit embarrassed for Salt Lake City and wondered what the band would think of the low turnout. Even though the “venue” could hold 100 people max…..
People started to trickle in and finally Gentleman Reg came on as the warmup band. They actually weren’t that bad of a band. They had some serious sound problems due to the venue. There were a couple of songs that were actually decent.
At about 9:10 PM, A Camp came on the stage. I am literally standing 2 feet away from them. It is seriously weird to be that close. There were probably 50-60 people at this point. A Camp launched into “The Crowning”. I was amazed at how good they sounded live. Niklas Frisk is an incredible guitar player.
Nina at one point said “We haven’t been to Salt Lake City since 10 years ago when I was with my other band, the Cardigans.” Now – this is impossible, there is no way they’ve played in SLC without my knowing it. I wonder if she meant that they stopped there on their tour for a rest or something?
Nina also commented “It’s like we’re all camping!” which wasn’t that far from the truth. Nina Persson, global pop star with the Cardigans, playing in a tin shack in an alley in Salt Lake City.
The second song was “Love has left the room”, which is just another really good live song.
My other favorites were “Chinatown” (what a great guitar riff), I Can Buy You, and Stronger than Jesus.
They played 16 songs total for about an hour and a half. Nathan announced to the crowd that they would be available for autographs after the show.
There was a bit of a line, but my wife and I waited our turn. Just as we were coming up, the guy three people in front of us handed Nina a cell phone to talk to his friend. By the time she was finished, she only had time for a quick picture and we had to move on.
In any case, it was a great show and I was glad to be able to see them in my own hometown. Judging by the turnout, I doubt A Camp / Cardigans will be coming back to Salt Lake City anytime soon.
PS The best part is there was a guy there recording the show in HD video. Will post it once we get our hands on a copy.
A Camp is in North America now for their tour. They recently performed for WFMU, which is an independent freeform radio station broadcasting at 91.1 fm in the New York City area.
Here is the full 4 song set list, all in HD.
Love has Left the Room
Stronger than Jesus
The Crowning
Psycho (cover) – Originally by Eddie Noacks, then Elvis Costello
First a disclaimer – live bootlegs should never be substituted for buying the official album from an artist. If you love the Cardigans, go buy the album!
That being said, Yann has posted some Cardigans bootlegs for download on his blog.
