Live report: Acid House Kings + The Legends @ T.T. The Bear's, Cambridge, MA 07/10/06
I'm going to preface this by saying I have been looking forward to this show for a while, as these two groups are at the top of the Swedish pop scene, and if I had the chance to see them live, I couldn't not go. The Legends took the stage about 10:40pm or so and played a very unexpectedly uptempo set, including songs such as "The kids just want to have fun," "There and back again" and "Call it ours." The band also played rocking versions of songs from the album "Public radio," and Johan introduced a few numbers as "disco-songs," and they were quite dancey and fantastic. Next up were the Acid House Kings, a band who's latest record has gotten considerable play in my auto and on my computer in the past months. Their set was also quite uptempo and danceable and they play excellent versions of "Sunday morning," "Do what you want to do" and "Tonight is forever" (with Niklas countering his brothers' introduction of "disco-song" in the pervious set with "[sic] The Legends play disco-songs, we play funk-songs." They played quite and enchanting version of "This heart is a stone" about three or four songs into the set and, over two encores, played both tracks from their 1999 seven-inch single: "We are the Acid House Kings" and their cover of "Summer loving" (although with opening verse cutely sung twice). I came into the show with high expectations, but they were just blown away by the sheer brilliance and fun of their sets, as well by the hysterical commentary and between-song banter. I also was able to chat with Niklas, Tor (from Loveninjas) and Julia throughout the night and they are all quite animated and lovely people, and that also helped to make the event even more amazing, with the only downside being that my camera-battery died before I got there. Overall, this was one of those shows that made you love the band even more.- Matt Giordano