Peter Bjorn and John
Live @ Cake Shop, NYC, 08/03/09
In town opening for Depeche Mode, the fellows Morén, Yttling and Eriksson played a special stripped-down set after their first of two dates at Madison Square Garden. Armed with just guitar, bass and drums, they brought their sound back to the beginnings of the band when rock music meant no backing tracks. It's not as though they're set quality has declined recently, in fact they've been tight and tops, but there's something about a pure rock show in a 70 capacity basement that makes it better. With material from each of their four albums and the single b-sides "(I just wanna) See through" and their cover of "Silly girl" (which was second of three covers they did), they played with brevity and seemed to be having a great time just running with it, not worrying about any mishaps. With his newfound standing set, seeing John Eriksson back behind the kit was a revelation -- I had forgotten just how amazing of a drummer he is. After playing for over 75 minutes, I left with a grin on my face and one of the best shows I've seen all year.
- Matt Giordano
