at Columbia City Theater

Jens Lekman, with his new EP An Argument With Myself out on Secretly Canadian continued his tradtion of trademark immaculate-style storytelling as he launched into the title track "An Argument With Myself," spilling the beans on a literal argument he had with himself while walking the streets of Melbourne. "Waiting For Kirsten" preceded Jen's explanation of how the song came to be with Kirsten Dunst's mention of Jens in a past interview, which led to a chance opportunity in his hometown of Gothenburg to stalk Kirsten at a hotel (but sadly, with no luck).

Jens fervently dove into his back catalogue with the classic "I Saw Her In The Anti War Demonstration" and then quickly springing into "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill." By now, many fans were swaying their hips and singing along to the chorus of "Bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp / can you the beat of my heart..." With no full band accompanying him -- a contrast compared to his past tours -- Jens introduced his lone companion on stage, drummer Addison Rogers to much applause. New songs "I Broke Up A Fight" and "Cowboy Boots" (a new one about having a dream about cowboy boots) were met with approval. And the crowd's favorites continued with "Black Cab" and "The Opposite of Hallelujah," with Jens stepping to the frontmost part of the stage mimicking the ringing of the bells at the end of the song, closing his set with "Sipping on Sweet Nectar."

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jens lekman

WOW -- this weekend (which this time we'll say started on Thursday because Thursday was *so* packed with options) will probably be voted "most packed with possibilities ever!" in this summer's yearbook.

Did anyone do a Jens Lekman double shot -- attending both Thursday and Friday? Neko Case? Metric? Camera Obscura? Jason Lytle acoustic? That's just the tip of the weekend iceburg of possibilities!

What did you do? Tell us all about it (and post or link to your photos here -- max 490 pixels width please).

Fab photo a la Josh C. To see more Jens photos, see Chelsea's Jens review with photos by Dan M. To see more weekend photos - head over to the TIG Flickr Photo Pool!

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at The Crocodile

Despite the minimal setup, Jens delivered. This is a man who loves to play live. You could tell by the vacant savant smile that projected from his oh-so-Swedish features, out over the crowd. He opened with, “I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You,” and transitioned suddenly into “The Opposite of Hallelujah.” Both songs off of Night Falls Over Kortedala got the crowd enthused as Jens ended playing air xylophone. Another testament to Jens Lekman’s love of performing was his delight in audience sing-alongs. As long as Jens was singing the audience wouldn’t shut-up. But at the last chorus of “Black Cab” he went silent and the epic scope of the song’s finale was lost as the audience failed to fill in. It was as if they realized just how tone deaf they were once Jens’ sweet, pitch perfect vocals weren’t there to drown them out.

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(photo by Laura Musselman)

Sometimes, while listening to Swedish performer Jens Lekman, I'm often frustrated. Why is he not recognized as one of the worlds' greatest songwriters? His charisma shows heavily through his beautiful melodies, like admitting that he's forgotten the joke in "A Man Walks Into A Bar" or mishearing a friend's existential plea for help in "Maple Leaves" ("But she said that we were just make believe/but I thought she said Maple Leaves"). I've long used his plaintive sense of humor mixed with his gorgeous sense of melody as a remedy to get myself out of any funk.

Tonight (and tomorrow!) at the Crocodile, he'll hopefully make a few new converts to the Believers of Jens.

(Plus, since the croc is so new and fancy... maybe they'll have air conditioning).

I hope he plays this song (probably one of my favorite songs ever).

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Justice @ Showbox Sodo 03.24.08

It's astounding how many things are going on tonight! ChrisB will be at Metric at Showbox (read his interview with them), Keenan will be at Jens Lekman (Oh sweet Jens) at the Crocodile, imaginary victoria is at Neko Case (at the Paramount), imaginary hyme is all about the Desolation Wilderness show. Even our imaginary gal in LA, CA has chimed in with a recommendation to see recent Barsuk singing artist The Wooden Birds at Chop Suey tonight.

And then there's these other show's we'd be freaking out about if the above didn't have us scattered everywhere:

* Spanish for 100 will be at the Sunset with At-The-Spine and Autolite Strike -- Word has it that the Spanish for 100 show is going to be especially killer as they have special reason to cover both old and new songs tonight
* Y'alternative crooners The Felice Brothers will be taking over the Tractor
* Even Cafe Vita is in the action with a performance tonight to raise funds for the Vera Project: Say Hi, Grant Olsen (Arthur and Yu), Mount Eerie, and Shawn Smith
* Jason Lytle of Grandaddy is going to be at the Mars Bar tonight (not a joke! He's heading over there after he opens for Neko at the Paramount)

And then there's SIFF!

Where are you headed tonight?

(Photo by Jeanine Anderson)

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Sweden's (at least to me) most darling songwriter returns to Seattle to grace us with not one, but two shows at (our favorite new/old venue) the Crocodile June 4th and 5th! We can't wait! In this economy, it'll be worth skimping to be able to afford to go at least one, if not both shows, we promise.

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Merge has done it again! For their 20th anniversary, a part of the brilliant subscriber only compilation series SCORE, the Chapel Hill label (run by none other than members of my favorite indie rock band, Superchunk) is releasing a compilation of covers of Merge bands by a ton of non-Merge artists.

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Jack Dolgen (Maricopa, Sam Champion) had a song and an idea: use his track to raise money for Barack Obama. The first song to be released from that recording project is, "Daytime," a song about bridging divides and coming together.

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Olympia's public radio masta ship KAOS has spawned a new radio show named Pining for the Fjords whose mission in life is to feature pop / folk / electronica / soul bands and artists from the Scandinavian countries -- mainly Norway and Sweden, but also Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.

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at Neumo's

So says TIG photographer Laura Musselman.

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