Chad Hartigan

This new initiative to see more concerts is proving itself to be quite rewarding. On Saturday night, Tara and I walked down to Spaceland to catch Loney Dear perform for a scant $10. I had thought it would be sold out since they’ve gotten some ink on Pitchfork and they opened for Andrew Bird on their previous trek across the United States, but it was only about three quarters full. Everyone else’s loss. Looking a bit like Vincent D’Onofrio in Men in Black (sounds like an insult but it’s not), lead singer Emil Svanängen simply owned the stage and the crowd from the first minute. The four members of his band jumped around different instruments and synthesizers, all while serving as a chorus of “oohs” and “ahs” that frequently appear as the climax to his songs. Emil is Swedish and charming and charmingly Swedish, illiciting as many laughs from on stage banter as swoons from his heartbreakingly sincere lyrics and melodies. These guys should be big.

The video below is for their first single off the new record, “Dear John”.