This was meant to be a post about two concerts (Kings of Convenience and Shugo Tokumaru), but as much as I love Shugo and his quirky/weird multi-instrumental music, I loved KoC so much more that I'm just going to blog about them. Especially since KoC is a duo consisting of one of my favourite persons in music - Erlend Øye. I am sort of convinced he's a genius. I have listened to everything he's done so, yeah, I'm a little more than obsessed. And he's cute to me, regardless of what anyone else may say. OKAY I MUST STOP RAMBLING BEFORE I SEEM LIKE SOME KIND OF WEIRD FANGIRL.
Cute! Erik (left) and Erlend (right) :D
I'm really happy that the Esplanade decided to bring KoC back another time this year, because I missed it when they came in 2006. Back then, I was only a poor secondary student and had $0 to go for concerts, except free ones like Baybeats. I heard that concert was much better but, hey, this one was amazing too, so I have no complaints. Random fact, but Erik and Erlend met when they were kids at a geography contest. How dorky/cute is that!?
Not the actual version at the concert, but this was the one with the best quality!
This was my favourite segment of the night: when he sang Thirteen by Big Star. To tell the truth, it's not my favourite cover (Elliott Smith's version will always be my absolute favourite, because it's just so heartbreaking), but it was awesome because it's my favourite 'romantic' song and it was completely unexpected! I didn't think he'd do it, but I suppose it's because of Alex Chilton's (from Big Star) very recent death (RIP!). My other favourite was when Erlend danced during two songs, Singing Softly to Me and I'd Rather Dance With You, because he's adorable. But that's just my inner fangirl talking. I REALLY hate that I forgot my camera, but it's okay because people took vids.
SO JEALOUS OF THE PEOPLE AT THE FRONT. You can't really see it from the video but he climbed over the seats. I KNOW. And where was I?! ALL THE WAY AT THE SIDE.
KoC is dear to my heart because of all the memories I have with their music. There was one part, during the concert, when Erlend asked if the crowd knew their new album (Declaration of Dependence) and, when everyone cheered, he said something like "Good, I didn't want our songs to just be memories from when you were 15" or something like that. BUT THAT WAS THE CASE FOR ME.
I developed music tastes kind of late in life and their CD, Quiet is the New Loud, was one of my firsts. I used to listen to it all the time (on my old school CD player!) before school, after school, on the bus, while trying to study for my prelims/O levels. Okay, enough of walking down memory lane for now. For those of you who haven't listened to them before, YOU HAVE TO.
I'll leave you with two of my favourites from the night, Cayman Islands and Homesick (both from my favourite album of theirs!):
So what do you think of them? Let me know in the comments below!