Review by Noelle Bailey:
With Nick and Cory unable to attend Peter Bjorn and John’s scheduled Live Lunch at WFPK, I was happy to fill in. I was also a little uncertain about what my reaction to the show would be. To be honest, other than the “whistle song” that has dominated mainstream media recently, I didn’t know much about PB&J and had no idea what to expect. My first surprise came when I arrived promptly at 11:30 (when the doors to the event were set to open) to find a line halfway down the street. When I took my place in line I ended up being one of the last people allowed in. The full capacity crowd of about 70 people was buzzing with excitement to see PB&J, making me excited as well. I’m not sure how often these Live Lunches are at full capacity, but I imagined that this was a good sign.
Laura Shine from WFPK came on right before noon to inform us that the Live Lunch would be cut a little shorter than usual this week because Peter was not feeling well and wanted to save his energy for Friday night’s show. (I thought this was a bit funny. While standing outside a fellow line member asked the ticket lady how the band was doing. Her response, “Peter’s a little hungover.” On an additional side note, at the Headliner’s show that night, we were told he had the flu. Get your story straight people.) Laura informed us they would only be playing 5 or 6 songs. This ticked me off a little, but I was still ready to hear their music.
When the trio began their set all anger from the shortened set list quickly dissipated. They started off by playing “Let’s call it off” from their new album. Peter was on guitar, Bjorn was on piano and John was playing the other instruments including, the cymbals and (I’m assuming) a drum machine and generally just helped with the “sound effects”. They followed by playing Amsterdam and Paris 2004 (my new favorite song). At this point I was hooked.
Laura came on to interview the band and asked the question everyone is dying to know the answer to: “As an Indie band, how do you feel about the mainstream popularity of Young Folks?” You could tell their struggle with how to answer the question—obviously it has increased their popularity, but maybe not to the right audience. They answered simply by saying, “It’s annoying.” Laura then asked the ever important second question everyone wants to know: “Do you all actually whistle it?” Apparently, according to John, he used to whistle it but was told he wasn’t very good and that it didn’t sound good live. They went back and recorded the whistle and now play it from a sound machine. I knew it sounded too good to be true—no one whistles that well. I was pleasantly surprised later on though when John actually did whistle that part of the song. I suppose that is a perk of seeing them in such a small venue. They also gave a shout out to Victoria Bergsman, formerly of The Concretes, who is the female voice on the track. They said she has such an amazing voice that she came in and recorded the track in a half hour. Lastly, they expressed some disappointment with Kanye’s lyrics to the song and with being beat out of MTV’s Best New Artist award by Gym Class Heroes. They said, “Who here has even heard of Gym Class Heroes?”
After the interview they came back on to play Collect, Select, Reflect from their first album (which they noted is not available for sale in the U.S—except at their concerts), Young Folks, and ended with Objects of My Affection. In all, the concert reminded me of the first time I heard The National live—how I immediately fell in love with the music. I also thought that without their fancy sound machines and only one guitar, and of course with their sexy foreign accents, they were very reminiscent of The Beatles—who I also love. They reaffirmed this vision in my head when they came out at the Headliner’s show wearing retro suits and ties. (For a full review of the Headliner’s show see Cory’s post that will be up later this evening.) All in all I wish they would have played longer, but they did not disappoint me in the least. Consider me a new PB&J fan.
Set List:
- Lets call it off
- Amsterdam (John whistled)
- Paris 2004
- Collect Select Reflect
- Young Folks
- Objects of my affection
