Review: First Aid Kit – Royal Concert Hall – 21 January 2015

The Swedish sister duo were back in Nottingham for the first time in around 4 years with songs from their current album, Stay Gold. The last time they were here, they played the Bodega and between songs, chatted to the audience about how happy they were to be back. They opened with the title track of their last album, the Lion’s Roar, and got the sell-out audience toe tapping along in their seats.  The band was energetic and lively, which almost didn’t suit the audience who were very politely listening and staying sat down.

To say there were only four people on the stage, the sound they produced was impressively big and sounded great. It was one of the best sounding gigs, technically, that I have heard from the Concert Hall in a long time. Despite this being their third album, the majority of the songs came from their most recent offering. The new material sounds great and shows just how far the sisters have come since their first record 5 years ago. They sound more in sync with each other and you can hear the difference between the older songs to the new.

The girls stepped out from behind the mics and did an entirely acoustic version of ‘Ghost Town’ a track from early on in their career. Despite the offer for the audience to sing along, you could have heard a pin drop as they performed. It was an incredible moment that showed the full power of their voices and left the audience in quiet awe. The songs keep coming from the new album and sounding great, especially the ‘Waitress Song’ and ‘Shattered and Hollow’ which are both clear favourites for the audience.

As well as their own stuff, they threw a couple of covers into the set.  The first was a cover of Jack White’s ‘Love Interruption’ which they had recently performed for BBC Radio 6. The band chatted with the audience about going on tour with White and visiting his home in Nashville, ‘Like getting a golden ticket and going to see Willy Wonka.’

A short break then the girls came back to perform their next cover, this time a version of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘America’ with a story of getting to play the song for Paul Simon at an awards ceremony and being so overwhelmed by the experience that Klara promptly burst into tears on leaving the stage. Despite a false start and a couple of forgotten lyrics, it was still beautiful and both covers showed off their strengths as brilliant musicians.

They end the night with, probably, their best known hit to date, ‘Emmylou.’ This time they do get the audience singing along and lead the audience in a couple of rounds of the chorus. Despite having three albums and an EP to pick from, the set is only an hour and a quarter.  It would have been nice to hear a few more of the earlier tracks but that is the only minor complaint from an overall incredible set from four very talented musicians.

Stay Gold is available in shops now and the sisters are on tour until 27 Jan.

Review by Emma Lane