Promoting their new album “Breaking Point” Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn, and John’s tour stopped at the Fine Line Thursday night.
Starting the evening was Minneapolis’ Whosah. The 5-piece made up of Spencer, Dallas, Dave, Mack, and Nate is just the band for the job to get the crowd in a great mood moving. Their musical style is indie pop and they do it quite well. Their stage presence is lively and their sound synthy and upbeat. At one point singer Spencer thanked the crowd for their “genuine sounding applause”. Their current album is “Work” and they are working on new material.
Peter, Bjorn and John took to the stage to the synth intro of “May Seem Macabre” and had the crowd engaged within seconds. While it has been 5 years since their last album, they did not let any rust gather. They sounded tight and seemed to have as much fun on stage as the audience did. Singer Peter (with a helpful name tag on his jumper) was happy to be in Minneapolis since there were many people “who used to be Swedes” and his accent probably reminded many in the crowd of their grandparents. The crowd itself was a good mix of younger and older showing the wide appeal Peter, Bjorn and John’s music has.
“Breaking Point” has some very cool background vocal effects mixed in; and Peter took the time to visit with fans off stage while singing a bit later. Their set list was heavy towards their new material with their big hits saved for the encore. Lights were heavy towards backlit and with the smoke and synth sounds created a floating, immersive vibe that worked really well. Being a fan of the band for years (even the German translation of “Young Folks” sung by the guys from Trio (Da, Da, Da) and 99 Red Balloons singer Nena) it was very cool to see them live for the first time and I really enjoyed their show.
Set List: May Seem Macabre / What You Talking About? / Breakin’ Point / A Long Goodbye / It Don’t Move Me / Amsterdam / Paris 2004 / Do-Si-Do / Eyes / Dig a Little Deeper / Dominos / Objects of My Affection Encore: It’s Your Call / Young Folks / Second Chance / I Know You Don’t Love Me