Yesterday I only had to look at the audience to understand that things change. The staff at the venue Mejeriet had set up round tables with lighted candles to create a more intimate atmosphere. Unfortunately, it rather felt like I attended an awkward after work. It is not intimate when the closest table is placed ten meters away from the stage. The venue felt empty, there were at most eighty people in the crowd.
Isobel played mostly songs from her latest album The Ballad of Broken Seas. In other words duets. Luckily, we were spared Mark Langegan. Instead Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines stood next to Isobel. Eugenie looked a bit like Morrissey and they both probably had their best years at the same time - in the 80's.
Time Is Just the Same was the only greatly performed song in the regular set. Fortunately, there was an encore. For once it did not consist of hits saved for the end of the concert. Isobel told us to sing along and then sat down in her chair while picking up her cello. Apparently it was a song in Swedish. Isobel performed the Finnish-Swedish traditional folk song Who Can Sail Without Wind (Vem kan segla förutan vind) with a pronunciation very similar to Finnish, and for the first time in the evening it felt really charming.
Before the final song, Isobel said that people at her concerts usually do not know who Eugene is. I suspected what was going to happen. As expected, The Vaseline's old pop hit Son of a Gun was played, and it sounded really good. Isobel's voice can lift any song.
Six out of Ten
(Originally published on May 25, 2006)
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