The Post-Rockist

Peter Bjorn and John, ft. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
The Pageant
St. Louis, MO: Aug. 7, 2007

The black-and-white “PETER BJORN AND JOHN BACKDROP” faded to black, while the pentatonic Asian riff of “Young Folks” was played out on a pre-recorded sitar. Before long, the PETER BJORN AND JOHN BASS DRUM began to kick, and the respective PETER BJORN AND JOHN bass and guitar amps opened into the elementary pop sophistication of “Let’s Call it Off,” complimented with an edge of distortion and Peter Morén’s Swedish swagger, giving the song an overall rock’n'roll vibe that was not entirely present on the version on Writer’s Block.

In fact, the whole opening looked quite a bit like this:

Except that it wasn’t at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. This show took place at the Pageant in St. Louis, which is the first venue I’ve been to in a long time that didn’t appear to be in violation of numerous health codes, sported a security staff that unflinchingly grabbed at any suspicious bulges in your pants, and actually physically cordoned off the boozers from the minors. But I had just moved to St. Louis over the weekend and all of this was new to me. In fact, I may have missed the show entirely if it weren’t for the free weekly alternative paper, The Riverfront Times, interviewing Björn Yttling, who stated, among other things:

“We decided on this record we didn’t want any tambourines,” Björn says. “We were kind of fed up with tambourines. People always push the tambourine on the chorus of the song, they record with maybe no thought behind it. Maybe we ourselves did that before, so we were bored with the tambourine thing and wanted more maracas.”

This quote kept coming back to me during the show, because I couldn’t help but think that the opening band, the Missourians Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, were deliberately trying to tick off Yttling. While both bands share an affinity of clean, melodic indie pop and an unthinkable disdain for proper comma useage, SSLYBY splits from PB&J with their unhealthy fixation on the tambourine. There was one man in the band whose sole function was to stand, unmoving, and just handle tambourine duty. Poorly, at that. And if perchance one of the guitar players had nothing to play on a particular song, he too would pick up a tambourine, thus doubling the presence of totally unnecessary tambourine. This is not to say their performance was bad; in fact, quite the opposite. Their smart, innocent songs reminded me of a Midwestern Death Cab. But while Boris Yeltsin played up the earnest angle, Peter Bjorn and John came out as poised and sure-footed as bona fide rock stars.

The show, as I was saying, was a rocker. “Far Away, By My Side,” off of 2005’s Falling Out, had all the energy of garage rock-period Phantom Planet, while the skittery rhythms of “The Chills” were transformed into an extended post-punk bruiser, complete with brooding, motorik drumming and aggresive, angular guitars (for reference, watch this video). Despite the high energy, or perhaps because of it, the slower moments turned out to me some of the more memorable. For example, the song “Amsterdam,” which on the album features clunky hip-hop percussion and Devo-ish textures, was played live like a quiet ballad, with Yttling’s Euro-baritone carrying the melody, accompanied by Morén delicately on the guitar, like John Frusciante’s intro to “Under the Bridge” (see a similar video here).

The highlights, predictably, were “Young Folks” and “Objects of My Affection.” The former, having become so ubiquitous lately that even Kanye has incorporated it into his latest mixtape and live show, was enough to send the crowd into a frenzy at the mere sight of the bongo drums, even if there was no Victoria Bergsman harmonies. While the latter managed to close down the house on an explosive note, with Morén’s glassy guitar turned up to the proverbial 11.

The encore, although anti-climatic, was the appropriately titled “Roll the Credits.”

-Posted by Todd