Last week Anthony and I caught Jens Lekman at The Scala. It was the 2nd time I’ve seen Jens - I blogged about my first Jens gig in Uppsala here, and seeing the same guy in the space of 6 months got me thinking about some things I love about live music that keep me coming back for more and more.

1. being starstruck. I rarely get that feeling, but at gigs I get it a lot. I’ve been blown away by Jens both times I’ve seen him, he’s just so charming.

2. something unique. I love the fact that his Scala show was totally different to his Uppsala show - when a musician is on the road for months on end, it still amazes me how much character and individuality each gig can have. (There are of course exceptions - I remember seeing De La Soul twice in 6 months back in the day and getting a practically identical show both times, even down to the jokes they told between songs.)

3. liking everyone a bit more. I don’t know if you have this feeling - but sometimes you can walk into a gig and the people in the queue look so different to each other and to you. It’s nice to feel that everyone from the indie kids to the people in suits straight from the bank, to the old guys with pints of ale are all there because they love Jens.

4. falling in love with a song for the first time. This time for me it was “Your arms around me”. I’d heard it before - but this time I just stood there blown away by it, wondering why I’d been so late to the party. It’s below for your listening pleasure.

5. the backstory. I LOVE it when artists tell the story behind a song when introducing it. Jens spent 5 minutes telling us the entire story to A Postcard to Nina before finally launching into it. He made me want to get on a bus to Berlin.

6. intimacy. The Scala felt just the right size for Jens right now - packed out, but still intimate. On a random note I love the way they didn’t stop people from standing on the steps, it felt like there were people on every square foot of space, but still enough room to dance.

7. An awesome support act. More about Bon Iver in another post - enough to say that I’ll be listening to a lot more by him over the next month, and catching his next London gig.

After the gig I mentioned to Anthony a few of the things off this list and he added another great one:

8. When you really appreciate the effort they’ve made to be there. Whether it’s traveling miles or getting over a fear of performance, sometimes you really feel incredibly grateful they’ve decided to play for you. He said he’d felt that really strongly recently at a Cat Power gig.

Those are some of the reasons I love live music, why do you?

Jens Lekman - Your Arms Around Me

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