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review: In front of a packed house at Neumo's, as Swedish band Dungen took the stage, a time warp opened up straight back to the early 1970s. It really felt like I had traveled back to the year I was born to check out the hot new psychedelic rock act. Bandleader and singer Gustav Ejstes worked a full-on Robert Plant look with a stripey shirt, hip-huggers, and fluffy long hair. Even though Ejstes is responsible for most, if not all, of the instrumentation on Ta Det Lungt, for the first half of the show he mostly just sang, danced, shook a tambourine, and tossed his fluffy hair around. He did pull out a flute, which he said was loaned to him by someone who works at the club. That seemed a little strange to me—wouldn't a flute be the easiest instrument to bring on tour? And of course, no band can pull out a flute without the audience yelling "Aqualung!" at them. Only later, for the single "Panda," album highlight "Festival," and subsequent songs, did Ejstes strap on a guitar or play the electric piano. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like the band had been properly soundchecked, and each new instrument sent the club's sound crew scrambling.
Meanwhile, guitarist Reine sported a peasant shirt, blond pageboy hair, and handlebar mustache as he worked out his Carlos Santana-style, feedback-drenched solos, and frizzy-haired bassist Tiaz wore a patterned 70s shirt and a serious expression. The only band member not sporting a retro look was drummer Fredrik, whom I enjoyed watching because he seemed privately amused throughout the whole show. These guys are talented musicians, and it's apparent that they are really into their music.
On record, for the most part Dungen restrains the typical excesses of psychedelic rock, and my hope was that this would hold true in a live setting as well. Instead, my fears were realized, and we got a lot of extended soloing and jamming. What brought the show back to earth, though, was the complete lack of classic-rock attitude from the band. In fact, Ejstes' between-song banter was endearingly dorky and nice, and he seems like a genuinely enthusiastic and appreciative performer. The most charming moment of the night came mid-show: it was guitarist Reine's birthday, and when he was presented with a cupcake with a lit birthday candle on stage, he held it out to the audience and invited them to "blow as hard as you can." Adorable!
We were impressed with the turnout for this show. Dungen have been getting a lot of enthusiastic press, which I guess was enough to pack the house on a Tuesday night, since their recordings are all in Swedish and don't get a lot of radio airplay. We were also impressed to notice several people singing along with the band in Swedish—maybe Seattle's high Scandinavian population helped boost the turnout.
So, while I still vastly prefer Dungen on record, I'm glad we were able to catch their set and get a sense of their likable personalities, The whole time-warp experience was kind of interesting, too: in a way, I kind of felt connected to the nightclub audiences of 35 years ago, like part of the continuum of rock fans through the decades. Nobody was smoking pot for me to get a second-hand high from, I swear. (mike 10.05)
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