Peter Bjorn and John @ Beck'sVerandah, Perth (22/2/2007)

Fri 23rd Feb, 2007 in Gig Reviews

Ever heard 500 people whistling the same tune at once? Didn’t think so. When Peter Bjorn and John, the band known for “that song with the whistling”, kicked off their Australian tour at Beck’s Verandah, that exactly what you got. But with any band with just one hit single, there’s going to be a huge amount of expectation and anticipation for that one song, which could ruin the performance completely.

Someone forgot to send that memo to Peter Bjorn and John. For an hour and a bit, the Swedish trio raced through almost the entire contents of last year’s Writer’s Block in a fashion that made every track sound like a hit.

The set began with Roll the Credits and Let’s Call it Off and, as the band members introduced themselves as, surprise surprise, Peter (Morén, guitar), Bjorn (Yttling, bass) and John (Eriksson, drums), it didn’t take long for the crowds to warm to their sound. Though Yttling handled vocals on the early tracks, as the set progressed it was Morén who emerged as lead singer; Yttling’s smooth, sexy harmonies filling the role of backing vocalist ideally.

Despite the anticipation for the big hit, the highlights of the set were the points at which the band scaled their songs back and rebuilt them completely differently. 15 minutes in, The Chills was stripped of all its retro-pop naïveté and then reworked as a sex-driven disco tune with electronic drums, pulsating basslines and sporadic guitar noise. Amsterdam’s treatment was the polar opposite – simple guitar picking replacing the precise arrangements of the version on record. As the band introduced the track, Yttling joked about forgetting the vocals, which, two minutes later, he did, and drew the biggest cheer of the night when he improvised his way to the finish line.

Young Folks had to come. And when it did, there was a nice surprise for the fans. Bekk Reczek, vocalist from The Bank Holidays, was introduced to her home crowd before singing the half of the duet originally by Victoria Bergsman. Both Reczek and Morén looked perfectly at home alongside one another as they traded vocals in verses and harmonised in choruses. With 500 mouths whistling 2006’s catchiest hook, all four faces on stage were beaming from the audience’s response.

The show could have ended after Young Folks and everybody would have gone home happy. But with the mood in the crowd and on stage at a high, Morén, Yttling and Eriksson took things up a notch or two, firing into energetic renditions of Objects of My Affection and Up Against the Wall. In the former, Morén bounced around the stage like a 12-year-old with ADHD, while in the latter, Morén and Yttling moved forward and drew the song out way beyond its usual seven minutes from the speaker stacks in front of the stage.

Rejoining us for a spirited sing-along on Big Black Coffin and a frenzied cover of Television Personalities’ Silly Girl, Peter Bjorn and John had long since earned their bed and board. Well aware of this, the crowd knew they were getting something special and rousing applause met every word uttered by the band. If the band’s east coast shows draw this kind of response, Peter Bjorn and John will be back for another tour in no time at all.

Click here to see photos from the show.