Where the Bands Are (Lukas Graham, 10 May, 2019)

Friday night (May 10.) I attended the Lukas Graham’ concert, in Gothenburg Film Studios.

First, the venue: Gothenburg Film Studios is situated somewhat remote from downtown Gothenburg, located in an area where you primarily find office buildings and some newly built residential houses. My friend and I had to use google maps to find our way from where the bus had dropped us off. The industrial style venue, which is frequently used as a “Stay Out West” (indoor after midnight gigs) site during the Way Out West festival in August, turned to be a great setting for this show.

The show: What impressed me throughout the night, was the the energy and youthfulness of the Danish band and frontman Lukas Forchhammer, whose smooth, soulful and very characteristic vocals awed throughout the gig. The instrumentation and overall sound produced was flawless and the addition of trumpet, saxophone, and trombone was very interesting and added an element of classic soul.

Forchhammer’s personal life is the central point of many of the bands’ songs, the lyrics are about parenthood and about growing up in the marginalized community of Christiania, Copenhagen. The sequence of the four songs Mama Said, You’re Not There, Stick Around and Lullaby was introduced by the singer (in an ever so charming broken Swedish) as songs about his mum, his dad and (the last two) about his daughter. Video sequences displayed in the background help illustrate the songs.

Although the venue is quite big the set felt very intimate and Forchhammer, dressed in a pair of black jeans and a plain white tank top, told us stories in-between the songs, The audience predominantly consisted of young women in their 20s. The party standing right behind me expressed their love and appreciation so enthusiastically I would have suffered tinnitus had I not worn my earplugs.

Setlist: