Abramis Brama and Sgt. Sunshine- Bodini, Malmö, Sweden 1/4/08
From Aural Innovations #39 (May 2008)
This was the first concert of 2008 on a fucking cold and windy night in Sweden. Magnus, Tom, Nils, Jens and I drove over in my car. Magnus and I stayed the night at Tobias’s new house, which was really cool. Anyway, when we got to the venue about 10:30 with Tobias, all the others were pretty happy and a lot of our friends were there as well (Ola, Inzect, Kaufmann, Patrik, etc), and it was so nice to see and talk with the Sgt. Sunshine guys again. I think they hit the stage about 11:30 and sadly only played for 35 minutes, but it was cool to hear some of these songs from the first record as well as a lot of the old songs that they did not release. Sound was great and besides the band not playing together in like 4 years, it sounded fresh. They played a little too hesitantly. You could feel they were still feeling each other out and not really that confident yet to really let the music fly! So no real jamming at all.
Setlist: Beneath the Song, Golden Dawn, Wings, Death (like a friend in Breath), Northern Lights, Caress the Tease, Culebra
It took a while to remove all the Sgt. Sunshine gear and set up the Abramis Brama gear but people were pretty psyched up and feeling drunk by now. I guess about 75 people were at the show, maybe 100. Abramis rocked! They basically played their live album, which disappointed me a bit. This is the same set of songs they have been playing for years now. I know they have an albums worth of new stuff and an extra lead guitar player in the band now (who could not make this gig sadly). Anyway, a powerful singer with great stage presence and they know how to rock. November with a little bit of steroids and a stoner rock feel thrown in. Again, it was pretty lame as the headline band to play under 1 hour including the encore. Come on guys. You have 5 fucking records and can’t play more than an hour??? What if you paid to see your favorite band and they play under an hour??? The band will record half their new record in February so look for a new one in 2008!
Set List: Svart, Vad Jag Ser, Kylan, Kejsarn, Bilder, Långsamt, Motala, Ville Inte Veta, Mjölk & Honung, ??
Reviewed by Scott Heller