Their set list oozes nostalgia
This is not your typical English summer, and this is not your typical rock concert. There is a mix of humour, honesty, and nostalgia, all of which create an intimate mood at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith on June 27th during one of the most intense heatwaves London has ever seen, writes Eugenia Sestini.
The Cardigans make a dramatic entrance to the sound of birds chirping, and after a minute or two, their frontwoman, Nina Persson, walks onto the stage wearing a jacket that won’t last more than a couple of songs. The heat doesn’t stop people from singing, dancing, and having a good time in a packed venue.
“How are you holding on?” Persson asks. The fans cheer. This is The Cardigans’ first UK gig since 2018, and people are not bothered by the heat. “This place has AC,” she promises. We try hard to believe her. She shares a trick for cooling down the body that she found useful while going through menopause. To drive the point home, she models it for the crowd, who she repeatedly calls friends.
Their set list oozes nostalgia – twenty songs from their back catalogue of hits from the Nineties and early Noughties in a balanced combination of uptempo songs such as “Rise & Shine” and ballads like “And Then You Kissed Me”, with others somewhere in between, like “You’re The Storm”. Persson moves across the stage with both grace and control. She not only provides her trademark breathy vocals and stage presence: she plays the melodica, woodblock, keyboards, and harmonica throughout the show.
Her presence, like most of her band’s songs, seems to be layered with contradictions. There is no time to settle into a particular emotional state; the set list drags our souls all over the show. Fans embrace the chaos – they are used to this combination of bleak and bubbly, sometimes within one verse. The Swedish indie band has mastered the art of making us dance with delight while spitting out troubling lyrics.
Halfway through the show, the Apollo becomes awash with pink lights while Persson announces they’ll perform the next song the way it was originally written. A bossa nova beat catches me by surprise: it’s “Lovefool”. I had expected their biggest hit to come closer to the end, but the time is now and the tempo is slow, so sickeningly sweet that the lyrics become exposed in their true tragic nature, an anthem to desperation. The crowd is bursting with excitement while holding back, embracing the band’s biggest banger but somehow moderating their enthusiasm in this toned-down version. Then, 90 seconds in, Persson says, “F*ck this” and the song restarts with its recognisable disco beat which masks the sadness behind it. Hands are in the air, people in the stalls are jumping, and the band keep the crowd on their feet with “Carnival” next.
“Erase/Rewind” was met with elation, and “Burning Down the House” never felt more apt when it came on – the Talking Heads cover song they recorded with Tom Jones landed when the temperature in the room had reached close to the 365 degrees mentioned in the lyrics. At this point there are staff members handing glasses of water to the audience – a first for me.
“Thank you for sticking it out after all this time,” she says. There’s undeniable euphoria in the air. She tells us she isn’t going to watch the sport but her guess is most people in the room are, and the band want to make sure England fans get home in time for the game so, right on cue, they close with “My Favourite Game” to a backdrop of red and white blinding lights. It is rare to come out of a gig to sunshine. But this was no ordinary gig.
Booking and full tour details: https://www.eventim.co.uk/
Booking and full tour details: https://www.eventim.co.uk/
