A night out in Malmö

Never underestimate the appeal a man with no face can have on a bunch of girls at a rock concert.

On Friday night we answered David's (a Mexican classmate of mine) call to go to Malmö where he lives for a pre-party and a concert by a friend of his at a local club.

The pre-party started after a sauna session I had with Max and Eric, setting the tone of the evening to "relaxed." At David's house we had popcorn, listened to The Doors and had a few chilled beers.

Every now and then David screamed in his trademark fashion to increase general excitement. David's screams are something like how I would sound if you poured a kettle of boiling water on my back...for him its just pure positive energy though :)

David had promised to go see one of his friends perform at Debaser, a club just near the Malmö city amusement park. We got there just as she was finishing her last song and thanking the crowd for listening. Whoops.

The next band were sort of lame...a local Swedish rock band called "If they ask, tell them we're dead." The sound guy was paying no attention to them, so that didn't help: their lead singer was completely inaudible and the backing vocalist was incredibly loud, so it sounded sort of crap. Maybe if they had been properly amped up, they would have sounded better: I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

After a bit of DJ filler the next band with the man without a face came on. They were called Maps & Atlases. The lead singer/guitarist had such long hair coming out of his head (on the back and the front) that you could barely see any skin. Then he was wearing massive glasses so you couldn't really see his eyes. Imagine a nose emerging from a bush of hair...holding a guitar.

This band played what I later found out to be "math rock" because of its complicated rhythms. Actually they were quite good and the crowd was dancing. Maps & Atlases come from Chicago and are doing their first tour in Europe. See the video below for the song that they opened the set with. (note that his hair in this video isn't as long.)



After the concert I went to check out that desk where they sell CDs. There was an EP for 20 kr (about $4) and I wanted to support the band without shelling out $20 that I don't have to spend so I bought it instead of the LP.

I was dragged back stage by David to go speak to these fellas and I casually mentioned to the hairy guy that I bought his album and showed it to him. He informed me that I had bought the CD of the band who opened for them. That was a bit of a laugh.

We chatted about how they had come along in the US. I informed him that I'd never heard of him before, but he wasn't surprised. In the end his manager came in trying to act all tough and kicked us out. I wished hairball good luck on his tour.