The Sounds
IN CONCERT!

Ben Fee

Sweden’s most danceable quintet gives America one last chance to shake it before they head home.

With more than 75 globe-spanning shows under their belts since late March, the Sounds have been charging forward on the heels of their latest release, Dying To Say This To You, with the ferocity and energy of a starving band on the brink. Frontwoman Maja Ivarsson even made time to join the emolectrical supergroup Cobra Starship to record the single, “Snakes On A Plane (Bring It)” this spring.

By the striking look of these Swedes, it was impossible to tell they had been bound to the arid Warped Tour for the previous four weeks. The group appeared to be quite the fashionistas, brimming with manicured rock chic, which was peeled off as the night went on. As they dove into their first track—the happily tear-jerking break-up jam “Night After Night”—it was barely enough to overpower the screams of their cacophonously ecstatic fans. For their third stop in southern California this year, The Sounds played to a sold out crowd at the Wiltern Theater in LA, largely due to MySpace messages and letters from loyal fans begging for another bout. Californians apparently had yet to tire of these attractive music makers. It seemed that all those Sounds-o-philes showed up, words from the new album memorized, ready to kiss their voices goodbye.

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Maja and company blazed through a couple new tracks before dipping back into their older catalog, and skillfully paced the setlist between favorites, newbies, and even the obscure “Goodbye ‘70s,” all the while keeping the crowd dancing the entire show. The only noticeable downfall to the evening was clear early on—as soon as the audience began dancing. The Wiltern is a great old theatre, complete with a balcony section and a pit for the orchestra. It would be a perfect place to sit and observe a live play, but for the mass of bodies that converged to see Scandinavia’s biggest export since The Hives, relaxing was the last thing they wished for. Those who stood up and made the effort to find some space to move or the fortunate few who had access to the pit up front, however, were in for a solid evening of happy rock n roll bliss.

Felix Rodriguez, the half-Chilean (making him the darkest member) six-stringer slaughtered the stage, running back and forth releasing remnants of his clothing to the souvenir-crazed girls up front. While as a collective The Sounds are an infectiously melodic jukebox of songs, and equally impressive in person as on disc, it’s Maja who carries their live show. She is a tiny delicate cherry bomb of a warrior who commands the stage like the tour-child of Joan Jett and David Lee Roth. The described vixen came out in a tiny black skirt, asymmetrical platinum hair and an oversized sweater that hung off her shoulder. Every cell phone and digital camera was out trying to capture the moments when she would hike her skirt up and kung-fu kick her black underwear into plain view. Her moxie, agility and beauty allowed her to walk the finest line between pop queen, hyper-sexual performance artist and growling badass.

Seven songs into their twenty song set—the most extensive of their career to date—the group took a short intermission, during which a giant screen came down with a somewhat out-of-place artsy animation. As the confounding media ended with a scratchy square character playing piano, the silhouette of Jesper Anderberg could be seen behind the trasparency exhibiting his years of classic training on the ebony and ivory. While the screen rolled up he segued into the slow-dance version of the show’s opener, “Night After Night.” It is the band’s first stab at a ballad and one of the few songs where a real piano is used in place of the favored synthesizer. The earnest fragility in Maja’s voice was audible as she quaked between her raspy pleas and light choruses. It was a decent unexpected straying from their tempo, but when they jumped into the head-bobbing call-and-response, “Hurt You,” everybody was happy to put away their lighters.

The second half of the main set was a rapid climb upwards to the arguably best couple songs from Living In America, “Fire” and “Rock N Roll.” For the latter a giant disco ball was lowered to reflect soft bouncing bubbles across the otherwise pitch black interior. The mood was only heightened when glowing ethereal flakes drifted from overhead onto the musicians below.

After over 90 minutes of absolutely rocking the stage raw it would have been no surprise or let down for The Sounds to bid the audience “god natt” until next time. When they bursted back on for the encore with their thunderous calling card, “Living In America,” The crowd pulled out their third winds to keep it alive, and alive they kept it. When last song was called before “Hope You’re Happy Now,” everyone turned it up to 11 and thrashed like there was no tomorrow.

The mass of concert-goers milled about once the lights came up and laughed about how sore they were going to be the next day from dancing so hard, while others couldn’t believe how amazing the band sounded, and even more spoke of how good Maja looked jumping around and slapping her butt on beat atop the bass drum towards the end of the show. Good moods were the common denominator as everyone’s night began to close outside the old theatre’s doors. It is a shame that The Sounds aren’t living in America, because if they were, a whole lot of people would be smiling and dancing a whole lot more.

ANDREW Petterson, 24, Boise, ID: Maja is a complete knockout. She has the best stage presence ever.

Joe Prebich, 22, Eveleth, MN: I have no ass because of The Sounds–I just danced it off.

SET LIST AT THE WILTERN, LA.

Night after Night