Loney Dear, The Borderline & The Fly, London, 12th July 2007

14 July 2007, 08:30 | Written by Rich Thane

(Live)

First of all, apologies if this review is a little short and lacking in detail. Also for any grammatical errors which may occur. In a total unprofessional manner I was condemned to spend the night sleeping rough in the heart of Essex that is Colchester last night. A drunken evening jetting across London on a Loney, Dear marathon culminating in your scribe passing out on the last train home and missing my stop. Nuts. Luckily though I befriended a city slicker type who had also made the same fatal error, so for the evening we became best friends whilst simultaneously making “friends” with the local nutter, who apparently knows everyone from Harrison Ford to Zammo from Grange Hill. Yikes! Never trust anyone with a tattoo of a tear on their face I always say. So I survived an evening in Blurs hometown to bring you this rather sketchy account of last nights shenanigans, which led to not one, but two performances from our favourite Swedish indie minstrel Loney, Dear.

Kicking things off at The Borderline was the quite frankly sublime Emmy The Great who mixes stark, and sometimes shocking lyrical content with scratchy folk. Her poetic charm easily outweighed her musical ability, and that was half the appeal. Amazing stuff. Unlike Christiansilva, who came across as a not very good Athlete which is a skill in itself as, lets face it, Athlete are a bit rubbish.

Next up were Loney, Dear who, as always, bring smiles to the entire audience. Their constant touring schedule has turned them into such a tight live band they almost become psychic to each others playing. Dropping in a new song or two amongst the regular crowd pleasers The City, The Airport and Saturday Waits the band won the entire crowd over, as they always do.

So enamored with their performance, myself and fellow TLOBF’er Rich Hughes decided to skip headliners The Silent League (nothing personal, it was a tough decision) and hop in a taxi with the Loneys and cut across town to The Fly venue where Loney, Dear’s new label, Regal, were putting on an evening of entertainment. Quickly setting up the gear, and with no soundcheck, they kicked straight off with an older song from debut album The Year Of River Fontana. The band yet again transformed a room of grumpy looking indie kids into giddy children. If they could only bottle the good vibes they send out, they’d make an absolute fortune.

By this point, I’m too drunk to remember what songs were played. My remaining memory of the set is a spell binding encore, with a solitary Emil Svanängen trying out a new song with a little help from the audience humming the opening note. Full band or acoustic, Emil’s songs new or old never fail to amaze me.

The set ends, and memories are sketchy. We drank, danced and chatted and the band proved themselves not only to be one of the finest live acts around but some of the nicest musicians I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with. The perfect hosts.

The rest of this review will be told in picture form as I wander off to try and find a darkened corner of the office to fall asleep.