When First Aid Kit took the stage at the Paradise last Monday, the world fell into order. The Swedish duo– sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg– are riddled with such unmatched folky prowess that the tightness of their harmonies and the passion of their instrumentation left the audience no option, but to be floored by their performance. The sisters’ voices rose and fell together, entwined in the most intricate and inseparable of harmonies, like a single entity of inexplicably plural sound. The guitar strums, keyboard hits, and solid, rolling, drums compelled every song in a forward motion, the power-folk soundtrack of a journey that you believe must succeed. From the heartening and sweet “Emmylou” to the melancholy “Ghost Town,” their musical talent was beautifully showcased and widely absorbed.
The band gained fame in the US after a video of the two nymph-like sisters performing Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Pleasant Song” went more-or-less viral. And Fleet Foxes’ music is a most complimentary pair with their sound. But even if Tiger Mountain is what brought them to us, they are much, much more than a single cover filmed in the woods. Despite the calls for the women to perform that cover, they ended their set without it, stating, “We’d like to play you something of our own, if that’s all right.” Of course it is.
As encouraging and exciting the indie-folk revolution is, the thrill of a popular resurgence of folk is often bogged down by how much of it just isn’t quite worth listening to; it’s hard to run across something fresh. First Aid Kit is doing just that, bringing their own spin on contemporary folk music, and sending it brilliantly forth into the air above our heads, into our ears, and into our souls. We have to no choice but to let it take root.
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