photo by Mary Sledd

Kings of Convenience

Antone's, Saturday, March 19

The Nordic duo of Eirik Glambek Bøe and Erland Øye took the stage about 10 minutes late with only their guitars, reinforcing some folks' suspicions that this would be Simon & Garfunkel with accents. Rather than launch into their set, however, Øye presented a laundry list of requests for those assembled. "Before we start our concert," he said while strumming his guitar, "We would like you to turn off your cell phones if they have a loud ring." Also on the list of directives: move over a bit to let more people in, and take all your photographs now. They posed for a few "candid" shots, which got the crowd laughing, then quietly broke into a placid tune from their debut, Quiet Is the New Loud. The set was peppered with both old and new songs, including "Cayman Islands," which garnered a few hoots from the audience. "Six people really like it," Øye joked. The high point of the showcase was the pair's cover of Tom Petty's "Free Falling," inspiring cheers – quiet ones – from the devoted throng. Bøe encouraged the audience to sing the chorus, and the guitars all but dropped out so that the choir could hear itself sing.

Austin360.com review

Kings of Convenience quiets Antone's with a sensitive set

Kings of Convenience
Antone's, 8 p.m.

I have seen the future of rock 'n' rock and its name is Dan Fogelberg. Actually, that's not fair — the Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience don't claim to be the future of rock 'n' roll, even if the duo gave its second album the manifestolike title "Quiet Is the New Loud." And Lord knows, the Kings are a heck of a lot better than the '70s schlockmeister Fogelberg. Still, Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe play very hushed, very sensitive music — just two young men, hearts on their sleeves, acoustic guitars in their laps. Antone's was jam-packed for the gig — the decibel-to-band ratio was definitely lower than at any other SXSW show — and remarkably well behaved. (The band's occasional request that we keep quiet was honorably respected.)

The Kings played 12 songs — 11 of the duo's own and a sing-along version of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" — and though not every song was as tuneful as Erlend and Eirik might like (the audience knew the difference; the genuinely hooky songs such as "Toxic Girl" and "I Don't Know What I Can Save You From" got biggest applause), their almost monastic fingerpicking and subdued vocals offered a lovely respite from the usual SXSW Saturday night hurly-burly. The high point, though, was a guest appearance by the duo's Canadian friend Feist, whose lovely soprano voice cut through the gauze without tearing it.

I have seen the future of mellow, folk-based pop, and I picked up her CD on the way out.
— Jeff Salamon