Here in Australia to play at Golden Plains, Swedish sister duo Klara, 22 and Johanna Soderberg, 24 of First Aid Kit are back for their second Melbourne shows in less than a year. While their previous tour in July 2014 was largely to promote the release of third album Stay Gold, tonight is a celebration of the band’s music to date, with fans of all ages out to enjoy their American folk and country inspired sound.
Opening with their much-loved track “The Lion’s Roar”, the sisters spared no energy throughout the performance. Shifting between the track’s gentle acoustics and harmonies with a drum-heavy chorus and head banging, ”The Lion’s Roar” presented a show’s worth of entertainment condensed into the one song.
The sisters exude an overwhelming amount of musical talent, and their sincere, and endearing interactions with the crowd are an added delight to witness. They jokingly break into “Friday” by Rebecca Black in unison, help each other dress when Johanna gets tangled in her cape, introduce their band with adorable enthusiasm and finish songs with very sweetly saying, “Thank you!”
While devoted fans may be familiar with much of the sister's on-stage banter, this show marked Klara’s first public performance singing Sia’s “Chandelier.” When revealing this was originally the song the band wanted to cover for Triple J Like A Version last year (they ended up covering Jack White’s “Love Interruption”), Johanna put Klara on the spot to give the crowd a little preview of what could have been. She killed it, to say the least.
Clearly the closest the human race has ever come to angels, the duo’s acoustic performance of “Ghost Town” sung without microphones was met with thunderous applause throughout the theatre.
Returning for an encore to perform “Cedar Lane” and “Heaven Knows”, the evening concluded with “Emmylou” before ending on a well deserved standing ovation.