News

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johanna-soderberg-stage-playing-bass-guitar

First Aid Kit’s ‘Rebel Hearts’ tour finally comes to an end tonight with one of their biggest ever concerts in Malmo Area. The tour, to promote the album ‘Ruins’, started twelve months ago and has included more than 120 shows – on average that’s one every three days, a truly gruelling schedule! After this, it seems likely the band will take a badly needed rest. My guess is we won’t see much in the way of live shows until the end of May when FAK are scheduled to play an open-air concert in Glasgow. Although it’s sad we don’t have any more live shows lined up in the immediate future, it’s absolutely essential that FAK take a break – to not do so could be very damaging to their mental health and creativity. They are, after all, human beings so we can’t expect them to be churning stuff out like robots!

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Well, they didn’t quite make it this time, sadly! The award for International Album of the Year went to Courtney Marie Andrews with her album “May Your Kindness Remain”.

Perhaps First Aid Kit will have better luck at the Swedish Grammis where they’re nominated for two awards. The Grammis ceremony is on Thursday 7th February.

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Here’s the setlist from tonight’s First Aid Kit show at Train in Aarhus, Denmark. No great surprises here and a somewhat shorter set at this smaller venue.

  1. Distant Star
  2. It’s a Shame
  3. Master Pretender
  4. Stay Gold
  5. Shattered & Hollow
  6. Wolf
  7. Ghost Town (With Sarah Klang)
  8. Hem of Her Dress
  9. King of the World
  10. The Lion’s Roar
  11. You Are the Problem Here
  12. Emmylou
  13. Nothing Has to Be True
    Encore:
  14. Rebel Heart
  15. Fireworks
  16. My Silver Lining

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On Saturday night in Stockholm, First Aid Kit played to their biggest ever audience – somewhere in the region of 11,000, by most accounts. Still trying to come to terms with the sheer scale of that crowd, for one night only, they return to a more familiar sized venue, in tonight’s case, the 1000 capacity Train in Århus, Denmark. Tomorrow, however, we’re back to the larger concert halls, with the 5000 capacity Tap 1 in Copenhagen. The tour ends on 1 February at the Malmo Arena which, in theory, could hold 15,500 but has a current attendance record of 11,300 held by Lady Gaga. This will seemingly mark the end of a year-long ‘Rebel Hearts’ tour, promoting the album ‘Ruins’.

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Tonight First Aid Kit play what is effectively the biggest live show of their entire career. While it’s true they’ve probably played to larger audiences at festivals or as a support act, this is certainly the biggest gig they’ve ever headlined.

The venue is the 16,000 capacity Ericsson Globe in their hometown of Stockholm. To put this into perspective, the Helsinki Ice Hall, which FAK played a couple of days ago, has less than half this capacity. For those of you who live in the UK, the Globe is comparable to the O2 in London which can hold up to 20,000. Wembley Arena in London, which played host to The Beatles and Abba at the height of their careers, had a mere capacity of around 10,000! To put it bluntly, the Ericsson Globe is a helluva big place!

This concert is very special to Klara and Johanna. Not only is it their hometown, but as children, they used to look out of their bedroom window at the Globe. Never in their wildest dreams did they ever imagine playing there! Stockholm is also the place where FAK played their first live show to a handful of people in a local library back in 2007.

So is today hugely significant for FAK in the longer term? Probably not, as the wider world is likely to be oblivious of what’s happening in Stockholm. However, it’s another milestone in their steady rise in popularity. Of course, whether this turns out for better or worse remains to be seen. In the meantime, let’s celebrate the fact that First Aid Kit are getting the recognition they’ve long deserved!