melpo mene, loney dear and takka takka @ bell house

must swede: melpo mene. mel introed me to him and she ended up flaking. boy did she miss out. erik was a cutie. first song up and he broke a string early playing "i adore you". he ended up borrowing a guitar from drew of takka takka.

it was weird no one stood up front. there was an abyss of space between the crowd and the stage. saki was like we should move up. i was like okay and then we proceeded to gesture to the rest to join. erik did too. he seemed to do the trick to get everyone to fill the space. his infectious banter and colorful description of songs throughout was a treat.

it got better after the gig. he came up to me and saki to chat. he was super friendly and let us take pics. he even gave saki one of his drink tickets. whaaa? that's what i call AWESOME.
must swede #2: loney dear. emil quiet rocks a room. subtle, yet delicate lyrics tickle at shar's heartstrings. i think he was a little miffed by the noisy bar and mentioned twice how songs were for "the bar". saki and i attempted to shhhhhhh them, but only helped a little.

he still had a ball with silent league backing him. it was amazing to see a band pick up on music just meeting 2 hours before. emil made us hum a lot, but it really was a nice touch to his vocals. i felt like a loop machine. he ended with crowd fav "i am john". love, love. emil will be back january 31 at union hall. see him, you won't be sorry.

must kinda swede: takka takka. okay, they aren't swedish but they have a swedish name. i saw them in sf open for architecture in helsinki and clap your hands say yeah two years ago. they were a pleasant surprise then on first listen, so it's only fitting that i come see them in their hometown and now my hometown. i was dead tired by the time they hit the stage, but i was head bopping through out the set. i was a little bummed they didn't encore. i was hoping to hear their cover of phil collins' "in the air tonight".