A Camp sheds the Cardigans for a summertime show in Chicago

June 3, 2009, at Double Door

By Selena Fragassi
Published: June 6th, 2009 | 12:50pm

“That’s the way we roll these days,” said A Camp lead singer Nina Persson, as she issued a formal invitation to a meet-and-greet/autograph session before she introduced the band’s final song of the night and its biggest hit, “Stronger Than Jesus.”

Persson, best known as the frontwoman of the defunct Swedish outfit the Cardigans, was glibly making a comparison of her former fast lane life as a ’90s rock poster child to her current venture into relative indie obscurity. Although A Camp was formed in 2001 during a Cardigans hiatus, Persson’s current group has only released two albums, most recently this year’s Colonia (Nettwerk), which adds her husband (filmmaker and former Shudder to Think member Nathan Larson) to a lineup that also includes guitarist Niclas Frisk.

From the beginning, A Camp’s set was full of theatrics. Whether the feng shui placement of amber paper lanterns on the stage or the sonic boom that was followed by the sounds of birds chirping and a cloud of smoke that would eventually unveil a petite Persson before picking up again and nearly suffocating the singer as she barreled through with a scratchy, horse voice.

It was an acute attempt at atmosphere that was wholly unnecessary during the oft-entertaining, 14-song set that varied at times on classic American rock and other times on soft folk hymns with a dash of punk aesthetic. It was an interesting mixture of American styles, considering that Persson scoffed more than a few times about capitalism on “I Can Buy You,” and colonialism on “Chinatown,” perhaps a side effect of her new life in New York.

Throughout the set, the members of A Camp proved themselves to be a more soulful, cohesive band, clearly at a greater depth than the evocatively bankrupt “Love Fool” once afforded. The poetic lyrics sung by Persson’s amazingly trained voice often hinted at the refinement of Aimee Mann on songs like “I Signed the Line,” while Frisk’s musicianship shined on solo moments in “Angel of Sadness” and “I Can Buy You.”

Nearly every song was spot on, less the over the top Sonny and Cher–esque duet of “Golden Teeth and Silver Medals,” which featured an is-he-joking performance from Reg Vermue of the opening band Gentlemen Reg. Thankfully it was quickly saved by moments of glory, both original on “Frequent Flyers” and covered, on Daniel Johnston’s “Walking the Cow” and Grace Jones’ “I’ve Done it Again,” introduced by Persson as a song “originally performed by a woman with much, much longer legs than I.” We can only hope the band has more legs to run on in delivering more prolific recordings in the future.
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For more photos from this show visit Venus Zine’s Flickr page