Erlend and Eirik [flickr]

From the first notes they played I felt like I was in heaven. Yup. They were that good. Kings of Convenience made me forget the myriad problems plaguing my mind for a span of two hours or so (no opener and they started sometime after 9:30) and transformed Bowery Ballroom into…a happy place. A happy place where people laughed and hummed and clapped and smiled and were just so happy that these two Norwegians could serenade NYC for the night (after a stint on the “trashy” Carson Daly show, as noted by Erlend. ;D).

Highlights? The whole concert was the highlight. I’ve watched videos of their performances before but you just have to be there to feel the quietness of the audience and the calm visages on Erlend and Eirik while they play. Oh, and the sporadic smiles; there were many of those. Erlend has a huge smile! It just pops out of nowhere. And he likes to boogie, if I can use that word. Boogie. Okay, maybe …wiggle? He likes to wiggle. I got a very close look at the wiggling, or his legs at least since he is mega-tall. And he likes giving out chocolates to the audience. And bottled water. For one time in my life I was parched and while waiting for the concert to being I grew thirsty. The angel of Poland Spring that is Erlend passed out bottles to the audience after the bag of assorted Hershey chocolates (some of which smelled like puke, according to Erlend) wasn’t enough for the whole audience. Aw.

Okay, there were some highlights. Perhaps super-highlights? Here’s a list:

  • “When You Wish Upon A Star”
  • the last song after the encore
  • Erlend taking photos of the audience and Eirik telling him to delete the one of him in the bathtub after finding out the memory card was full
  • All that guitar playing? That was good.
  • All that singing? Also good.
  • the whistling audience
  • the humming audience
  • the clapping audience
  • the jacket from the smoothie king
  • um…everything

Okay, not a great list. But wow. I would love to see them again tomorrow (technically today) but I doubt I’ll go. I’d end up in the back, for one thing, and tonight I was in the front row on Eirik’s side. He sat in our corner while Erlend played an acoustic version of “Like Gold”.

I have tons of audio clips, but won’t get that up until later. It’s probably all crap quality but…mm. And I have crap photos! Diana has better ones, I’ll have to bum some off of her.

Thank you, Kings of Convenience, for creating much happiness and good feelings and smiles. And H20. You create beautiful music. And you’re both very hug-worthy.