Columbus and Peter Bjorn and John
I’ve been absent for a few days, as I took some time to visit old friends in Columbus and go see Peter Bjorn and John. I had a great time, and it’s weird to see how much the city has changed since I lived there, mostly for the better but definitely gentrified.
We ate at a few new (to me) places, Surly Girl for late night tex-mex and Northstar (Clintonville) for organic foodie fare. Surly Girl has a great selection of beers on tap, and they highlight which were women brewed and which are organic. Something like 99% of of the food served at Northstar is organic and anything you order looks like it could’ve popped off the pages of Gastronomica. Did I mention they also sell Gastronomica? In addition to uber-modern digs they have an awesome magazine selection available for sale.
I hit up Used Kids and Magnolias and bought copies of Beach House and Black Mountain’s self-titled debuts, as well as a Vanishing / Sixteens split, the new Arcade Fire double LP (I know, I know, but hey it’s on your iPod too.) On CD I bought used copies of Alkaline Trio’s Crimson, Keren Ann’s Not Going Anywhere, and Blonde Redhead’s 23, which was sold out on vinyl. I should note that I had digital versions of all of these albums, but anything I like I’m going to buy regardless. (More on my stance on music downloading at another date.)
The show was quite good, I only caught Au Revoir Simone’s last song but it was enough to make me want to catch them in Cleveland later this summer. I didn’t really care for Fujiya & Miyagi live, they reminded me eerily of INXS but the audience was pretty into them.
If you think you haven’t heard PB&J you’re probably wrong and have most likely heard the infectious single, Young Folks, or any of its numerous internet parodies/covers. If you haven’t heard that you’ve heard guest vocalist Victoria Bergsman’s voice in a surprisingly catchy Target commercial. Think jangly pop at it’s finest, but with much bigger instrumentation. Peter Bjorn and John were surprisingly more animated live than I’d expected, I get the impression they’re accustomed to playing much larger crowds in Europe. Though they did choose to alter a few songs for their live acts in ways that didn’t really seem to translate into suspense so much as awkward silence. The highlight of the show was possibly Young Folks with one of the ladies from Au Revoir Simone.
What caught my attention more than the performance itself, however, was the actual design of Peter Bjorn and John. Most of their merchandise is a flat color, with all the type flush right, a single word per line, and it goes something like:
Peter
Bjorn
And
John
Shirt
The backdrop was Peter Bjorn and John Backdrop, and then there was Peter Bjorn and John Guitar Amp. Everything aside from the shirt was white type on black set in something like Univers Extended but not, because it was even wider than Univers. It would’ve been rather appealing had the kerning not been horrendous. Overall it’s nice to visit a city with a decent record selection, I wouldn’t mind moving back someday.
