The Knife in Munich

The Swedish band The Knife were all the rage a few years back. Their 2006 album Silent Shout was one of my favorites that year and received universal acclaim. That tour featured Venetian masks on stage, but such theatricals would prove to be nothing compared to their next effort.

The duo, siblings Karin and Olof Dreijer, come from my hometown Gothenburg and it feels kind of weird to travel all the way to Bavaria to see them live. But I was really curious on where they would go next, as the newly released album Shaking the Habitual was less accessible than their previous work. Karin has also been busy with her solo project Fever Ray, which was a solid experience live, so I suspected that the new tour show would be something extra. Unfortunately I was right.

I walk through the hot streets of Munich, filled with people since the Germans have a day off work today. After a short walk along the waterfront I arrive at the venue Muffathalle, having a cold Helles while waiting for the performance. The warmup is the American-Palestinian performance artist Tarek Halab, who does some kind of aerobics thing with the audience from the mixer table. Not impressed.

Arriving at Muffathalle.

The duo of The Knife finally arrive on stage together with a lot of people, wearing some sort of heavy robes in a dimmed light settings. Suddenly they all erupt into Bollywood dance. Say what?

All songs except two were from Shaking the Habitual and the live renditions are quite strange, but somehow I like it despite all the over-the-top dancing. Last song is Silent Shout with thundering bass and cool backing lights, which reminded me of Fever Ray’s laser show at Arvika 2009 (Karin’s solo project).