This gig took place in a dingy, barely-lit cavernous back room in a scruffy North London pub, and at the time, this writer was suffering from the world’s worst hangover. There was no air-conditioning, the venue stank of cigarette smoke and stale booze, and it was at the end of a very hot and sticky day. Conditions were perfect for some soothing, cool Alt.Country music, delivered by TOBIAS FROBERG, who apart from being a bit of a dish (seriously girls, he’s a looker), managed to charm the crowd’s pants off. Not literally though.
There has recently been an influx of quality Alt.Country acts from Scandinavia – take Jonathan Fast, Cellofane Flowers, etc, and Tobias Froberg is no exception. With his three piece band, Froberg’s tracks veered from the rumbling, groovy bass lines that coined the haze of this summer,some Gospel inspired tracks,to more Simon and Garfunkel-inspired bluegrassy, ambient
songs.
And bless his cotton socks, Mr Froberg was very very endearing between sets, when he chirped in his Swedish accent, “We are going to give you some Gospel from Hell no?”, and (my favourite)“If you were standing up, you’d dance. But you are all sitting down. So…” and he said this without a trace of smut,
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“You will have to doing a lap-dance!” I guess you had to be there, but it was very cute.
There was one ropey moment when the sound buggered up on his forthcoming single “God’s Highway”, and the drums seemed to swamp all other sounds, but they ploughed on undeterred, and managed to laugh about it at the end. Despite the fact that it wasn’t the showcase they were hoping for, it was a good indicator that, had the sound guy not fucked up, the track would have been outstanding. So all in all a very pleasant set.
So there you have it, Tobias Froberg, a nice chap, good music, and a wonderful cure for terrible hangovers. Go check him out.
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