A concert review of the concert Sophie gave in Göta Lejon in Stockholm, Sweden on 19 march 2002

 

Tour premiere: Göta Lejon, Stockholm.
Crowd: Full house.
Length: 90 minutes.
Best: "Goodbye".
Worst: The tempo isn't exactly thrilling.
Question: What does Sophie need a guitar for?

I'm sure you have heard it before.
Sophie Zelmani's music lack temperament.
The 90 long minutes feel anything but dynamic.Oh, how I wish I could present critique that hasn't been chewed to bits and pieces since the mid-nineties.

But fact is, Sophie Zelmani's songs are too soft around the edges. The music never drives a knife through your heart.

Instead, the songs excuse themselves and tiptoe around in the background.

This is not to say that all pop and rock music need high volume and should be delivered by a young and angry band from Detroit - but I think Sophie would benefit from being less modest both on record and on stage.

There are many examples of artists that, like Sophie Zelmani, just fine tune their original formula since day one. That has always chosen sophistication before living it up and noise and still urged boiling emotional turmoil threatening to blow the smooth surface to pieces.

{mosimage}Zelmani is not one of them. She seems to enjoy herself quite well in her own cool world up on stage, surrounded by lit candles, guitarist Lars Halapi, pianist Robert Qwarforth, bass player Thomas Axelsson and drummer Peter Korhonen.

And together, the group treats the muffled country rock numbers as precious ornaments.

But, misunderstand me right. Zelmani also succeeds, mainly through her consistency, to draw a quiet dramatic tension in for example "Oh dear" and the enchanting strong "Goodbye".

But for an hour and a half, she only really grabs a hold sometimes.

Sophie Zelmani actually summarises the gig best herself, when she says: "This went okay, didn't it."

Her music is still in the land of "just right" for seven years now.

It is almost enough.

This is where you can see Sophie Zelmani: Uppsala 20/3
Halmstad 22/3
Göteborg 4/4
Linköping 18/4
Lund 2/5
Malmö 3/5.
More dates to come.

Credits:
Markus Larsson, www.aftonbladet.se
2002-03-20