the bottletree: loney, dear

Loney, Dear is Emil Svanängen (center). At least on his albums. Last night, however, Svanängen was accompanied by four other Swedes, providing instrumenal support and backup vocals. Unfortunately for Loney, Dear the sound at The Bottletree was tuned for the main act, Battles. Resultingly, Svanängen's delicate voice was drowned out by his bassist and backup guitarist, even at times by his own guitar. The performance wasn't helped by Svanängen's lack of confidence, occasionally talking to the audience in quiet mumbles before starting another song.

The crowd of hipsters entirely similar to those I've found in Washington, DC, Harrisburg and Minneapolis were generally disinterested in Loney, Dear. The pairing of a soft-singing fellow with a thrashing almost-metal guitar band was poor, and hopefully Loney, Dear will get a better reception when they return to their tour opening for Of Montreal. Here they departed to a smattering of applause.

Svanängen and Loney, Dear are better suited to studio recordings or a quiet room with chairs and an acoustic guitar.