Before I went to the gig, I was absolutely gutted. I’ve always considered The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s lead singer, Mette Lindberg, as my dream future wife. I can't even begin to describe the disappointment I felt after my colleague, who apparently grew up in the same neighbourhood as Lindberg, told me she’s a pure bitch.
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour are a Danish duo, with four additional musicians for live gigs, whose music is best described as mid-60s soul, with melodies so infectious you’ll think you've heard them before. Horns – including a trumpet and saxophone – give their songs that special retro soul feel. They gained great popularity after their song ‘Around The Bend’ was used in an iPod commercial and more recently when they appeared in a Heineken campaign.
On Friday, they returned to their hometown of Copenhagen. The setlist was a mixture of songs from TAGT’s two albums: 2009’s Fruit and this year’s Out of Frequency. The show opened the same way that Out of Frequency begins, with the interlude ‘Gold Rush, Part 1’, the single ‘Dollars in the Night” and then ‘Gold Rush, Part 2’.
It really is Lindberg's voice that is TAGT's not-so-secret weapon. High pitched and airy, it manages to be simultaneously soulful and squeaky. Her voice doesn’t leave much room for a middle ground, however – you'll either be enchanted or aggravated by it. Of course, just one look at the woman and you're likely to forgive her every high-pitched yelp.
However, the crowd didn't really get into them at first. I have seen the group play in Amsterdam, and the crowd went immediately wild. At Vega, it took a few songs before the band fully captured the audience.
Natural highlights were Fruit’s ‘Around the Bend’, ‘The Sun Ain't Shining No More’, ‘Push the Envelope’, and ‘The Golden Age’, but Frequency's ‘Heart Attack‘ and ‘Major’ also got the crowd dancing and singing along.
The lyrics aren’t exactly a masterpiece of English literature, but sometimes music can just be fun, and that’s what Asteroids Galaxy Tour succeed at doing. People’s hipster tendencies won’t always allow them to admit it, but it’s hard not to fall for a tight pop band. TAGT fit a lot of the trappings of traditional pop, but subvert that pop sound into various genres in a way that sounds unique. It’s that mix of style that made The Asteroid Galaxy Tour so appealing to the crowd.
