Swedish sisters First Aid Kit proved this afternoon that headbanging has a place in the folk music genre.
The Stockholm duo swung their long locks from side to side – and upside down – like woodland animals on the Odeon stage.
It was the second time Johanna and Klara Söderberg had played at Roskilde, following the cute pair’s first appearance in 2009.
Dressed in colourful Peruvian-style poncho dresses with tiny round mirrors stitched into the fabric, the blonde and brunette sisters twinkled under the lights as they played to a strong showing.
The 3pm timeslot worked well for the group, as they could rouse the exhausted festival-goers into a decent state of consciousness, warming them up for another long night ahead.
Romancing the crowd with their echo-y, country vocals, First Aid Kit mixed up their set list with older tunes like ‘Hard Believer’ and ‘Ghost Town’ from their 2010 record, The Big Black & The Blue, with a cover of Fever Ray’s ‘When I Grow Up’.
It appears the group like to honour, or woo, their favourite artists through song. The love song ‘Emmylou’ was played in tribute to some of the sisters’ beloved singer-songwriters like Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons and June Carter. As they played, the blowing bubbles from the outer ridge of the crowd added some ethereal magic.
Predictably, the last song they played was their most well known: ‘The Lion’s Roar’, off their second album of the same name. They gave it a longer intro to keep the crowd waiting, and when they did launch into the tune, they shook their heads violently like two lions on the pride lands. Little grunts were expelled from their mouths as they shook their hair till they were sore during the extended instrumentals. They frolicked off the stage and the crowd called them back.
For their encore, First Aid Kit brought up the tempo with ‘King Of The World’. The song usually features US singer/songwriter Bright Eyes, but this time, the band’s drummer provided the male vocal. The Söderbergs provided the squeals, and so did the audience.
