Review: Dean & Britta in Copenhagen

Review by Jens Aage Pedersen - originally posted on the Galaxie 500 Mailing List I had the pleasure of attending not one, but two Dean & Britta shows last weekend, Friday evening at the Studenterhuset and a surprise Friday evening at the Studenterhuset (which I didn't hear about until Dean announced it on stage Friday, but luckily was able to attend - and it was free, no less!).

Both shows featured opening acts by The Icicles, a sweet Michigan quintet in matching outfits who played quite catchy powerpop (I guess they call it) in the vein of Camera Obscura (you know, jangly guitar pop...). Friday's show was the usual late-night deal, but Saturday's show was over by 10 o'clock, having started at 8.30, with Dean & Britta going on at 9. Dean & Britta were supported by Anthony LaMarca on drums and Ben Something on keyboard on both nights, but the last part of the Saturday show veered a bit from the traditional format, as three songs featured a guest (a different one for each song) on stage. First 25-year-old Rune from Aalborg (as he introduced himself American Idol-style) got up on stage and had requested to sing Moon Palace. I don't know how the guest musicians were selected. The last one, [Nikolaj Nørlund](http://www.norlund.com), can probably be considered the god-/grandfather of Danish indie rock, and Galaxie 500 were a major influence on particularly his early-90's outfit Trains and Boats and Planes, but I don't think Rune had much previous band experience (or else he was just nervous). After Rune stepped down again, they played You Turned My Head Around before being joined by a guitarist unknown to me. He had requested to play Chinatown and did a decent job (I'm not discerning enough to really be able to tell just how good...) of covering Sean's bit, and then he left and they were finally joined by Nikolaj Nørlund for a blistering version of Ceremony that rounded off a great bonus how with a very relaxed down-home Sunday-night feel (even though it was Saturday) - we'd already got what we had bargained for Friday night, so Saturday's event was just pure added bonus. Both shows were really great (aren't they always?). I won't say much else about them except to note that when they started playing Ceremony on Friday, I blurted out "Joy Division!" in my giddiness and was immediately corrected from someone else who shouted "New Order!" (to which I responed "New Order, whatever", perhaps not a sentiment shared by many). I'm not well-versed in JD and NO history, but was glad to find out later that the song was in fact penned by Joy Division and had also first been recorded by them... Oh, and they played Snowstorm on Friday, their first time playing it live, apparently, and Strange (my favorite Galaxie 500 track) on both nights! Hardly any Luna songs (Chinatown and Moon Palace, which were both requests, and B&C, which of course isn't a Luna song proper), but enough Galaxie 500 to make it feel like a real treat.