Aftonbladet Live-löpet 22.08.10: Salem Al Fakir

Tonight was the 4th in Aftonbladet’s Live-Löpet digital concert series, and the one that I was looking forward to most of all - Salem Al Fakir of course!!

24 hours after their Dalhalla triumph, Salem, Adam, Nisse and Jakob were back "on stage" although this time it was a virtual stage rather than a real one. Unfortunately I still have the same criticism of the format which I highlighted in my previous posts about the digital concerts by Mando Diao and The Ark.

In the immortal words of Salem himself: "It’s cloudy and dark, it’s hard to see". I was watching the show with my mum tonight (she’s also a big Salem fan) and she immediately said - "This is weird. It’s too dark and I can’t see anything". The digital-concert idea is an interesting one, although in my opinion it needs a lot of improvement to work. I just want to clarify that any criticism I have of the format is not a criticism of the bands/singers themselves.

As ever there was a list of songs for the audience to request:

4 O’Clock

All Day Love

Astronaut

Brooklyn Sun

Dream Girl

Good Song

It’s True

Keep On Walking

Roxy

This Is Who I Am

(I was very intrigued to see All Day Love on the list: despite its famous ‘one night only’ performance from 18.06.2010, I strongly believe there is so much more life left in this song, and is a potential international hit in the making).

Salem and the band began with Astronaut. Although tonight’s show was billed as an acoustic set, Salem was sitting at his electronic keyboard. However I guess they gave the songs more of an "acoustic" feel. A very nice start to the concert.

Next up was I’m So Happy (which wasn’t on the request list!). There were all those ‘interactive’ options on the left hand side of the screen, but they really should have had a "la la la la...." singalong-with-I’m-So-Happy option :))) I particularly enjoyed Adam’s guitar accompaniment on this song.

The acoustic-version of Keep On Walking followed. I felt that Salem was a little strained vocally in parts of this song, although that’s understandable as he’s been singing all summer and I’m surprised he’s still got a voice left!

Finally, it was time for Brooklyn Sun. Usually Salem accompanies himself on guitar but he stayed at his keyboard and Adam provided the guitar-accompaniment. This is of course one of my favourite Salem songs and even after all this time it still touches my heart.

My only criticism was that the show was far too short. It was all over too quickly - an encore would have been welcome, but sadly it was not to be. :(

However I did enjoy the show - it was a very nice performance by Salem and the band, and I hope they enjoyed the experience too.

(This post has also been published at my fansite Planet Salem which is the place to be if you want to find out more about Salem and his music)