First Aid Kit - Who by Fire - Leonard Cohen Tribute, Dramaten, Stockholm, Sweden, 3-13-2017

I have to admit that, as I write this, I have very little familiarity with First Aid Kit's music. But I keep hearing good things about this Swedish sister duo. Yesterday, I was listening to a new home concert by Larkin Poe (which I plan on posting here eventually), and they highly praised the songwriting and harmony vocals of First Aid Kit, so I decided to check them out. I'm only beginning to look into this music, but I discovered they headed an interesting Leonard Cohen tribute concert in 2017. I gave it a listen, and liked it so much that I decided to post it here straight away.

I don't know about the background behind this concert, for instance if there was a special occasion or anniversary for it. But for whatever reason, First Aid Kit headed a Leonard Cohen themed concert several nights in a row in Stockholm, Sweden. One of the nights was filmed and then played on Swedish television the next day. That's the version here. Because it was professionally filmed, the sound quality is excellent.

The concert is dominated by First Aid Kit, who sing on almost every song. But they involved a number of other lead vocalists, none of whom I've heard of. I assume from the names that all of them are Swedish, but I don't know if any are big names in Sweden or not. First Aid Kit are known for their harmony vocals. For all but a couple of songs, typically if someone else sings lead, First Aid Kit help with prominent harmonies. 

It's clear that the duo have a deep love of Leonard Cohen, due to their song selection. They do some of his most famous songs, especially "Suzanne" and "Hallelujah," but they also do some deep cuts, including off more recent albums. But what's most interesting and unexpected, in my opinion, is there are quite a few recitations of his poems over instrumental backings. A couple of those are song lyrics that are spoken instead, but most of them come from Cohen's books of poetry.

The concert is also unusual in that the whole thing was carefully put together almost like one continuous piece of music rather than a series of songs. There is absolutely no talking between songs whatsoever, not even a single "thank you," and most of the songs flow into each other. Due to that, there are only a few times where there's enough of a pause for the audience to react and clap. As a result, it often sounds more like a studio recording than a live concert.

Based on this concert, I'm definitely going to want to check out more of First Aid Kit's music. Anyone this deep into Leonard Cohen has to have great musical taste, and their performances are impressive. If, like me, you're a big Cohen fan but know little to nothing about First Aid Kit, I highly recommend you give this a listen. Given the time and effort they must have put into this excellent unique show, I'm really surprised no audio or video version of it has ever been officially released.

By the way, the names of the sisters that make up First Aid Kit are Klara and Johanna Soderberg, so two of the poem recitations near the end are by them.

01 Tired [Poem Recitation] (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani & Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
02 Suzanne (First Aid Kit)
03 Sisters of Mercy (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani & Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
04 Who by Fire - As the Mist Leaves No Scar [Poem Recitation] - Who by Fire (First Aid Kit)
05 Twelve O'Clock Chant [Poem Recitation] (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani & Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
06 Everybody Knows (Frida Hyvonen with First Aid Kit)
07 Avalanche (Loney, Dear)
08 The Future [Poem Recitation] (First Aid Kit & Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
09 Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (Jesper Lindell with First Aid Kit)
10 You Want It Darker (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani & Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
11 If It Be Your Will (First Aid Kit)
12 The Asthmatic [Poem Recitation] (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani & Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
13 Famous Blue Raincoat (Maja Francis with First Aid Kit)
14 Anthem [Poem Recitation] (Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
15 Show Me the Place (Jesper Lindell with First Aid Kit)
16 Hallelujah (Annika Norlin with First Aid Kit)
17 Prayer for Messiah [Poem Recitation] (Klara Soderberg)
18 Bird on a Wire (First Aid Kit)
19 Who by Fire [Poem Recitation] (First Aid Kit with Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
20 So Long, Marianne (First Aid Kit, Frida Hyvonen, Jesper Lindell, Annika Norlin, Maja Francis & Maia Hansson Bergqvist)
21 You'd Sing Too [Poem Recitation] (Johanna Soderberg)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15290010/FirstAidK_2017_WhobyFreLeonrdCohnTribteDramatenStockhlmSweden__3-13-2017_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I took the main design (of what look like beige piano keys to me) from a screenshot of the intro to the video of the concert that's up on YouTube. I then took another screenshot of the First Aid Kit duo from later in the video, and added that in.