Moneybrother – WUK, Vienna. April 9, 2015
The Swedish singer songwriter Anders Wendin is a full-blood entertainer to the tips of his fingers. He has the ability to perform in front of a big audience and simply pull of a great show without a single moment of boredom. I could experience this last Wednesday yet again, when I went to see Moneybrother live on stage for the third time in three consecutive years. The gig took place at the famous Viennese alternative venue WUK – and it was fully sold out.
Moneybrother entered the stage and started with “It Ain’t Gonna Work” from his second record To Die Alone (2005), a wonderfully touching ballad about a couple that is about to break up. What is standing out immediately is that there is a significant difference between the studio and live versions of his songs. His albums are recorded with a full backing band, while he is touring – as a matter of fact, this gig was not even part of any tour, he just fly from Sweden into town for this one concert – mostly alone and all he has there is his powerful voice and his acoustic guitar. A great example is the song “It Might As Well Be Now” from his album 2007 album Mount Pleasure – basically a dialog between a girl and a guy – which he recorded together with the wonderful Norwegian singer Ane Brun. In concert, Moneybrother took over both parts by alternating the pitches of his voice to represent the man’s and the woman’s text. He also spontaneously changed and added lyrics and through all this he made the song sound wonderfully weird and obscure. And should it happen that he is unbable to come along his lyrics, as it did just before performing “Eventually It’ll Break Your Heart”, he is joking around, improvising by whistling the introduction until he remembers again and sings the song with an unbelievable passion. It is moments like this that makes him so likable and gives one the feeling that a buddy from next door is up on stage, a buddy that just happens to perform at a sold-out venue. Moneybrother is pure charisma, very extroverted and always makes the crowd have a good laugh. He is communicating a lot with the audience by telling stories from his life and those that are behind his songs, thus giving the spectators somewhat the feeling to be part of all this.
I vividly remember the first time I went to see him two years ago. I left the concert with my knees still shaking and the adrenaline rushing through my body, that was how much blown away I was by the performance.
However, Moneybrother should not just be reduced to pulling off a good show. So much more than this he is a fantastic songwriter. The central theme of many of his songs is love. He sings about the great feeling of having someone next to one’s side, the devastating time of losing them but also about never giving up on searching and eventually finding the right person, something that a lot of people can identify with. Despite the often sad topics, there is always a great optimism in his songs and in his texts that automatically puts the listener in a good mood.
The concert showed a huge variety of songs from all records that he has brought out so far. He furthermore performed four cover songs, despite claiming he has only performed one cover until then – obviously taking the crowd for a ride (evidently he brought out a record that only consisted of covers with new Swedish lyrics). The first cover was from this specific album Pengarbrorsan (2006) – which means nothing else but Moneybrother in Swedish. He sang Otis Clay’s “A Fool in Love” with his own text in his Swedish mother tongue (“Från Klaraberg till dig”), not before telling the guys in the audience to all find a Swedish girl and never let her go. The other three songs were cover versions of Rod Stewart’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It”, The Waterboys’ “Fisherman’s Blues” and nothing less than Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight”. The latter, he just threw out and made a very own version of it ending it by shouting out loud “I love this song!” – definitely one of many highlights of the gig.
One of the last songs of the evening was his masterpiece “It’s Been Hurting All The Way With You, Joanna”, a wonderful soul song that he celebrated together with the audience making them sing parts of the song, creating a close interaction with him.
A very personal moment during this gig was when he performed “Reconsider Me” from his 2003 debut album Blood Panic. This was the very first Moneybrother tune that I ever listened to. I was in Sweden visiting my sister and the DJ at this one bar played this song and told me who it was. Ever since then, I have been a fan of his music and until today I still am.
Even though I did not have a beer with him after the show – something that very surprisingly happened after last year’s gig – I had an extraordinarily good time at his show. It was a night to remember – a night together with friends, as he put it. There is no doubt that I will go to his next concert again. It his highly recommendable!
Rating:
8.5 out of 10 grizzlies
A few videos from the gig can be found below (shot with iPhone 5s)
Moneybrother entered the stage and started with “It Ain’t Gonna Work” from his second record To Die Alone (2005), a wonderfully touching ballad about a couple that is about to break up. What is standing out immediately is that there is a significant difference between the studio and live versions of his songs. His albums are recorded with a full backing band, while he is touring – as a matter of fact, this gig was not even part of any tour, he just fly from Sweden into town for this one concert – mostly alone and all he has there is his powerful voice and his acoustic guitar. A great example is the song “It Might As Well Be Now” from his album 2007 album Mount Pleasure – basically a dialog between a girl and a guy – which he recorded together with the wonderful Norwegian singer Ane Brun. In concert, Moneybrother took over both parts by alternating the pitches of his voice to represent the man’s and the woman’s text. He also spontaneously changed and added lyrics and through all this he made the song sound wonderfully weird and obscure. And should it happen that he is unbable to come along his lyrics, as it did just before performing “Eventually It’ll Break Your Heart”, he is joking around, improvising by whistling the introduction until he remembers again and sings the song with an unbelievable passion. It is moments like this that makes him so likable and gives one the feeling that a buddy from next door is up on stage, a buddy that just happens to perform at a sold-out venue. Moneybrother is pure charisma, very extroverted and always makes the crowd have a good laugh. He is communicating a lot with the audience by telling stories from his life and those that are behind his songs, thus giving the spectators somewhat the feeling to be part of all this.
I vividly remember the first time I went to see him two years ago. I left the concert with my knees still shaking and the adrenaline rushing through my body, that was how much blown away I was by the performance.
However, Moneybrother should not just be reduced to pulling off a good show. So much more than this he is a fantastic songwriter. The central theme of many of his songs is love. He sings about the great feeling of having someone next to one’s side, the devastating time of losing them but also about never giving up on searching and eventually finding the right person, something that a lot of people can identify with. Despite the often sad topics, there is always a great optimism in his songs and in his texts that automatically puts the listener in a good mood.
The concert showed a huge variety of songs from all records that he has brought out so far. He furthermore performed four cover songs, despite claiming he has only performed one cover until then – obviously taking the crowd for a ride (evidently he brought out a record that only consisted of covers with new Swedish lyrics). The first cover was from this specific album Pengarbrorsan (2006) – which means nothing else but Moneybrother in Swedish. He sang Otis Clay’s “A Fool in Love” with his own text in his Swedish mother tongue (“Från Klaraberg till dig”), not before telling the guys in the audience to all find a Swedish girl and never let her go. The other three songs were cover versions of Rod Stewart’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It”, The Waterboys’ “Fisherman’s Blues” and nothing less than Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight”. The latter, he just threw out and made a very own version of it ending it by shouting out loud “I love this song!” – definitely one of many highlights of the gig.
One of the last songs of the evening was his masterpiece “It’s Been Hurting All The Way With You, Joanna”, a wonderful soul song that he celebrated together with the audience making them sing parts of the song, creating a close interaction with him.
A very personal moment during this gig was when he performed “Reconsider Me” from his 2003 debut album Blood Panic. This was the very first Moneybrother tune that I ever listened to. I was in Sweden visiting my sister and the DJ at this one bar played this song and told me who it was. Ever since then, I have been a fan of his music and until today I still am.
Even though I did not have a beer with him after the show – something that very surprisingly happened after last year’s gig – I had an extraordinarily good time at his show. It was a night to remember – a night together with friends, as he put it. There is no doubt that I will go to his next concert again. It his highly recommendable!
Rating:
8.5 out of 10 grizzlies
A few videos from the gig can be found below (shot with iPhone 5s)