Last Night I Saw Fireworks…
Last Night I Saw Fireworks…
Not every concert is the same. We all have that ‘one show’ we’ve been anticipating. You know the one.
It's been in the diary for months, the days diligently ticked off until showtime. It might be a long-awaited reunion, a beloved album in full, or just your favourite pop star finally back in the country. Whatever it is, it means more to you than all the others.
Having seen close to a thousand performances over the last fifteen years, whether writing about music or just for my own enjoyment, I find those unmissable shows have become few and far between. When they do appear, however, they remind me why I fell in love with music in the first place. Last Tuesday was one of those moments.
I've seen Swedish folk sisters First Aid Kit close to ten times over the last decade. Johanna and Klara Söderberg have never disappointed on stage, and I'll never tire of their mix of emotive lyrics, beautiful harmonies and indelible melodies. Their albums have been on constant rotation throughout my adult life, so it's fair to say I know what to expect when I see them perform. Last Tuesday however was no ordinary performance.
In 2014, they got their breakthrough with their third album ‘Stay Gold’, a beautiful, bewitching and string-soaked delight of a modern Americana record. It propelled them to the heights of London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall and beyond as they’ve continued to grow and headline festivals across this last decade. In March, they announced they'd be returning to the Royal Albert Hall twelve years on, backed by the 65-piece Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, to perform that very record in full alongside a selection of fan favourites. Ecstatic, I secured tickets (which sold out in minutes) and started counting down the days.
On the night, that anticipation is shared right across the Royal Albert Hall: in the excited mutterings of the queue outside, and in the air as we climb step after step to our gallery perch.
It's hard to overstate what an occasion this is. 'Stay Gold' is a beloved record amongst the wider folk, Americana and country scene, regardless of your deeper knowledge or interest in First Aid Kit, and tonight takes it somewhere else entirely. I'm a sucker for a full-album performance, and even more so for anything that comes with an orchestra attached.
Hearing your favourite record with strings has become an increasingly fashionable, and easy, way to fill a room in recent years. This is no tacked-on version of that. The care and attention paid to every arrangement is clear from the off, as conductor Erik Arvinder and the orchestra open with a teaser suite of what's to come ahead of the sisters' arrival.
The duo arrive onstage in suitably shimmering gold that sparkles under the lights. The first half is 'Stay Gold' in full, with the pair pausing throughout to share stories from the album's making. As they note, it's a record born for grandeur. They made its predecessor, 'The Lion's Roar', under strict rules of their own, so when it came to the follow-up they said "fuck it" and threw the kitchen sink at it.
The result is felt from the first stir of strings on 'My Silver Lining'. The audience sit awestruck as the sisters' harmonies meet swelling strings, lifting the track into something ethereal and spine-tingling. It's a masterful opening, due in no small part to the strength of the first three tracks, which also include the soaring 'Master Pretender' and the title track, met with thunderous applause.
As the pair point out, the orchestra also gives a run-out to songs that would otherwise fall flat acoustically, such as 'The Bell'. It feels colossal: the full weight of the orchestra behind its mighty crescendo, with airy woodwind fills between.
'Waitress Song', one of my all-time favourites, is hardly a deep cut, but I still feel it hasn’t got its due over the years. Tonight it's a spectacular standout. On record it always leaves me with a gleeful grin; here, when the orchestra bursts into life, it's overwhelming. It's the clearest example of how carefully the arrangements tread the line, remaining mighty without becoming overpowering.
Speaking of favourites, after a short interval, the pair return for a set of hits and deep cuts from their other albums, still backed by the orchestra. It's fascinating to hear songs never designed with the grandeur of 'Stay Gold' in mind lifted just as high. The serenely soft 'Fireworks' twinkles gently like a lullaby before segueing effortlessly into a sweeping romantic flourish in the vein of a Disney film. Meanwhile, the strings on 'America', their Simon & Garfunkel cover, capture the song's sense of adventure like an Indiana Jones expedition.
The highlight of the entire evening is 'Nothing Has to Be True'. When I reviewed 'Ruins' in 2018, I noted how it pointed to a bold new lane for the pair, far closer to progressive rock than anything they'd put out before. Here it's phenomenal. As on the studio version, the sisters' guitars drive its solemn first half, with an undercurrent bubbling beneath the verses until it finally breaks. On record, that release feels poignant and moving. Paired with the orchestra, it's devastatingly sublime. Every instrument soars and the crescendo seems to have no ceiling: each time you think it couldn't possibly pull at another heartstring, another section of the orchestra lifts it once more. The tears on my cheek are matched only by the roar of applause around the duo.
It's at this point the pair invite some long-awaited audience participation. Given the setting and the level of artistry on stage, the audience have been dutifully silent through every song, so for the encore the sisters call for a singalong on their best-known track, 'Emmylou'. The crowd go one further, spontaneously lighting up their phones, and it makes for a very special moment indeed. With an evening this full of them, I hope they immortalise it with a live album.
They finish on a sombre, tender note as the orchestra falls away for an acoustic rendition of Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You'. The pair capture the magic of Parton's more vulnerable original, and it's the perfect showcase for the talent at the heart of tonight, the sisters themselves.
It also sets the scene for what's to come. This week, First Aid Kit have announced a return to the UK in January 2027 with their Visions of a Past tour, another chance to hear them in a way you haven't before. This time they'll perform stripped back, digging into their deeper catalogue from their very first EP through to whatever the future holds. And yes, I'll be there.