Jens Lekman is the most fucking Swedish thing I've ever seen (and I mean that in a good way)

Wow. It would be hard for me to imagine a Jens Lekman show that was more Jens Lekman than the one at The Paradise last night. The Swedish crooner arrived on stage wearing jeans and a crisp white cotton shirt with red appliquéd flower, flanked by a nearly all-girl 7 piece band whose average age appeared to be 16. Most of his bandmates sported tea length white cotton smock dresses, white stockings, and white flats, except the drummer who added to her attire bloomers and a cotton cap and the sole gent (DJ Viktor Sjöberg) who opted out for trousers. Together the octet proceeded to cruise through a remarkably lush hour plus set loaded with violins, trumpets, tape samples, and pithy, pithy romance.

Many songs, like the impossibly twee "The Opposite of Hallelujah" and ABBA-ish disco of "Sipping On the Sweet Water" came from Lekman's newest album "Night Falls Over Kortedala", the title of which is taken from Lekman's apartment, the 'Kortedala Beauty Center' (named after his former hairdresser's place), but it was older favorites like "Maple Leaves", "You Are The Light (see video clip above)" and "Black Cab" that brought squeals of delight from the rapt crowd. Throughout the set Lekman paused to tell humorous stories (including the genesis of "A Postcard to Nina" - about a lesbian friend who told Lekman on the way to visit her parents "Oh, by the way, I told them we're engaged") while the band engaged in goofy choreography, and at one point collectively put down their instruments to invade center stage and twirl in circles with their arms outstretched. Your average night of pop? Oh, I think not.

Encores included new single "Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo", "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill" - where the violin players danced at the side stage pounding their chests while chanting the "bompabumpabompabumpabompabumpabomp" refrain, and weirdly, an acoustic cover of Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" with the choruses omitted. Eventually Lekman's silvered tones gave out, and his mic got unplugged, leaving him to thank the audience in his loudest voice possible while offering regrets he couldn't go on.

Fans left to the sound of Sjöberg closing out the night with a delightful set of overlooked pop nuggets like "It Never Rains in Southern California", as if those Swedes would know...