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About a year ago, in a dingy back room at 12 Bar Club, a few folk-philes gathered to hear the first UK performance by Swedish sisters First Aid Kit. No one knew much about them then save for the viral success of a Fleet Foxes cover online. But no matter, Klara and Johanna Söderberg, just 15 and 17 years old at the time, charmed everyone that night – their songs half-formed but their voices blood-thick and rope-strong, blowing the dust from the corners of the venue.
A year on and that vocal power endures. Tonight we celebrate another first – the first live play through of First Aid Kit’s debut album, The Big Black and The Blue, to be released next January on Wichita. And my, have these Swedish sisters come a long way since that tentative first performance. They’re still plaid-clad, fresh-faced and wonderfully unaffected, but the songs have transformed from mere swatches of structure into fully-formed folk standards.
The top room at the Old Queen’s Head is cosy and bright and the atmosphere friendly, intimate, “almost scary,” admits Johanna. Though just 18 and still young-looking for her years, her voice is already fully-formed, gauzy and textured to the bell-like clarity of Klara’s. It’s Klara’s show in many ways. She plays her guitar with an effortlessness that belies her 16 years and sings with confidence bolstered by First Aid Kit’s steady ascent in 2009.
They released their ‘Drunken Trees’ EP in February, their first self-penned record to find its way to the world, though it’s with covers they’ve mostly made their mark – Johnny Cash, Graham Nash, Buffy Sainte-Marie. With The Big Black and The Blue, all this is set to change. They’ve recruited a drummer for this performance and are obviously nervous about the addition. But it works spectacularly, the new songs feeling ever more vital for percussive undertones. Johanna bolsters the sound further with extra instrumentation played on keys: bass, brass, electric guitars and organ chords complement drunken sea-shanties, delicately syncopated jazz and rousing country choruses.
The result is measured, matured and a wholly successful realisation of the potential showcased at that first gig. The combination of developed musicianship and that unchanged, endearing naivety makes First Aid Kit ripe for an album release. Their future looks very bright indeed.
