Friday 21/04/06 The Cardigans @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Despite having largely been abandoned by the record buying public in recent years, The Cardigans appear to have lost none of their live pulling power.  Rolling into London for 1 of only 3 UK dates on their ‘Super Extra Tour’, Shepherds Bush Empire was filled to the rafters. Opening with ‘Drip Drop Teardrop’ and ‘You’re The Storm’, the band take a little while to get going but are met with rapturous applause none the less.  Nina Persson, now a brunette, looks prettier than ever.  Dressed in skinny jeans and a black bodice top it’s hard to take your eyes off her as her piercing eyes and elegant charm hold the audience under a spell.  Guitarist Peter Svensson, wearing sparkly silver clogs, and jovial bassist Magnus Sveningsson join Nina at the front of stage, and despite having been cooped up in studios recently they have an easy rapport with the crowd.

Hitting their stride with the dreamy and yearning ‘For What It’s Worth’, they proceed to plough through most of the upbeat material from their last two albums, paying scant regard to the occasional nostalgic cry of “Lovefool!” The highlight of ‘Long Gone Before Daylight’ is as stirring and moving live as it is on record, but the pace really picks up with the haunting ‘Paralysed’, ‘Erase/Rewind', sounds as crisp and perfect as when released as does lost classic ‘Hanging Around’.

A four-song double-encore brings us underwhelming ‘My Favourite Game’, somewhat losing it’s snarl and bite live. ‘Godspell’ shines and is easily the most popular song from Super Extra Gravity while ‘Communication’ ends the concert leaving the audience certain that they’ve seen surely a highly underrated band.