Peter Moren riffed and rocked at Ruta Maya

Personality is a big part of a live performance. Some artists are made for slaving away like hermits in their dark bedrooms, crafting perfect songs that carefully couple emotion and sound, and sending those out into the world on a record, never to emerge (see: Jeff Mangum). Then, there are those artists whose music thrives on the give and take of an audience, of the spur-of-the-moment choices and happy accidents that can occur from night to night. Peter Moren falls firmly into this second group. The records he makes with his band Peter Bjorn and John, as well as his own two solo albums, are lovingly slaved over until they embody his vision, but the music is given new life when he performs live, his guitar playing burning a little brighter and his energy filling the room.

This is why I was thrilled when it was announced, very last-minute, that Peter would play a solo set at Ruta Maya, a coffee place near St. Edward’s University. It’s a roomy venue, and when I entered the scene at 8:30pm, there were only five other people already gathered. I walked briskly to a table near the front, and waited another two hours for my favorite Swede to take the stage. When he picked up his shiny red electric guitar — one he’d purchased earlier that day — he jumped right into “This Is What I Came For,” off of his first solo record, The Last Tycoon. It had clearly been a while since Peter had performed the tune, as he read the lyrics off of sheets of paper. He revealed to us when the song was over, “I looked up these lyrics off the Internet. I was surprised to find them on the Internet! But, after the first bridge, there are a lot of question marks…luckily I wrote the song, so I can fill in the question marks.” He had stumbled at one place in the song, and explained, “There’s a line here that is not what I wrote, actually, but I almost sang it anyway, and they wrote, ‘In the middle of my supper, in the middle of my shit.’ Maybe that’s better than what I wrote.”

The entire night was completely laid back; it was as if Peter had wandered into someone’s giant living room and offered to play a few songs and tell a few stories. He was very relaxed, and completely hilarious — it was almost as if we were getting a comedic routine in between the tunes. Before he began his second tune, he explained that his band had been traveling around with a lot of down time, and had been spending lots of money, so he wanted to do some solo gigs to work. As he digressed, he suddenly caught himself and said sheepishly, “I’m getting nervous! It’s hard to reach the point — the dot at the end of the line. But we’re coming to the end of the line.” We laughed, and he chuckled along and said, shrugging, “It’s a cheap entrance, I can be messy. You didn’t pay a lot for this.”

Indeed, the night was quite possibly the best $6.89 I have ever spent. He treated us to three songs off of his Swedish solo record next, going so far as to translate two for our English-speaking audience. He grinned widely during all three songs, playing smooth, jazz-infused rock songs that reminded me of early Sondre Lerche work. Introducing the jazziest, “att komma ikapp,” Peter said, “I know some fancy chords,” as his fingers whirled around his new instrument.

Peter also utilized the show to indulge in some covers. He played “Time” by Richard Hell, who he described as the godfather of the punk style. “He wore trashy clothes, that were torn on purpose, and Malcolm McLaren said, ‘I’m going to make punk fashion!’ based on Richard Hell. But this is not a trashy song — it’s very well put-together. I guess if you dress trashy, you can write music like that.” At this, he looked down at his own attire, and thought out loud, “I dress very neat. I guess…that means…I write bad songs? No, that’s not right. Shut up.”

Peering into the psyche of this musician was a treat. He stopped at one moment to ask the audience, “What is that smell? It smells like a bathroom smell. Mmm, tasty bathroom smell,” and we all basically lost it at that point. Laughter bounced around the room as we all sat, amazed at how friendly everything felt.

Peter introduced “Paris 2004” by saying, “I’m gonna do a sell-out thing.” It was one of five Peter Bjorn & John songs the artist performed, including two of my very favorites, “(I Just Wanna) See-Through,” a punkish number that was a B-side to the band’s second album, and “Objects of my Affection,” a raw and raucous song from the breakout album, Writer’s Block.

Peter poked fun at Norwegians, as any good Swede would do, but made amends by saying, “I’m gonna play a song by some Norwegians. It’s their only good song. The lyrics are shit, though.” To the audience’s delight, he busted out A-Ha’s “Take On Me,” and when he bravely (and accurately) hit the high notes, applause and hollers confirmed that this was a good choice.

The song of the night for the Texas crowd was the first of his encore, a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Oh Boy!” Peter even dug deep to pull out a little twang for the song, which was possible because he comes from “Swedish Texas.” The whole night closed out with “Goodbye, Again or,” another PB&J number from their second album that Peter recorded on his cell phone back in the day. There is a windy, whipping little guitar riff in this song that Peter played immaculately, despite forgetting the lyrics momentarily. It was a quiet goodnight kiss to a rapt and loving audience.

From “tasty bathroom smells” to “Amsterdam smells,” treat your senses by checking out my review of Peter Bjorn & John’s show at Antone’s here.

Setlist – Peter Moren, Ruta Maya 05/31/2011

This Is What I Came For
I Spåren Av Tåren
Esther
Att komma ikapp
My Match
Time
Paris 2004
Collect, Select, Reflect
(I Just Wanna) See-Through
Take On Me

Encore:
Oh Boy!
Objects of my Affection
Goodbye, Again or