Abramis Brama on Rockbåten in Helsingborg May 31st 2018

10/10

It is a lovely evening in Helsingborg, the sun has been shining all day, and the night is warm.
What is even better is that Abramis Brama has been booked for a gig this evening on a ship. A ship that once took people between Helsingborg and Helsingör, but that now has been tied up at the harbour to rest. This boat is called ‘Rockbåten’ and has been converted to a small concert hall.
And tonight the stone rock band from Stockholm, Abramis Brama, have honored Rockbåten with a visit.

Supporting act was a bunch of young guys from Halmstad, who called themselves Blåval. They sounded like the Swedish 70’s band November, but more unruly and progressive. They were actually much better then I expected after having heard their debut album. They are a much better liveband than their studiowork suggests. Blåval did also a killer version of Deep Purples old earring ‘Highway star’.

But now to the band of the evening. Abramis Brama is a Swedish stoner rockband from Stockholm who did there first demo already in 1998. The band was just amazing. Extremely tight and fantastic musicians individually. They get that almost magical groove I like in music. A big part to get that big magical groove is the bands rhythm section, drummer Fredrik Liefvendahl (former Grand Magus) and their excellent bass player Mats Rydström (who also plays bass for Backdraft and Avatarium). Their guitarrist Peo Andersson, who is actually the only original member left. Peos guitarplaying is a mixture of Black Sabbath and Kyuss riffs that suits the band like a fist on the chin. The vocalist Ulf Torkelsson has just enough roughness in his voice to be the perfect fit for this band.

To my surprise, the turn-up for this event is low, which of course is a real shame. The band definitely deserve more people in the audience. But what can you do about that – not more than make the best of it, and they sure do. Abramis Brama starts up with ‘Mamma talar’ and after that the singer Ulf Torkelsson invited the few at front of the stage to come closer, so we all can be more of a family, and my god what a family we became. Despite the few people in the audience, Abramis Brama showed how much they really appreciate the connection with the front row fans. Abramis was on their best mood, they had plenty of energy, and you could see they were having fun, which was transmitted to the fans in front of the stage. Both the band and the audience fed each other with energy and joy. It was actually amazing to see the interaction between the band and their audience. They even let the fans take part playing, using their tambourines and cowbells.

The highlight of the gig was when they played one of there new songs ‘Hav av lögner’, which is a great song. The response from the audience was intense and everybody sang the chorus of that song. This accelerated during the song ‘Kylan kommer inifrån’. When the singer asked for help with the chorus, the audience was more than happy to obey.

Sometimes Abramis Brama have trouble to give their songs the same energy on the album, compared to what they can do as a liveact. What I can say for sure is that if you are into November and Kyuss and you never seen this band live, then you really should. I can assure you that you are in for a real treat.

Setlist:
Mamma talar
Vem är du?
Säljer din skäl
Löpeld
Hav av lögner
Blåa toner
Kylan kommer inifrån
Bilder
Vägen ut
Vad jag ser
Mjölk & Honung

Who: Abrams Brama
Where: Rockbåten, Helsingborg
When: 31/5-18
Rate: 10/10