release date: Mar. 22, 2004
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: mixed by Hilmer Hassig; Mikkel Damgaard (mixing assistant)
label: Fanstar Records / Playground - nationality: Denmark
11 track live album released simultaneously with the compilation album Sendt fra himlen - 1990-2004 to signal the disbandment of Love Shop. The recorded live concerts are taken from five different locations during the band's farewell tour in the autumn of 2003, which took place before the "disbandment" had been announced or even discussed within the band. All concerts were held in Copenhagen (thus the title) in the span of six days in late September at: Stengade (Sep. 15, 2003); Loppen, Christiania (Sep. 17, 2003); Lille Vega (Sep. 18, 2003); Kitty Club, Park (Sep. 19, 2003); Pumpehuset (Sep. 20, 2003). These concerts are performed by the Love Shop trio: Jens Unmack, Hilmer Hassig and Henrik Hall together with the stable additional line-up of studio and live musicians: Mikkel Damgaard on keyboard and backing vocals, Thomas Risell on bass and backing vocals, and with Thomas Duus on drums. The concerts were part of a strategy to reinforce positivity and creativity in the band. Each of the band's many studio recordings of their albums had been more than sheer struggles, and the idea was to make it easier for the band members by releasing a live album instead of hard and draining studio work. The album is not over-produced, or so it seems. It sounds quite convincingly like the recorded concerts without heavy mixing and overdubs - the naked and honest statement, and a document of an essential Danish band of (primarily) the 1990s. 'Sounds like' because fact is musical architect of the band and producer, Hilmer Hassig spent a long time in the studio re-mixing and re-arranging what had to be fine and useful recordings. In the book "Himmelflugt og højdeskræk - historien om Love Shop" (2015) by Tommy Heisz, Jens Unmack is cited for his and Hall's harsh criticism concerning Hassig's reluctance in keeping the material as it was recorded. On the other hand, Hassig claimed that the vocal performances by Unmack simply documented how he consistently sang out of tune, and Hassig also asserted that it didn't matter one bit if it was live, as long as the illusion of live recordings were intact.
I must say that Hassig did a remarkably good job producing the album 'cause you really cannot tell that it's not actual live recordings. The album is nicely mixed, but it does feel strange listening to live music not knowing how the band actually played at the reported concerts, and with that Hassig again proves what a brilliant producer he was and that he truly had an ear for sonic statements.
[ Gaffa.dk 4 / 6 stars ]
