I’m going to relay the events that unfolded prior to, during and after the Kings of Convenience/Jens Lekman show last night, March 31st, in Manila. See, I took down notes on old receipts I found in my wallet, because I was suffering from Twitter separation anxiety, I guess. I suspect it’s just really one of those times when everything that happened seemed to be particularly important or poignant.

I’m going to out myself and say that I’m not really much of a Kings of Convenience fan. I only know a handful of songs, but I liked them enough to decide to watch them, but what really, really excited me was when I learned that Jens Lekman was going to be playing with them. Petra introduced me to Jens a couple of years ago, and I never really got over him.

So there. Here is an account of what happened last night. There’ll be pictures because those are pretty cool. The videos will follow, but just know that it was an amazing night, and they are amazing people.

Jens Lekman.

Kings of Convenience.

Under the cut are pictures with captions & a somewhat comprehensive timeline, sans setlist.

Jens & his half-Filipina percussionist Racquel.

Jens.

Playing an imaginary xylophone, the end of “The Opposite of Hallelujah.”

“The opposite of a purity ring.”

Favorite. <3

Brother & Jens.

Erlend Øye & Eirik Glambek Bøe.

Me & kuya.

ERLEND ØYE!

Ham. Haha.

Cutest Eirik.

Erlend Øye’s shoes!

Cuteface.

Eirik Glambek Bøe.

More photos in my Flickr.

My Super-Duper Time Line (Written on Receipts)
6:15: Just arrived. Jens is doing a soundcheck.
6:30: Guy behind us in line says ‘Jens’ like ‘jewish’ or ‘Jears’.
6:40: Turned down ice-cold beer because it was P100. Karen says promo girl looks like Jane Aldridge, but with nasty shoes.
6:45: Wallows in regret of beer rejection.
6:47: Beer walks in front of us to cross to other people. Resisting.
6:50: Anne talks with me a little about LOST, Jens being a sweetheart and Kings of Convenience. She’s funny.
7:00: Brother tells joke about getting diarrhea and makes pun: Kings of Inconvenience.
7:07: Nikki says ‘hi.’ People behind me are making kind of racist remarks and likens Jens Lekman’s music to Sufjan Steven…s.
7:34: Caved and bought a beer. Bought tour shirts. They look like camper shirts.
8:09: Jens Lekman is adorable. “I’m shy, so sometimes when I sing, I look down. But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you.”
8:30: I am in love with Jens Lekman. “The End of the World is Bigger Than Love.”
8:35: The opposite of a purity ring. “No more waiting. Tonight is the night.”
9:05: I asked Jens Lekman for a hug. So he hugged me. :)
9:21: Kings of Convenience set.
9:30: Does anybody believe in love?
9:40: Eirik: “There must be someone in Manila.” ♥
9:41: One of my favorite sounds in the world is when people sing along to songs in concerts.
9:43: Eirik: “We have to play a few quiet songs, because that is what I feel right now.”
9:45: Erlend Øye tells people who are noisy to shut up.
9:50: Eirik: “Are you hot? [...] You are in the minority.”
10:00: Eirik: “So I’m getting totally totally wet.” About to see the shortest striptease in the world. Erlend rolls up his sleeves and Eirik unbuttons his “one button”.
10:15: Audience becomes a makeshift choir.
10:20: Erlend says Manila has beautiful faces. Crosses fingers for them to come back.
10:30: They began taking requests. “Misread” is played.
10:40: They come back for an encore.

After which, I felt a little Where’s Fluffy¹ vibe going on, because there was an after party that only the higher-ups knew about. This lasted about a few minutes because I was texting people and they had no idea where it was, but the second person I asked when I got outside knew where it was.

So we drove, and there they were. Karen, Zaxx, Kasey and I got to talk to Jens for a while. I gave him my pin. He wore it on his shirt. My brother went back to the car to get something, which kinda makes me feel bad, but he says he wouldn’t really have known what to say anyway.

After a few minutes, The Fairways’ “KLM Line” was playing over at Future Prospects. That’s one of my favorite songs. As my brother and I were leaving (we were pretty tired, hungry and didn’t really know a lot of people there), we passed by and through the window, we saw that Jens was the DJ. And that made me wonder a little. I hope he was the one who played it.

My brother and I dropped by Burger King and ate breakfast food after.

We had a really nice time.

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¹ Yes, Where’s Fluffy, as in in Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. I got excited.