Träd, Gräs & Stenar’s Swedish, Sixties, hippie-commune approach abides. The improvisational acid rockers originally built their instruments by hand and grew food to feed their audiences. That there should exist only a vague separation between band and fans became another early principle, with their followers even bringing instruments to play alongside them.: “We would love the audience to participate more,” emails guitarist and singer Jakob Sjöholm. “Maybe we are bad at inviting people, but I think there is a bigger gap between the audience and the performers nowadays, and that’s a reflection of how our society looks.”: TGS of yore began shows with onstage tuning, through which emerged an organic musical starting place, slightly different each time, and a smoky, dynamic, transcendental atmosphere dreamed up through influences of Indian music and minimalist composer Terry Riley.: “When we improvise, it’s a mixture of using different kinds of patterns to play around with, but at the same time being as open as possible for everything that happens to emerge,” writes Sjöholm. “The feeling can be both happy and melancholic. Maybe a bit brighter today.”: After an extended hiatus that began in the Seventies, TGS released Tack för Kaffet (So Long) in 2017. Renamed Träden after the retirement of founder Bo Anders Persson and the sudden deaths of bass player Torbjörn Abelli and drummer Thomas Mera Gartz, the band now includes Sjöholm, Laughing Eye’s Hanna Östergren, Sigge Krantz, and Dungen guitarist Reine Fiske. Touring last year’s eponymous follow-up under the full TGS name, Sjöholm explains:: “We wanted to free ourselves from our history to see if anything new could come out of it, but we will always be connected with Träd Gräs. It’s an idea or concept that lives its own life.”
Sun., April 28, 9pm