MAGNET - THE VIPER ROOM, HOLLYWOOD

I now declare Norway to be an awesome country for two reasons. First, it doesn\'t have George Dubya as its president or king or whatever we have here. Second, it spawned an extremely talented young man by the name of Even Johansen, or as he is more commonly known, Magnet.
As the curtain opened on the tiny Viper Room stage in West Hollywood, there sat only one man on stage; one man with the musical talent and ability of a four-piece band. Using the fifth and sixth strings on his guitar as a bass to accompany his lead guitar picking and rhythmic voice, Magnet eliminated the need for anyone else\'s musical help.
Magnet\'s ethereal lullabies enveloped the crowd into a cozy blanket of floating, intimate sounds and created a romantically profound environment where each person wasn\'t just hearing the music, but rather feeling it as it whispered itself through the transoms of their minds.
Magnet\'s style resembles Elliott Smith\'s melancholy sound with slivers of Rufus Wainwright\'s sleepily blurred lyrics and Radiohead\'s outer-spacey electronics. Though his performance was a quick six songs, it was an outstanding one that was well-appreciated by the crowd and will be well-remembered.