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Posed in pink pleather, the figure of Henriette Motzfeldt acutely grasped the room’s attention. Motzfeldt’s porcelain figure held the tension of a wavering violin string, plucked with the deft pizzicato of a master. Forming the apex of Catharina Stoltenberg on piano — her partner in the group Smerz — and Sophia Bacelar on cello, Motzfeldt would continue to allure fixation through the evening’s almost-uninterrupted musical demonstration at the Swedish American Hall on Feb. 24. 

The scattered crowd sat in a bizarre formation of white plastic folding chairs, facing Motzfeldt as she hopped up on the grand piano that overwhelmed the small stage. She wouldn’t leave her perch until the end of the lengthy performance, a feat of physical and psychic strength. 

In the moments leading up to Motzfeldt’s ascendance onto the stage — in which she drifted through the middle of the crowd to emerge under the spotlight — a confused air settled in the space as the room seemed prime for a middle school musical or high school prom. If it had been puppeteers who took their stance and began performing, it would not have felt out of place. 

However, when it was time for the tracks to begin, all memories of the strange spatial configuration of the hall faded away. Smerz curated an experience of experimentation, in which the duo’s genre-bending range excelled. 

The show’s beginning endured some technical difficulty, feedback and disjointed transitions, but when Smerz found its footing, the duo became immersed in its own intimacy with the tracks. Some facets of the show felt forgotten or bereft, such as a spotlight on Bacelar or the tangible want from the audience for Motzfeldt to play more than just two tracks on her violin — which she had to awkwardly bend behind her piano platform to pick up. 

Smerz’s discography can only be described as challenging, as the group’s most recent 17-track project Believer paired harsh, textural techno with Scandinavian-esque chorals, interrupted with spoken word rhythmic ruminations. 

The intensity of the tracks’ experimentation blurred the background of the physical stage, inducing an seemingly sonic synesthesia. The performance of “Max” epitomized deconstruction as the duo began with a layered vocal dialogue before a slab of sound hit through the speakers — all the while Bacelar’s stretched strings pulled on the track’s edges in a shiver-inducing manner. 

Smerz, the German shorthand for heartbreak, excelled at its name-same genre. Especially for the group’s most streamed song “Remember,” Motzfeldt and Stolenberg moved with synchrony and traded lines like classroom folded notes, a combination of whispered secrecy and proclaimed vulnerability. 

The duo’s rendition of “The Favourite” off of Believer showcased Motzfeldt’s operatic ability as she formed a triangle with her forearm and face before releasing smooth notes with ease. The choral sanctity of Motzfeldt’s tone filled the Scandi-space with visions of Matterhorn-like mountains and fields flooded with children, all singing in blonded joy. A zenith of the evening’s performance pictured Stolenberg joining Motzfeldt on the piano, the two lying on their stomachs, legs kicked up in the air, singing out a classical chorus of quick and pointed notes in Norwegian. 

The pair reworked the physical limits of the stage, but its potential for artistry felt restricted. Smerz is known for wild and wonderful fairytale-esque images that accompany its songs, as seen in the teaser trailer for Believer and the music video for “I Don’t Talk About That Much / Hva Hvis.” 

Motzfeldt and Stolenberg pay special attention to visual narrative in their work, which could have been conveyed better than their stripped-back set design and relatively simple leotard costumes of their tour. In a grander venue, which might come into fruition in future tours, Smerz could demonstrate all aspects of its musicality beyond sound alone. 

As the two move forward from the first performance of their seven-show North American tour, technicalities will hopefully be cast to the wayside and enable Motzfeldt and Stolenberg to actualize their imagined fantasies of their songs. Despite the minor hiccups, Smerz still managed to entrance the crowd in San Francisco, leaving a mark in the minds of all who entered the hallowed hall. 

Contact Francesca Hodges at [email protected] . Tweet her at @fh0dges.

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