That Was Literally Music To My Ears (Part 2)
This one won’t make any sense unless you scroll down a few posts and read the first one. So go ahead and read that one if you haven’t already. I’ll wait.
Okay, Sigur Ros. That concert at Red rocks was pretty incredible. It was probably the best concert I’ve ever been to and I don’t know that it will ever be topped. Between being under the stars near the Rocky’s and listening to the most passionate, inspiring music, it’s gonna be hard to top.
The lead singer of Sigur Ros, Jonsi, decided to do a solo album about a year ago and it was just released in April with a limited US tour to immediately follow. Luckily, Chicago was one of the stops.
Now Sigur Ros knows how to combine lighting/stage effect with music in order to help you get the full emotion of the song. And while I’m not much for gimmicks in concerts (let the music move you, not the effects) I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.
Jonsi’s new album,” Go” featured him sporting a headpiece with feathers, reminding me of Peter Pan. I’m not so sure that he’s hip to the fact that schools are pulling anything with a headdress as a mascot for fear of racism, but since he’s from Iceland, we’ll give him a break. Besides, it seemed to “feel” pure and whimsical, if you will.
On Tuesday, April 27 I walked into the Vic an hour early and took my place with friends along a railing in the middle. This show was packed, but it was more intimate than Redrocks. And between songs you could hear a pin drop. No one was talking. No one was really moving. I think we were all trying to just soak it in. It was like having sunshine for the first time after months of damaging hail.
Jonsi had animation and lights that aided in the emotion of the concert. This was no normal ligting effect. For example during one song that was giving you a feel like you were being pulled forward on an adventure; there was a pencil drawn deer put to animation. It lept across the screen in several forward, fluid movements. Then a fire came and devoured the forest that it stood in. It looked like it was real fire and it started at the bottom right hand corner and slowly burned up the backdrop as the music got sad and at points, furious. Once the music stopped suddenly, the sheet dropped and thousands of butterflies appeared as the music made you feel as if there was rebirth. I don’t know if this sounds hokey, but I assure you it was the exact opposite. Euphoric and epic? Yes. Hokey? No.
Another song, Grow Till Tall, starts out a little light-hearted and a little pensive - is it possible to experience those two emotions at once?. At the concert we saw flowers on the backdrop growing. Most of the time Sigur Ros sings in Iclandic, or hopelandic (a made up language that uses similar sounds to iclandic). Jonsi did most of his new album in English, which is difficult if you think about it. He’s not writing in his heart language.
After Grow Till Tall’s beginning, it gets a little more happy with subtext of unsettled. Enter instruments gaining momentum. Enter Jonsi repeating a phrase and gaining momentum until the instruments join him. Then boom. Dark. He puts you in the middle of the reality of heart wrenching pain. You are in a downpour of emotion. He even changed the song on the CD to make the dark part longer and way more intense during the performance. When Jonsi got to that intense part, the background lighting effect went dark and simulated a downpour. All the flowers withered and gave themselves to the rain. I think everyone grabbed the railing, feeling as if they were in that storm too and feeling the power of the music to take them into pain. The images that came to mind for me was the moments of Christ’s crucifixion when He was giving his last breath. When death thought it won and the world was mourning. I had to hang on tight. Tears my friends. Tears.
