What an incredible night at the Bank of America Pavilion. The night was chilly, but Sigur Ros was anything but. Their new album, Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust, is upbeat and uptempo, and the concert was as well.
Sigur Ros is straightforward in concert. Jon chatted with the audience on two occasions to get people to sing along. Sing along with Sigur Ros, you might ask? More of a high-pitched whir, but a good bonding moment with the audience. The band performs slightly reconfigured versions of their album cuts, with strong visual images. The lighting is good, but sparse; the movement even more sparse. But a Sigur Ros concert is about the wall of sound the band creates, and they succeeded song after song.
The songs off the new album set the tone for the evening, and the songs from previous albums, while more traditional Sigur Ros, were layered with guitars and feedback that gave them an almost rocking edge. The band did seem to be having some technical difficulties--members of the stage crew were regularly on the stage to tweak things--but this was a fine night of music and filled a gap in my musical education.
The concert got off to a great start with Parachutes, another Icelandic band clearly influenced by Sigur Ros. The ten members of the group played a huge range of instruments with lilting melodies and minimalist orchestrations. Expect more, and give a listen to the four songs on their myspace page.
(Top pics are from Chris Devers over at Flickr, the bottom ones are from my iPhone.)
