Sigur Rós with opening act Tim Hecker at Roy Wilkins in St Paul MN
4-3-2013
I had seen Sigur Rós two times before this concert. Once
with the Ágætis Byrjun Tour and once
with the Með suð í eyrum við
spilum endalaust tour. Both of those two concerts amazing and very emotional.
With this concert I was able to take both my wife and my father-in-law.
I bought tickets for this concert when they went up for sale
back in November 2012. Actually, my wife got the tickets on the prerelease day.
It wasn’t until after she ordered the tickets that she realized that they were
standing room only tickets. She called Ticketmaster the next day and had them
switched to seats. The problem with this was that she had to settle with
vertical seats instead of horizontal seats. What I mean is that we sat in front
of each other instead of next to each other. This was slightly annoying but not
that bad really. We sat to the left of the stage, between the two sets of large
hanging speakers aimed at the crowd.
Before we went to
find out seats we took a quick glance at what was available from the merch
booth. I was not interested in anything that the opening act was selling.
Mainly because I didn’t even know who the opening act was at that time. I don’t
usually buy T-shirts and didn’t even look at what was selling. I looked in the
display case and saw that Sigur Rós was selling copies of the Valtari
Film Experiment and the second 10” single from Valtari, I think it was Varúð. I
think that there was something else but I can’t remember for sure. On the way
out of the concert I did glance at the table again and saw that there were
Kveikur shirts hanging on the racks. I still wasn’t interested in them though.
I was a little
disappointed that we missed part of the opening act. I think it was Tim Hecker
as he was mentioned in other reviews of this North American tour. When we got
there he was in the middle of his set. There was a white curtain up and just
enough light to be able to see him standing behind the curtain with a table in
front of him. I could only assume that he had his lap top open and all the
equipment he needed on the table in front of him. The music that he was playing
was a bit off but still very interesting ambient music.
They started off
the set with a new track from the upcoming album, Yfirborð. This new track was a slow starter. I knew
it was a new track as I did not recognize it right away. I can say this because
I have listened to the albums that the group has put out so much that I can
usually recognize the songs at the start. It was just a sweet slow song with
strange video to go with it. The curtain was still up at this point too. The
video was playing on the curtain.
The Next track was Ný
Batterí, from their second album. The curtain was still up and the strange
video was still going strong although it had changed. The opening to the song
had more noise in it than the studio version does. I recognized the song when
the bass started playing as this is this part that supports the whole song. A
very interesting version of the song with the extra noise.
The next song was Untitled 1 (A.K.A. Vaka). The curtain came
down just as this song started. This is one of their most recognizable tracks.
I think it is one of their most beautiful tracks as well. It is slow and
deliberate. The video that goes with it depicts an end of the world type vibe
as well. The original video was cut and changed for the tour. If you haven’t
seen the video before the video playing in the concert would have no meaning at
all. It was still interesting though.
The next song, Hrafntinna, is a new song. I don’t know why
but this song couldn’t keep me interested. It could have been the clanging of
the percussion. It was just on the edge of annoying and so repetitive. It
wasn’t a bad song, just not what I was expecting from them.
They did Sæglópur next. This was another song that was
instantly recognized by the opening parts of the song. It is just beautiful. It
is not my favorite song but does come from my favorite album from them. This
one again had the original video cut up in to something different. And again,
if you hadn’t seen the original video the video playing did not make any
difference to the viewer.
The next song,
called Fljótavík, is one of the simpilist but most complex at the same
time. It primarily uses a pump organ giving the song a humble but organic sound
that could not be made without the organ. I grew up with a pump organ. I loved
the sound. I have only heard two bands ever use the instrument, Pearl Jam being
the other. I am not narrow minded in music, I just haven’t heard many bands use
this particular instrument. I think this one touches my heart because I grew up
with the instrument and have come to like the sounds that it makes because of
that.
They did Untitled 6 (A.K.A E-bow) next. The bassist uses an
E-bow to play the song. This version he had a bit of distortion giving the song
a slightly different flavor than I am use to. It was truly amazing. I like the
song in the first place but to add a little distortion to the bass was just
amazing. It gave the song a new perspective. I wish I had a recording of that
version of the song.
They played Varúð next. I had never heard this track
live as they did not come to my area on tour for Valtari. It was very pretty
but the song just didn’t catch me like some of the others with interesting
hooks do.
Hoppípolla was the next song. The song got started and about a minute in stalled out. Jónsi (Jón Þór Birgisson), the lead singer
for the group, got lost and the group had to start over. It was cute and he
apologized for the error in the song. They started over and made a lovely
version of the song. The video in the background reminded me of the version
that was on the Ini video. Just before this they played Happy Birthday because
it was the birthday of one of their road team that had been with them for quite
a while.
The group then went
into Með Blóðnasir from Takk… Before the song started Jónsi had his hands up to get the crowd to
help sing the opening. The crowd didn’t really seem interested in singing the
choral part though. This version was just as good as the studio version I
think.
Kveikur was a new
song from the upcoming album. The song comes off a little industrial in nature
with the hard hitting metallic noises and general noise of the song. This song
has a cool dark hook that I look forward to listening to when the album is
released. The bass line has a cool distortion applied to it in this song too.
They played Olsen
Olsen next. This is another song that is easily recognized simply by Jónsi’s
initial vocals and the start of the bass line. I love this song simply because
of the bass line as it is something that I love to mimic when I don’t want to
be creative; I just want to play someone else’s material. It is also very
hypnotic. It is a beautiful song also from my favorite album from them, their
second album.
Festival was played
next. Why it is called Festival I will never understand. It is one of the
slowest songs that the band has released. There is nothing fun about the song.
When I think of a festival I think of rides, games, kids having fun and parents
chasing after them. This is a song to fall asleep to. that being said, the song
is very beautiful and at one point the band stops playing and Jónsi holds out
one of the longest notes that I have ever heard. He does this again later in
the song but not to the same extent. It is a lovely song.
The last new song of
the night and the last song of the set, before the encore, was Brennisteinn.
This is an amazing track and is included on the EP that went out on the 22nd
of March for ticket holders of the North American tour. I talked about the EP
in Vol. 4 Episode 13. The love version of the song that I heard was just as
awesome as the EP version. It may have been even better because I could feel
the song through my body. The song isn’t angry, just heavy. I am very excited
about this song and the new direction of the group.
They left the stage
as this was the end of the set. They came back on just a minute after to
perform two songs for the encore. The first song was Glósóli . This
is another song that has a wonderful bass line. I am not a fan of the drum part
simply because it doesn’t stay on the beat. It is an amazing drum line but it
puts me off. It is a beautiful song though especially with the vocals standing
in front.
The last song of the night was Untitled 8 (A.K.A.
Popplagið). This one is another sweet song. The lead guitar part is played by
the second guitarist on this one. I have always thought that the bassist could
have easily handled this one on his own but the added dimension is very nice.
It is another slower song that makes for a good wind down for the end of the
concert.
I was very happy to have gone to the concert. I did not get
to hear some of my favorites from their catalog though. This is not really a
disappointment but I always look forward to hearing my favorites when I go to a
concert. It was overall a darker concert, especially with the new songs that
were played.
If you have the chance, go and see them. It will change you
for the better. If you can go back in time, go see a Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust concert. I think that it was their
best.
Set List:
Yfirborð**
Ný Batterí
Vaka
Hrafntinna**
Sæglópur
Fljótavík
E-bow
Varúð
Hoppípolla
Með Blóðnasir
Kveikur**
Olsen Olsen
Festival
Brennisteinn**
ENCORE:
Glósóli
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