Hello all,
Last night featured North Carolina's first and probably last appearance of Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros. Hailing from the icy north, the band is renown for their ethereal music playing and inventive and original uses of standard guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards.
Last night they played at the Carolina Theater in Durham, North Carolina to an infatuated sold out crowd. It was a seated event in a beautiful theater designed for monumentous plays and orchestral concerts, and the band fit the bill. The show opened with the four string players of the band peforming some of their own songs. The pieces were strung together with the common element of playing objects not normally considered to be musical. They played a vandegraff generator, receptionist bells, even a saw with a bow. Most appreciative of the instruments played was a Minimoog synthesizer. If you've ever seen
A Clockwork Orange, you've heard a Minimoog played. They were fun to listen to and I picked up their EP on sale at the merchandise table, $10.
After their four songs, a silk screen was droped from the ceiling and the full band took their places on stage. A set of backlights shone against the curtain and cast larger than life silhouettes of the band as they began to play. The lead guitarist and singer used a bow to play his guitar, so this hunched over 20 foot tall shadow frantically playing a guitar with a bow was how the show started. Each song started with applause of approval from the audience and the songs lasted approximately 10 mintues per song. If you've never heard the band, try to relate the extended songs that Brian Eno would draw from crowd scenes on a street or down by a pier as the backdrop of a plethora of transient synth music, slow drums, and melodic bass lines. The deep bass penetrated the chest cavity and reverberated in the body invigorating the soul; the pipe organ melded the songs together and added a dimension of church-like awe that drew penitence and respect from the audience.The combination of fog and lights entertained the eye and drew attention away from the lack of band member motion on stage. The singer didn't speak English, only Icelandic and a language invented by the band called Hopelandic, and his incredibly high pitched voice was like the icing on a cake. It wasn't a show one would want ot get up and dance to, rather it was a show of light and sound that transported the listener to a different time and place. It was a full body experience.
If you live by the east or west coast, you might still be able to catch them. They have a number of shows coming up in New York and LA, but little elsewhere. It's remarkable that they even came to the US. If you're interested in hearing them but not buying an album, you can hear one of their songs performed in the movie
Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, as well as
Vanilla Sky. I can't tell you where it occurs, but it's there. I do recommend buying the album "Agaetis Byrjun" though.
Go here for a demo
http://www.epitonic.com/artists/sigurros.html
