Sigur Rós, the one that I anticipated most. Their gig is my favourite this year. They are real geniuses. Their music is amazingly beautiful.
When listen hard to their music, I can feel my heart bumping irregularly, blood rushing in the vessels and my mind wondering in a neverland. When turning down the volume, however, it becomes a perfect BGM. What eles can you ask for? It was cold that night. Like last Sat. I took the bus to Victoria Station again and then the tube straight to Birxton. The venue for tonight is another Carling--Carling Academy Brixton, claimed to be the "Best Live Venue" by NME.
Before I came, there were several friends including British or American, asking bands I am going to see. White Stripes and Franz Ferdinand were OK, they are quite famous obviously. Sigur Rós, in the other way, always got blank faces after I uttered the name. It was like: who are they? is it a British band? No, they are Icelanders. And then speechless... huh. But I knew this gig was going to be great.
There was, as usual, Amina before the major start of Sigur Rós. Their musik is crystal clear, made by sources you couldn't imagine. The sounds are hypnotic and cold, they are also part of the performance of Sigur Rós. Unlike the White Stripes ones, nearly everyone listen to their music. Maybe because their similarity to Sigur Rós and their good quality of music. I quite like them, but when the first sound come from Sigur Rós on the stage, I was spellbound. Suddenly I realised how good they are.
Sometimes their songs were all alike but still they elicited different feelings. Sometimes I felt welcomed, and sometimes nostalgia. I felt like flying and also I felt like dreaming. Everytime the drum started to beat strongly, my heart beats stonger. I stopped to talk with my friend, and forgot to blink my eyes nor change my gesture. I was entralled.
It is hard to delineate their performance as well as their sounds. It was like magic, capturing whole your mind. Some said this gig was more like a classical concert than a rock gig or they were like postmodern classic (what's that?). I would say they are not even bothered with those broad classifications.
The setlist was arranged to give us a journey-like feeling. It was: intro, glosolio, ny batteri, se lest, saeglopur, njosnavelin, gong, andvari, hoppipolla, med blodnasir, olsen olsen, vidrar vel, svo hjlott, heysatan / hafssol, smaskifa / popplagid. (from their website, wrote by jón þór birgisson I think. I cant recall all of them XP) It started with the introductory tracks, intro and glósóli, from the takk... album. Then gave us a mixed taste of ágætis byrjun, ( ), and takk.... It ended up with the epic
popplagið which was my favorite at the unforgettable nite. The stage was designed rather simple--only lights and white backdrop. Images projected were enigmatic but there was mysteriously close correspondence between the visual and the acoustic. The twinkling stars, the unsettled birds, and flickering images from their vids combined with the lucid vocal, guitar, bass, xylophone, violin, piano and drums... Oh it's overwhelming. I've filmed popplagið. Everytime I watch it, it still takes my breath away.
The venue, Acedemy Brixton. The words on the white semi-circle were "SIGUR ROS" and "SOLD OUT". Most of the people waited outside in the small lane (your right hand side of this pic). It was a cold cold night. We did jumping, waving and running continually to keep warm. You can see more pix of this venue on their wibsite. The interior of the auditorium is worth seeing. It's like a Roman garden and there's even simulated moonlight. It's more like a setting for plays such as "A Midsummer Night's Dream" or something like that.
