setlist
nyja lagið
the nothing song / njósnalagið
untitled 10 / vaka
untitled 1 / lagið í gær
untitled 2 / álafoss
ný batterí
untitled 3 / fyrsta
untitled 8 / samskipti
olsen olsen
svefn-g-englar
death song
pop song
the boston globe
sigur ros, a quartet from reykjavik, iceland, has been one of the year's major success
stories, in terms of serious and progressive alternative rock. sigur ros - the name
translates as victory rose - formed in 1994 and is riding the acclaim of its first
internationally released cd, ''agaelis byrjun'' (a good beginning). its members do
not subscribe to the cult of personality. they are shoegazers. their sound is ethereal
and funereal, their demeanor austere and remote. as a band, the players are quiet
and clamorous, capable of grandeur and, well, annoyance.
consider these apparent influences that surfaced during the band's nearly two-hour boston debut, the third show of its us tour, at the sold-out berklee peformance center on friday: bach, beethoven, sugarcubes, sonic youth, philip glass, pink floyd, brian eno, my bloody valentine, radiohead (which likes the group so much it asked sigur ros to tour with the band twice), dead can dance, and cocteau twins
like the latter's liz fraser, sigur ros's singer, jon thor birgisson, mostly uses made-up, private language called hopelandic, drawn from icelandic. (that is, to our ears: gobbledygook, albeit heartfelt, pained gobbledygook.) like radiohead's thom yorke, he often sings in a very high register, sometimes gratingly.
sigur ros moves at a slow, steady pace, mostly using 6/8 or 3/4 meters. the band favors a calm-into-storm motif, occasionally pulling back from the anticipated chaos to stay quiet and subdued, almost ambient. drummer orri pali dyrason can power the band to glorious crescendos, but sometimes, he's not the drummer at all - he joins the keyboard collective, stage right, which is headed by kjartan sveinsson and can also include birgisson or bassist georg holm.
the band members played a dozen longish songs, including its semihit ''svefn-g-englar'' near the end, without uttering a word to the audience or speaking among themselves. you kept ping-ponging back and forth between being sucked into a gorgeous maelstrom and realizing, for all the musicianship and attention to detail, that a lot of these songs sounded the same over the long haul.
san diego's the album leaf opened up. it's a side project of tristeza's jimmy lavalle
(fleshed out by three others on tour) and it connected with an all-instrumental set
- a tranquil, but not soporific, keyboard-based sound that was both modest and enticing.
(the boston globe)
harlequin1977
i'm still in awe. it's very difficult to say that this is the greatest concert that
i've been to, especially considering that i'd seen radiohead and tool in the last
month, but they were just...beautiful. there's something about their music that takes
me to another place...
the venue was nice, although the seats weren't the most comfortable i'd ever dealt
with. with the exception of seeing dave brubeck last year in worcester i can't think
of the last time i'd been to a concert where the audience only clapped after each
song...it was a nice change, after having seen tool in maine the night before...the
sg show had a much nicer blend of respectful music lovers, as opposed to shirtless
fratboys and their sorority girlfriends.
(harlequin1977) [from the sigur rós yahoo! club]
elpanek2
i also was at the berklee show. it was really like nothing i've seen before. i had
really high expectations and they were met. beautiful. i will need to see this band
again.
the mood of many of the songs was consistently slow and calm, which was nice, but
it did start to get old towards the end. then, that last song, the "pop song"...i'm
still at a loss for words trying to describe it to people. the fact that the whole
show had been pretty calm until the end of that song made it that much more riveting+intense.
it reminded me of some live pink floyd shows from 1969-70 (ummagumma live disk).
(elpanek2) [from the sigur rós yahoo! club]
alexb@starband.net
first of all, i have to say this was a really amazing show. i really liked it. the
setlist had 3 songs ive heard before and a bunch of ones i havent heard and dont know
the title of them. the opening band was okay and played a really long set. after that
there was a long waiting period for them to set up for sigur ros. the band seemed
in a ok mood but didnt speak at all (except for singing). i expected a "hello, we
are sigur ros" or "thanks" or something, but at least they bowed at the end. the lighting
was great and the images from the projecter were creepy and beautiful. they played
olsen olsen without the string players and it sounded really nice. when the band bowed
and let the stage, the album version of avalon went over the speakers as we walked
out. as i said before, it was really nice.
(alexb@starband.net)
