setlist
untitled 3
untitled 8
new song
untitled 9 featuring steindór andersen
untitled 5 featuring steindór andersen
death song
pop song
audio clips
sigursteinn kristjánsson
here we go, talking about one anticipated night for some (ie me). the reykjavíkmini
festival was set in a large sports hall, called laugardalshöllin (if youtranslate
it to bits it'd be something like 'the pool valley palace'). onsaturday night we got
to see 3 icelandic bands along with blonde redhead..itwas a damn shame so few attended
this wonderful showcase of music. those whoplayed, in chronological order were: ulpa,
maus, kuai and then blonde redhead. in between acts the propellerheads dj'd. on a
side note, kuai totally blew meaway, with a mixture of jazz, primus-like bassplaying,
metal and...bah! it wasjust a wonderful soup.
aaaaaanyway, i was going to write a review on sunday's sigur rós gig.first off, they came as the second act of the show and to many (myself included)it came as a bit of a surprise. just before the act many people began to stareat a fairly large box on in the middle of the floor. on that box sat a blondehaired woman, dressed like an indian dancer and she seemed to be making somestretching exercises. sigur rós came after a rockabilly country western truckband called gras (grass...duh!) and began their set with samskeyti, a fairly newsong with a painfully beutiful piano riff. they sounded good from where i wasstanding, about 7 meters from the stage, smack in the middle of those speakerswho looked like 2001's monolith. after samskeyti faded out and the applause of3000 people stopped, they slowly began to reveal their new song. it's yet to be named [we call it untitled 10]. it's a very slow song, about seven minutes in length.started with this slow keyboard melody and after 2 minutes, the violins easedthemselves inside this organism, and as another 2 minutes pass, we hear this deeplyflanged guitar somewhere in the distance and jonsi starts to sing, reminded meof a lullaby really and his voice seemed in very good shape and i think thatafter they have played this song live more often, it might become a classic inmy ears.
during these two songs, the indian dressed blonde was swaying and twisting onthe large box in the middle of the crowd, slowly digesting the trance-like tempo.some found it amusing, others inappropriate. i thought it fit quite nicely withthe music. her name was kendra, she was from germany. it wasn't until the songfinished when i realized "eh ? where are the drums ?". yep, the firsttwo numbers were without drums, orri was hunched over the keyboards with kjarri.
enter mr. steindór andersen, a man with class and a man who can bust them ancientrhymes. his haunting, medieval voice and sigur rósÿs music make a combinationfor both dreams and nightmares. he stayed for two songs, the latter one wasmuch better in my opinion, dark and harsh but at the same time fluid. big up forsteindór. the death song followed the poetry, it was good, but this is a songthat they have played so many times, that you would need a downright catastrophy forthem to screw it up.
okay the popsong...popsong...popsong... i am torn in opinion here, on one hand ihave never seen it as intense as there and so marvelously loud. they had aguestplayer during that song, kiddi from the recordshop hljómalind (the host ofthe festival). he, along with his young son (i think), bashed a large chinesegong cymbal, unfortunately i couldn't hear it at all. and on the other hand, itseems like jonsi's guitar broke in some way and after the furious ending of thetrack, they hurried offstage and seemed even a bit upset...not that i know shitabout that. it was a disappointment that their set was cut short, it lastedonly about 50 minutes (but then again, maybe their set wasn't supposed to belonger anyway). the cheers of the crowd died out late, but no encore.
after sigur rós's apocolyptic ending i thought to myself: "i feel sorry
for the next artist, coming on after that".
(sigursteinn kristjánsson)
hörður sveinsson
last night i saw sigur rós play at laugardalshöllin inreykjavík.
laugardalshöllinn is icelands biggestconcert venue which i never really understand...
thesound is crap and the stage is bad... but it's big andpromoters need alot of tickets
to be sold to makemoney right...
sigur rós had announced that they would be premiering abrand spanking new song at the gig so everyone wasunderstandably excited.
the line up for the night were 4 bands: hljómar,sigur rós, gras and alex gifford, all icelandic bandsexcept for alex gifford who is a member of thepropellerheads.
stupidly, some one put sigur rós up as the second bandof the night so no-one was really ready for it... irushed to the front to catch a glimpse of the band andgot a "alright" spot smack in the middle.
the sound at first was horrible... the bass was wayway up and samskeyti just sounded bad.
the new song... i dont really remember much of it...it was nothing that caught my attention really... itwas nice though... jónsi played a electronic piano andgeorg played the xylaphone.
during the first 2 songs a female dancer did a littlenumber in the midst of the crowd... i didnt really seemuch of it, because i was at the front.
when the new song was over, jónsi called steindórandersen up on stage who did 2 songs with them, thasecond song he did was the hightlight of the gig forme, it was the first time i heard the steindór songsand i was totally blown away, wooozawoooooza.
the band then performed the death song and ended withthe pop song, they got a guest up on stage at the endof pop song, kiddi kanína, the owner of hljómaliHljómalind andthe promoter for the festival, he played on a big bongwith them for the rest of the song....
sigur rós did no encores... althought the crowdapplauded for several minutes...the
gig was not really good and it was not reallybad... it was somewhere in the middle,
it was way toshort... it sounded crap.... laugardalshöllin reallyisnt a venue
for sigur rós.... but hey Sigur rós cannever be all bad... the steindór
songs, death song andpop song were well played and very good.
(hörður sveinsson)
sindri m. sigfússon
sigur rós, the shy cuties from the land of ice, played lastnight at laugardagshöllin,
the concert was part of a recordstore-comeback-festival, arecordstore sigur róses
old manager owns.
it was a very nice show and alotta people showed up, ages 6-60, they startedwith samskeyti, a very nice new song. then played a brand new song, where jonsi seemed to be having some trouble with his guitar, but it sounded ohkay anyways. then they played two songs with mad rhyme busta steindór andersen, who the crowd really loved, the second song was brilliant. they then played one of my favorite newsongs, the death song, wich was flawless, and i can understand why some people fromakureyri started to cry.
the pop song was the last song they played, one of my new favorites, very nicewhere
kiddi hljómalind(sigur róses old manager, recordstore owner and the
man responsible for the concert) came onstage with what i think was his kid, and played
a big gong in the last minute of the song, very nice and cute seeing thelittle kid
with a stick bigger then him hitting the huge gong. weell.. not much more to say..
the sound was okay..and the lights were also nice, and oh! there was some dancer there..
a girl on some kinda podium.. i turned my headonce and she was flapping her arms around
and stuff.. i dont know.. i only looked once.. it was probebly very nice, likethe
whole gig, except for some fucking girl that stood behind me. just before the show
started i heard her saysomething like "i love sigurrós, i have all their cd's,
i listen to them all the time" and then she talked the wholefucking gig! bah! i almost
turned around and slapped her, but some french people infront of me started dancing
so i decided not to.
(sindri m. sigfússon)
nme
it's a long flight north, all the way rigid bodies deflating as we put a couple of
oceans between us and the ultra violet nightmare of ebitzer and august in gotham.
we arrive sometime in november and the elves are singing.
it's sigur rós's polar magnetism that's brought us here to this sports hall tonight. vocalist and guitarist jon por birgisson is that rare space bat angel dragon whose equipped with an emotional thermometer in his larynx. turning the dial from cold jack frost frozen sky indifference to a laser hot blast of intensity.
sigur rós have been number one here for months with their third album. it's not difficult to see why. birgisson's so thin that if he turns sideways he disappears from the stage, adding to the spell and mystique of this band who sing in their own language, hopelandic. like the cocteau twins baby talk but electrified with the slow draw of violin bow across supercharged stratocaster. during imminent uk ep svefn-g-englar birgisson actually sings into the pick ups and we anticipate its imminent spontaneous combustion.
sigur rós are part spiritualised and part
enya with the immense epic sonic vistas of godspeed you black
emperor! the northern lights are blazing bright again.
(nme)
