photos by torbjörn gíslason
setlist
intro
vaka
fyrsta
samskeyti
ný batterí
njósnavélin
svefn-g-englar
salka
intro
von
hafssól
popplagið
torbjörn gíslason
the evening did not start well. when i came with my friends to collect my "free passes"
i got some horrible news. my name was not on the guestlist. this was something that
nightmares are made of. after much pleading the guy at the door went in to check if
i should be at the guestlist. this was a sold out show and a lot of people outside
desperately trying to get tickets. violent thoughts were beginning to race through
my head when the guy finally came back. yes i was in. the sense of relief was enormous
as i got the much coveted stamp of approval on the back of my hand. by the way i was
not the only one to go through this awful experience as there were other people who
should have been on the guestlist but were not. when people are invited make damn
sure that they are on the guestlist. when we finally got in the opening act had already
started playing. it was someone with a guitar and since we were absolutely not interested
we went straight to the bar. so i cant say anything about who this was or if he was
any good. after waiting for what seemed to be almost eternity (25 minutes) sigur rós
came on stage. the first song was vaka the new version, i have always thought that
this song was perfect but i was wrong, the ending is so much better in this version.
fyrsta came and went almost unnoticed because i was trying (mostly unsuccessfully)
to take some pictures. most of my attention was focused on elbowing people in the
back to try to get closer to the stage and cursing back at them in both danish and
icelandic. i gave up on the picturetaking when sigur rós started playing samskeyti
and found a less crowded place a little back. it was now time to start paying attention
to the music and what music this is! from the slow subtle beauty of vaka to the awesome
power of the popsong. throughout the concert you go on an emotional roller coaster.
even though i have been to a few concerts before i always feel the same. my impressions
from the first concert i went to still linger. jónsi little solo before ný
batterí still sound like he is torturing a cat. my heart still skips a beat
when i hear the first ping of svefn-g-englar. seeing jónsi sing into his guitar
is just mesmerising. the new song, salka, is one of the best from sigur rós,
very catching and melodic. hafssól is my favorite live song and there is simply
no way for me to describe what went through my mind when they played that song. i
cant wait for the studio version. the pop song starts a little slowly but climaxes
in an incredibly powerful ending that pounds through your body. you are left there
standing breathless, dazed and a little tired, but still longing for more, but there
is no more. the popsong is the last song of the show and all that is left is for sigur
rós and the amina strings to come out to take a bow. the only disappointment
this night is that we dont get to hear olsen olsen as encore. hopefully i will get
to hear it at my next conert
( torbjörn gíslason)
