photos by bernadette stallmeyer (22.08)
photos by bernadette stallmeyer (23.08)
setlist (22.08)
(intro)
mílanó
samskeyti
gong
olsen olsen
viðrar vel til loftárása
popplagið
smáskífa
setlist (23.08)
(intro)
mílanó
olsen olsen
viðrar vel til loftárása
hafssól
popplagið
smáskífa
lars edeen iii (23.08)
saturday august 23rd was going to be the date of my third sigur rós show and
my first bjork show, so i was pretty damn excited. my trek to the concert began around
noon in north philadephia where i recently began uni. i walked 2 blocks to the nearest
subway station, which brought me through on the worst neighborhoods in philly. i then
took a 35 minute sub ride the the train station. when i got the the train station
i had then wait another 30 minutes before my train left for new york's penn station.
i rode the train listening to my ipod the whole way getting psyched for the show.
it wasn't only the show i was psyched about i was also glad i was going to be seeing
my girlfriend for the first time since i left for school. on the train ride the new
york my train had some problems with the wheel's or something else that's really important
and i was 20 minutes late getting to new york. when i finally got to new york i had
to walk 3 blocks to the subway station so i could then get to coney island. on my
way to the subway station a crazed crackhead claiming to me a lost student from boston
asked me for $200 so he could take the train back to boston. for a second i believed
him, but i could smell the booze and drugs so i made a bee-line away from him. i finnaly
made it to the subway station and got on the sub. i didn't realize that it would take
over an hour to get from midtown manhattan to coney island via subway. i had to endour
the entire trip knowing that i was supposed to meet my girlfriend at the show around
3:30 and it was 3:00 when i got on the sub. i didn't end up getting to coney island
until 4:30, because my subcar also had some problems that caused delays. when i did
get there i rushed to the stadium to reunite with my girlfriend, but she wasn't there.
i had to walk around confused and without a ticket until she arrived. i was fearing
for her saftey seeing as she was over an hour late and she was coming all the way
from onnecticut. finnaly a little after 6 she arrived and i was relieved. we got in
line and waited for the show. we heard the band doing soundcheck and they played a
show snipit of track 3 off of ( ) as well as the beginning of the pop song. a little
before 7:30 they let us into the show. i had general admission tickets so it was awesome
to be so close to the stage. i was about 5 people back right in-front of orri. i'm
not even going to bother with a review of the opening act simply becaue they were
one of the worst acts i've ever seen. now let me skip right into sigur rós'
set. it was still light out and we heard the intro music start that meant it was time
to see sigur rós. then the band walked out and everyone went crazy. as the
band began to play the crowd went silent with awe as with all sigur rós concerts.
i had heard from friends about the new intro to mílanó that they
had played the night before so i was atticitpating it, i have no idea it would be
as good as it was. it started off very quiet and then broke out into one of the heaviest
peices they've ever written, possibly heavier than the pop song. i was blown away
mílanó has always been one of my favorites, but with the new intro it
is my favorite. after the song came to an end jónsi said "thank you" which
caught me completely off gaurd. i have over 40 sigur rós bootlegs and i can
only count one with speaking to the crowd so to me this show was instantly a classic.
then the band broke into gong which is another great song. i noticed that about half
way through the song jónsi sang different lyrics than on any other version
i've ever heard, this too led me to believe this is one of the greatest concerts ever.
the new lyrics, or noises as some prefer, were song of the best hopelandic lyrics
he's ever sung. after gong the jónsi was joking and laughing with members of
amina, he was having a great time and everyone could tell. he was smiling and just
having a good time on stage. the band then played olsen olsen, viðrar vel til
loftárása, and hafssól before bringing down the house with popplagið.
after popplagið jónsi spoke again, this time he said "thank you very much,
this one is for our friends.'' and then the band went right into smáskifa.
it was breath taking. everything the band did that night was breat taking. most of
the people i spoke to outside of the show thought that sigur rós stole the
show and that even though they only played 65 minutes it was one of the best sigur
rós show's they've ever seen. i thought it was best performance i've seen them
give.
(lars edeen iii)
eric belair (22 + 23.08)
[first night] what an amazing show tonight! my seats sucked :p but the show was still
amazing. sigur rós (my favorite all time musicians, if you didn't already know)
blew - it - up. simply breathtaking as usual (4th time i've seen them). and miss b
ruled as usual. she was scrumptrulescent (a joke for those on the inside).
my highlights of björk: i love the new song desired constellation. generous palmstroke (my second favorite björk song of all time) was superb as always - she sings it so amazingly. the same goes for unravel (my third favorite björk song of all time). unfortunately, she did not play my all time favorite björk song - possibly maybe. :( but, i can't always have my cake and eat it too. hyper-ballad was great. right after h-b, it's in our hands was crazy amazing! it was a remixed version - really loud, really bassy, great beats. and then after that....holy crap....pluto tore the place up!!! it was a crowd favorite. the sound in the venue was excellent - a lot better than i expected for a baseball field.
just got back from show number 2. even better. my friend and i got there at 9am. we were the first people there. met some nice fans from la, sfo, and even new zealand - this couple flew all the way here just for this show. we got to hear zeena soundcheck, as well as the icelandic string octet. we waited until 6pm to get in. before we got in, this nice security guard let me, my friend, and this other girl (zoe from sfo) in one at a time before the gates were opened to look around and buy t-shirts. and i got to watch sigur rós do their sound check!!! :d it was awesome. i just stood there with this big gaping mouth. when we got in, we were right in the front (standing) but not in the middle, since they let other people in right before us at a different gate (which they weren't supposed to do ... errrrrr). but, we were situated right in front of orri, which is my favorite place to be when i watch them because he's just so amazing on the drums. sigur rós outdid themselves again. since they were opening, it was a shorter set than normal, but they still played 7 songs. it was the best watching them up close, cause i got to actually hear the drums themselves, and not being amplified through speakers. it was awesome. on hafssól, they totally lost all inhibitions at the end and totally let loose and just rocked it! i loved it! and that's not usually one of my favorite songs. and, at the end, i was begging the stagehand to give me jónsi's bow - it was pretty beat up, i doubted it was useful any more (lol) - but he wouldn't do it. he just gave me the cash sign with his hands. so, a few minutes later, he was breaking down the drumkit, and i saw him pick up a bunch of drumsticks and yelled out to ask him if i could please have one of those, and he tossed it right to me!!! so i have orri's drumstick!!! :d :d :d i was good for the night. but, i still had björk to look forward to!
my friend was not feeling well, but this was her first time seeing björk,
and she just had the best time watching her. björk was dancing up a storm the
whole night, and her voice was 100% absolutely perfect - not a single mistake, not
a single flaw. and she looked beautiful. she played another great set - a few different
songs from the night before. oh, it was so much better to be right up front for this
concert. the sound was just so excellent)
(eric belair)
