photos by louis medellin

setlist

takk
glósóli
ný batterí
sæglópur
njósnavélin
e-bow
gong
andvari
hoppípolla
með blóðnasir
olsen olsen
svo hjótt
heysátan
viðrar vel til loftárása
popplagið


fan review
well, here we were at the end of our tri-city tour through texas.. wrapping things up here in fort worth. by far the best venue i had ever been to for a sigur ros show. beautiful was not even close to describing how this venue looked. even the exterior was magnificent.

when sigur ros took the stage, it was almost as if the whole crowd was frozen as it seemed as if everyone was captivated by the music. the highlight of the evening was just before 'gong' when there seemed to be some problems with kjartan's guitar. that's when mr. birgisson came to the rescue and did a little "improv"... quite interesitng.

and the surprise for the evening was viðrar vel til loftárása suddenly made a "cameo" on the setlist as part of the encore. ahh.. what a masterpiece this was! it was quite amusing when the band took the stage for their famous "takk.." bow at the end of the show. jonsi welcomed the whole tour crew on stage and thanked them as it was the end of the leg. that's when jonsi, kjartan, georg and orri pulled out their silly string and shot the whole crew in their faces.

after the show we walked across the street to a local bar for a good hour and a half. then as we were leaving we walked behind the bass hall and who do we see hanging out back?.. the whole band along with amina. we then politely walked over and chatted with the everyone for about 20 minutes. hildur from amina even told me she remembered me.. that was quite funny. while i was talking to kjartan a homeless man approached us and asked for some spare change... kjartan immediately helped the man without hesitation.

the best part of the evening was when we all got to take a picture with the whole band... one big happy family!

thank you sigur ros for returning to texas and hope to see you soon...

see you at coachella!

(louis medellin)

dallas morning news
a lot of rock bands fit awkwardly into stately bass performance hall, but not sigur rós. on monday night, the ethereal icelandic quartet seemed every bit at home there as the fort worth opera does.

maybe it was because frontman jón þor birgisson could pass for an opera singer - or, for that matter, a train whistle or an exotic bird. singing partly in icelandic, and partly in a made-up language he calls "hopelandish," he turned his falsetto into a delicate, swooping instrument. it was part vienna boys choir, part björk.

his guitar work was equally unpredictable - one second sweet, the next nightmarish. playing it with a cello bow (á la jimmy page) gave it an even more foreboding quality.

sigur rós - icelandic for "victory rose" - jelled nicely on several songs with amina, the all-female quartet it has toured with for years. but for all the classical instruments and symphonic song structures, the concert owed just as much to grunge, with tunes growing from a whisper to a nirvana-like roar.

for the most part, the music was impossible to peg. thundering war drums mashed into gentle xylophones. new-age piano phrases vanished into loud, distorted bass guitars.

and the visuals were often as trippy as the music. the musicians played the first song behind a translucent red screen that made them look like a bunch of giants and midgets. later, the band went low-tech and played next to a pair of light bulbs that grew bright whenever the song crescendoed and dim when the volume dropped.

at times, the moody lighting was a bit much. watching musicians lurk in shadows can be fun for a few songs, but frustrating after that.

yet the capacity crowd paid rapt attention, waiting until every last note had ended before bursting into applause - a classical response perfectly befitting such an orchestral rock 'n' roll band.

(thor christensen)