Artists: Sigur Ros, Amina
Venue: Beacon Theatre, NYC, NY
Date: September 12, 2005
My first concert in The City was a fitting beginning to a new life: It was the best rock concert I have ever been to. Bar none. I have never been so happy at a concert in my life, and that includes incredible performances such as Radiohead and Autolux live, as well as the phenomenal Mahler Symphony 9 performed by Yoel Levi and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
The opening band was Amina, who are (according to a note on their EP which I bought) “long-time Sigur Ros collaborators.” Indeed, as I entered the theatre (orchestra center right), I was greeted by a mostly empty auditorium with 4 girls in dim light performing on stage, in deep concentration. They were playing a variety of percussive instruments, and the muted glow of a Powerbook was visible from the middle of the stage. Their music evoked memories of my experience at a gamelan concert (which had preceded a performance of Messaien’s Turangalila Symphony by the ASO), except that it progressed forward slightly faster than a traditional gamelan would, and it sounded much fuller but with a fewer number of instruments. However, as they went through different songs (each person shuffling positions and instruments for each song), I was struck not by how much they sounded like this or that, but how good their music was. The tipping point was when one of the girls pulled out a stool and started rosening up a bow. As she sat down with legs slightly spread, I waited for her to pick up her cello (which wouldn’t have been surprising at this point, considering that one of the girls had earlier been playing a violin). However, what I was not ready for was a saw. Yes, a cutting saw, with serrated edges. She picked it up and began playing expertly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for her, and I was completely beyond hope–I witnessed the rest of their songs with growing excitement and when they finished (and one of them said in a really soft voice and a strong accent, “thank you for listening. we are amina and you can buy our ep and some t-shirts outside”), I damn near ran out the auditorium to pick up their ep (a first for me!).
I almost started worrying during the intermission about how Sigur Ros could possibly top that. After all, that was an amazing performance and I hadn’t even been familiar with Amina’s music before; after all, I have already heard two of Sigur Ros’s albums, and although I like them, I can’t honestly claim to be a huge fan. I haven’t even heard a single snippet from their latest (Takk). What if it ends up being boring? What if they can’t hold a tune live (like some other bands I saw over the summer)? What if they’re outdone by their opener? The intermission music continued droning as I pondered these questions (excellent music at that, by the way: it was simply a low bass note that pulsated in and out, in an expectant, but not petulant, manner). Behind the sheer white curtain covering the stage, I could see bodies moving equipment, plugging in guitars and amplifiers and electronics, twiddling with knobs, preparing. And I started preparing as well. For a mediocre performance. A possibly OK performance.
The drone cut out and another electronic drone replaced it. Slowly, the music crescendoed with the lights at the back of the stage, and the silhouttes of 2, no wait 3, wait maybe 4 people appeared on the white curtain. As soon as the chord changed, all my fears were put to rest; this was going to be a stellar concert.
The two hour long performance was so great, it is impossible to know how to describe it, convey the excitement I felt, whatever I say seems to lack the essence of the performance, and yet I so very much want to write it down so that I can perhaps look back at some distant future and recall with love and fondness this concert. I will suffice my demands with snippets of thoughts before I forget them.
The lights moved frequently and were often assisted by others or given solo performances: this created the illusion of a band in motion, in flux, in a state of high energy as their shadows teleported across the curtain, sometimes giving the guitarist center stage, sometimes the bassist. The pianist on the left was completely invisible to me at this stage; the drummer on the right seemed to be monstrous in waiting. The drums didn’t come in till after the first song, when the curtains were lifted and they started my favorite song (”Ny Batteri”). I didn’t recognize it at first from the extraneous sonar buoy sounds and the shock of seeing the main singer playing a guitar with a bow (I see a pattern emerging…), but many others did (and vocally made their knowledge of Sigur Ros songs known by clapping vigorously after the very first sonar drop; this pattern continued for every single song they played).
This song was also the first to be accompanied by the video screen in the background, playing footage reminiscent of the black-and-white second world-war era footage shown at the Doves concert. However, this one was so heavily filtered that it took me most of the song to realize what I was looking at: a man with a thick jacket wandering around in a windy and desolate environment (I thought of Chernobyl or Severnaya after the disasters). Future songs were accompanied by similar sorts of videos (most of which took me several minutes to interpret the scenes being shown). The videos were almost all slowed-down to seem “artistic” and were mostly artistic in any case. The final song of the encore had a particularly brilliant video of a long telephone wire with several birds on it in silhouette. The birds would constantly fly on and off the wire, until the end of the song, when the band members started leaving the stage one-by-one as their parts finished up. Once all members had left the stage and the last reverberations were dying off, all the birds flew off the bird and followed the performers off the stage to the left. The applause was thunderous, the people were all on their feet (despite assigned seats and a well-behaved (i.e. seated) audience throughout), and the fervent desire and anticipation of a second encore was palpable, and Sigur Ros came out twice for bows. The lights came on and the applause continued. Only when the stage hands came out and started removing equipment did people (including me) finally convince ourselves that the performance was indeed over.
I can only hope that I am lucky enough to witness another performance as incredible as this one.
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