haukur heiðar hauksson this is my third review now for the concerts that took place in less than a week and more than a month has passed since then, so one starts to wonder how good this last one is going to get, and also what there’s left to say.
the venue was gaukur á stöng, in which i’m pretty sure sigur rós have played before. it’s a club in the left of reykjavík and it’s iceland’s only music-only club, with live music every single night of the week. it’s referred to as ‘the stable’ within icelandic musicians and sometimes musicians just play there for booze. it just opened after renovations and is supposedly now a much better place. (there… i admit it… it was my first time there…)
things were looking rather bleak as björn and i stood in the queue outside gaukur á stöng when we discovered that the bouncers were checking everybody’s ID, even the people who anyone could see that were most definitely over 20. that was a huge problem as björn and i are both just 18 years old. (there were no pre-sold tickets, only cash at the door.) but with the help of a very nice person indeed we were able to get inside.
once inside, the atmosphere was alright. people just stood around chatting as there were almost no tables or chairs and members of the band came out and mingled with the people. as the band went onstage and started setting up, the crowd started to arrange itself around the stage, there was a single line of people in chairs in front of the stage and we stood behind them with the rest. then björn and i saw storme with some friends sitting on the floor in front of those chair-people. we of course rushed, crammed and pushed our way to storme and co. and sat there almost ‘on’ the stage throughout the concert. which was nice. except i never got to see kjartan as i was sitting right in front of his big organ [i’m sorry this must be an intentional pun – ed.]
sigur rós played the same set as at the other two concerts and everything was sounding very well. after the new untitled song, nýja lagið followed and in my opionion they’ve never played it so well. throughout the concert kjarri’s keyboards and organs were more audible than usually. i don’t know if it was a different sound guy they were using or if i just heard kjarri’s monitor speaker as i sat so close to him. the really long untitled song sounded extra good and that song is really starting to grow on me. after the death song they did the poetry and song with steindór andersen and then it was time for the incredible last song. that was perhaps the worst part of the concert, not at all because orri dropped a drumstick in the climax, just because the band wasn’t really clicking this time, at least not before the climax.
this was in my opinion the best concert out of these three, although this was probably not the best venue to see sigur rós in, but definitely the most personal out of the three. jónsi’s voice had obviously gotten better and everything was just perfect. well, at least almost. it was rather annoying to hear that people were chatting when the band was playing as icelandic audiences are usually very quiet, but after all, this was at a club.
i hereby conclude my trilogy, and who knows if i’ll pull a george lucas on all of you and come back with a new trilogy later :) (haukur heiðar hauksson)
esbs
says:haukur heiðar hauksson
this is my third review now for the concerts that took place in less than a week and more than a month has passed since then, so one starts to wonder how good this last one is going to get, and also what there’s left to say.
the venue was gaukur á stöng, in which i’m pretty sure sigur rós have played before. it’s a club in the left of reykjavík and it’s iceland’s only music-only club, with live music every single night of the week. it’s referred to as ‘the stable’ within icelandic musicians and sometimes musicians just play there for booze. it just opened after renovations and is supposedly now a much better place. (there… i admit it… it was my first time there…)
things were looking rather bleak as björn and i stood in the queue outside gaukur á stöng when we discovered that the bouncers were checking everybody’s ID, even the people who anyone could see that were most definitely over 20. that was a huge problem as björn and i are both just 18 years old. (there were no pre-sold tickets, only cash at the door.) but with the help of a very nice person indeed we were able to get inside.
once inside, the atmosphere was alright. people just stood around chatting as there were almost no tables or chairs and members of the band came out and mingled with the people. as the band went onstage and started setting up, the crowd started to arrange itself around the stage, there was a single line of people in chairs in front of the stage and we stood behind them with the rest. then björn and i saw storme with some friends sitting on the floor in front of those chair-people. we of course rushed, crammed and pushed our way to storme and co. and sat there almost ‘on’ the stage throughout the concert. which was nice. except i never got to see kjartan as i was sitting right in front of his big organ [i’m sorry this must be an intentional pun – ed.]
sigur rós played the same set as at the other two concerts and everything was sounding very well. after the new untitled song, nýja lagið followed and in my opionion they’ve never played it so well. throughout the concert kjarri’s keyboards and organs were more audible than usually. i don’t know if it was a different sound guy they were using or if i just heard kjarri’s monitor speaker as i sat so close to him. the really long untitled song sounded extra good and that song is really starting to grow on me. after the death song they did the poetry and song with steindór andersen and then it was time for the incredible last song. that was perhaps the worst part of the concert, not at all because orri dropped a drumstick in the climax, just because the band wasn’t really clicking this time, at least not before the climax.
this was in my opinion the best concert out of these three, although this was probably not the best venue to see sigur rós in, but definitely the most personal out of the three. jónsi’s voice had obviously gotten better and everything was just perfect. well, at least almost. it was rather annoying to hear that people were chatting when the band was playing as icelandic audiences are usually very quiet, but after all, this was at a club.
i hereby conclude my trilogy, and who knows if i’ll pull a george lucas on all of you and come back with a new trilogy later :)
(haukur heiðar hauksson)