i found out that sigur rós were playing a few gigs in iceland in october. my bank balance didn’t permit me to go to iceland. i found out that they were playing a gig in paris as part of the “festival les inrockuptibles”. my bank balance agreed with that, thankfully. i bought the ticket over the internet and waited it to be posted to me (i’m living in dublin, ireland). when i got it i was sort of surprised that the concert was starting at 17h30. if that gig took place here in dublin at that time the venue would have been empty till about 21h00. still, there was five bands so i decided to get my money’s worth and get there early. after getting mixed up between rue’s and boulevard for 30 minutes i eventually found the venue. “la cigale”. my french is pretty poor and i was carrying a bag that held my passport, money, camera etc. the entrance to the venue was slightly intimidating. people shoving fistloads of flyers and promotions in to your face. i lost track of my ticket for a very long few seconds. my bag was searched. i was escorted to the cloakroom. i had unfortunately answered “yes” to the question “do you have a camera?”. honesty. never again.
i got into the venue, a huge and impressive venue. FULL to the rafters at just after 6pm. i felt as if i had missed out on something. i worked my way to the standing balcony at the left hand side of the stage (as you’re facing it). shawn lee was half over when i got in. he finished 15 minutes later. then a movie screen descended from the ceiling and we where shown videos of the bands playing throughout the four legs of the festival. plus some clips of some french music personalities. what a weird (and wonderful) country! the go betweens followed. apparently a lot of people where looking forward to seeing them and after 20 minutes they brushed the cobwebs from the guitars and got into the swing of things. they finished, the curtain closed and the screen came again. more clips and more videos. i think they played the svefn-g-englar video now, i’m not too sure. anyway after about 25 minutes of waiting the screen rose skyward and the curtains parted. as they did, jónsi’s new hair cut revealed itself and the string quartet sat on the left hand side of the stage. i had been told via the message board that the string quartet was going to be playing, but thankfully i had forgotten.
from my position i could only see three out of the four members of the quartet. they started to play almost a random series of notes, looking to the side of the stage, as if for some signal to descend into recognised music. after a minute or so the notes became more ordered and so “von” was born. since this concert the live rendition of von has become one my most favourite sigur rós songs. i was nearly moved to tears by the power, the simple magnificent power of words i couldn’t comprehend. they audience was enthralled. like the first time i saw sigur rós live back in april in dublin, the audience fell for a sound they have heard nothing like before. “von” finished, the crowd roared their approval and “olsen olsen” began. the piano in the second half of the song capturers me every time. the simple notes, echoed by the string section and amplified by the ebow of jónsi. the live version finishes, with the piano notes continuing as the rest of the instruments fall gradually silent. beautiful.
the submarine pings and the rumbling bass signify the arrival of svefn-g-englar. possibly one of my favourite songs ever. although like previously mentioned in some of the reviews from the icelandic concerts in october, you feel a little wary when it starts. it’s very hard feeling to describe. i love the song, i will probably have it played at my funeral (in the year 2050ish) but i would have preferred something else. for people who havent seen sigur rós live, the first time you see svefn live is almost like a spiritual experience. a treat of beautifully magnificent proportions. the second and subsequent times (this is my third sigur rós concert) you long to feel the same for this song but you can’t. when jónsi sings into his guitars’ strings you can see the faces of the crowd light up. they are seeing something that defies belief and is eerily beautiful (i’m listening to a live version of svefn-g-englar now….. wow…………..). back in april when jónsi did this everyone in the audience looked around at each other as if to confirm that they were not hallucinating…. they weren’t. yep, still my favourite song of all time. this paragraph contains several contradictions, i’m sorry, this song means so much to me that i’d almost prefer never to see it live again. my feelings about this song don’t make sense to me… so i’m having a bit of difficulty explaining them to you…..
after the inevitable and deserved applause dies down, the band launch into viðrar vel til loftárása. the keyboards and the strings vie for position, intertwining and swapping dominance. and after two minutes the drums start, then the vocals…. then the required momentary silence. well not quite. the three second silence turned into almost 20 seconds. the audience (myself included) looked around a bit. it lasted for what seemed like an eternity……………………………… then it started up again. the audience stayed silent, enthralled. the song continued, the song gave way to the piano and jónsi’s simple vocals and it quietened. then some dude down the back thought the song was over and clapped, so did everyone else, aaaggghhhh!!!!, just as the band were launching back into the final stretch of the song going from simple vocals to noise the audience roared its approval, one minute too early….. the song finished… the audience roared again. i think they spread their approval over the two applauses…
the beating of the strings on jónsi’s guitar and the plucking of the strings by the string section hearlded the arrival of hafssól. the band clearly enjoyed playing this song. they belted through a magnificent rendition of the song and as the final notes reverberated throughout the multi tiered auditorium, the band left…. no encore… nothing….. pop song?, death song? nope. after about a millsecond of disappointment i picked myself up again and remembered one hell of a gig.
i ran out, walked around the venue for a bit, unsure of what to do, i then for some reason bought two of the same sigur rós tshirts (the little flying angel). so while phoenix were on stage (dreadful!!!!, like an unfunny version of the japanese band “cornelius”) i just sat around, my legs aching from a day spent walking around a beautiful city. waiting for the monstrosity that was phoenix live to finish. the crowd roared their approval after every song. perhaps i just didn’t get it. perhaps on some phoenix.co.uk site there is someone talking about the gig in la cigale on the 11th of november and describing in equal language how much phoenix means to them and how much each song lingers in their memories several weeks or months after a live gig. but i doubt it.
joseph arthur was an artist i had seen on “brand new” on mtv (uk and ireland) several months prior to the gig. i said to myself “i like that!”. i wrote his name on a piece of paper and forgot all about him until a week or so before the gig when i found the piece of paper and it all clicked!. its a pity though ‘cos by the time phoenix had finished and mr. arthur had started my legs were ready to fall off….i was so tired… still i was glad i stayed. using sampling maching and looping thingys he produced an awesome live display. my only hangup about him is that sometimes the songs seemed to take a back seat to the trickery he does on stage with the samplers etc…. and he finished after an enjoyable 80 minutes or so and it was time to go home. i got lost a bit again… stopped off at the louvre on my metro trip back to the hostel and stood there, silent for about 10 minutes. (except for giving directions to some english girls) then i got to the hostel and fell asleep. then i woke up, walked a bit more, got on a plane and flew home (well the pilot flew, i slept). (darren webb)
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esbs
says:i found out that sigur rós were playing a few gigs in iceland in october. my bank balance didn’t permit me to go to iceland. i found out that they were playing a gig in paris as part of the “festival les inrockuptibles”. my bank balance agreed with that, thankfully. i bought the ticket over the internet and waited it to be posted to me (i’m living in dublin, ireland). when i got it i was sort of surprised that the concert was starting at 17h30. if that gig took place here in dublin at that time the venue would have been empty till about 21h00. still, there was five bands so i decided to get my money’s worth and get there early. after getting mixed up between rue’s and boulevard for 30 minutes i eventually found the venue. “la cigale”. my french is pretty poor and i was carrying a bag that held my passport, money, camera etc. the entrance to the venue was slightly intimidating. people shoving fistloads of flyers and promotions in to your face. i lost track of my ticket for a very long few seconds. my bag was searched. i was escorted to the cloakroom. i had unfortunately answered “yes” to the question “do you have a camera?”. honesty. never again.
i got into the venue, a huge and impressive venue. FULL to the rafters at just after 6pm. i felt as if i had missed out on something. i worked my way to the standing balcony at the left hand side of the stage (as you’re facing it). shawn lee was half over when i got in. he finished 15 minutes later. then a movie screen descended from the ceiling and we where shown videos of the bands playing throughout the four legs of the festival. plus some clips of some french music personalities. what a weird (and wonderful) country! the go betweens followed. apparently a lot of people where looking forward to seeing them and after 20 minutes they brushed the cobwebs from the guitars and got into the swing of things. they finished, the curtain closed and the screen came again. more clips and more videos. i think they played the svefn-g-englar video now, i’m not too sure. anyway after about 25 minutes of waiting the screen rose skyward and the curtains parted. as they did, jónsi’s new hair cut revealed itself and the string quartet sat on the left hand side of the stage. i had been told via the message board that the string quartet was going to be playing, but thankfully i had forgotten.
from my position i could only see three out of the four members of the quartet. they started to play almost a random series of notes, looking to the side of the stage, as if for some signal to descend into recognised music. after a minute or so the notes became more ordered and so “von” was born. since this concert the live rendition of von has become one my most favourite sigur rós songs. i was nearly moved to tears by the power, the simple magnificent power of words i couldn’t comprehend. they audience was enthralled. like the first time i saw sigur rós live back in april in dublin, the audience fell for a sound they have heard nothing like before. “von” finished, the crowd roared their approval and “olsen olsen” began. the piano in the second half of the song capturers me every time. the simple notes, echoed by the string section and amplified by the ebow of jónsi. the live version finishes, with the piano notes continuing as the rest of the instruments fall gradually silent. beautiful.
the submarine pings and the rumbling bass signify the arrival of svefn-g-englar. possibly one of my favourite songs ever. although like previously mentioned in some of the reviews from the icelandic concerts in october, you feel a little wary when it starts. it’s very hard feeling to describe. i love the song, i will probably have it played at my funeral (in the year 2050ish) but i would have preferred something else. for people who havent seen sigur rós live, the first time you see svefn live is almost like a spiritual experience. a treat of beautifully magnificent proportions. the second and subsequent times (this is my third sigur rós concert) you long to feel the same for this song but you can’t. when jónsi sings into his guitars’ strings you can see the faces of the crowd light up. they are seeing something that defies belief and is eerily beautiful (i’m listening to a live version of svefn-g-englar now….. wow…………..). back in april when jónsi did this everyone in the audience looked around at each other as if to confirm that they were not hallucinating…. they weren’t. yep, still my favourite song of all time. this paragraph contains several contradictions, i’m sorry, this song means so much to me that i’d almost prefer never to see it live again. my feelings about this song don’t make sense to me… so i’m having a bit of difficulty explaining them to you…..
after the inevitable and deserved applause dies down, the band launch into viðrar vel til loftárása. the keyboards and the strings vie for position, intertwining and swapping dominance. and after two minutes the drums start, then the vocals…. then the required momentary silence. well not quite. the three second silence turned into almost 20 seconds. the audience (myself included) looked around a bit. it lasted for what seemed like an eternity……………………………… then it started up again. the audience stayed silent, enthralled. the song continued, the song gave way to the piano and jónsi’s simple vocals and it quietened. then some dude down the back thought the song was over and clapped, so did everyone else, aaaggghhhh!!!!, just as the band were launching back into the final stretch of the song going from simple vocals to noise the audience roared its approval, one minute too early….. the song finished… the audience roared again. i think they spread their approval over the two applauses…
the beating of the strings on jónsi’s guitar and the plucking of the strings by the string section hearlded the arrival of hafssól. the band clearly enjoyed playing this song. they belted through a magnificent rendition of the song and as the final notes reverberated throughout the multi tiered auditorium, the band left…. no encore… nothing….. pop song?, death song? nope. after about a millsecond of disappointment i picked myself up again and remembered one hell of a gig.
i ran out, walked around the venue for a bit, unsure of what to do, i then for some reason bought two of the same sigur rós tshirts (the little flying angel). so while phoenix were on stage (dreadful!!!!, like an unfunny version of the japanese band “cornelius”) i just sat around, my legs aching from a day spent walking around a beautiful city. waiting for the monstrosity that was phoenix live to finish. the crowd roared their approval after every song. perhaps i just didn’t get it. perhaps on some phoenix.co.uk site there is someone talking about the gig in la cigale on the 11th of november and describing in equal language how much phoenix means to them and how much each song lingers in their memories several weeks or months after a live gig. but i doubt it.
joseph arthur was an artist i had seen on “brand new” on mtv (uk and ireland) several months prior to the gig. i said to myself “i like that!”. i wrote his name on a piece of paper and forgot all about him until a week or so before the gig when i found the piece of paper and it all clicked!. its a pity though ‘cos by the time phoenix had finished and mr. arthur had started my legs were ready to fall off….i was so tired… still i was glad i stayed. using sampling maching and looping thingys he produced an awesome live display. my only hangup about him is that sometimes the songs seemed to take a back seat to the trickery he does on stage with the samplers etc…. and he finished after an enjoyable 80 minutes or so and it was time to go home. i got lost a bit again… stopped off at the louvre on my metro trip back to the hostel and stood there, silent for about 10 minutes. (except for giving directions to some english girls) then i got to the hostel and fell asleep. then i woke up, walked a bit more, got on a plane and flew home (well the pilot flew, i slept).
(darren webb)