The Met Philadelphia, PA, United States
June 7, 2022
Setlist
Set 1
1. Vaka
2. Fyrsta
3. Samskeyti
4. Svefn-g-englar
5. Rafmagnið búið
6. Ný batterí
7. Gold 2
8. Fljótavík
9. Heysátan
10. Dauðalagið
11. Smáskifa
Set 2
12. Glósóli
13. E-Bow
14. Ekki múkk
15. Sæglópur
16. Gong
17. Andvari
18. Gold 4
19. Festival
20. Kveikur
21. Popplagið
Shawn Stinson
says:I waited 18 years to see Sigur Rós live since I started listening to them and using their music to get me through rough & happy times. The concert was beautiful and kept me in awe the entire time. There were some people showing up late causing me to stand up and shuffle out of my seat during songs, so I was pulled from the experience a couple times, but I didn’t let that ruin the night. The setlist was a brilliant wave that invoked memories and gave me goosebumps. There were moments I allowed myself to give in and let tears fall. I will remember this concert for a lifetime and I hope to see them again in the near future. Thank you Sigur Rós for the amazing concert and the years of escape.
PH
says:First saw Sigur Ros in either 2000 or 2001 and 2 other times since. The experience has changed since the beginning but so has their their music. There were seating issues like at all shows but the band was great.
To anyone reading this review I’d suggest wearing hearing protection if your seeing them. You’ll still enjoy the show the same way but without the ringing ears the next day.
Great show. good venue
Mark Shiner
says:On Sigur Rós, Philadelphia 6/7/22
:
“…You go to see Sigur Rós to have a religious experience. This is not an exaggeration or empty hyperbole. You go to sit in hushed stillness in a dark room and give yourself up. You get absorbed by the delicate beauty and the bombast and the power of the space between Jónsi’s gorgeous voice and the violin bow over his guitar. You must give yourself over to emotion. Since no one can understand his lyrics, it’s almost like that by depriving one of your senses, the other ones intensify. Without lyrics or stories to follow, the mind opens. The heart opens. So does the soul if you allow it. It opens and then the emotion, the sadness and the hurt and the terror of the past two years is allowed to pour out. If you let it go. This is the compact between performer and artist. Sigur Rós doesn’t want your energy. You don’t need to dance or mosh or scream. The band wants your attention. That’s it.”
David Harris’ recent review of Sigur Rós’ Portland performance on the Spectrum Culture website is really terrific and insightful about what happens at a Sigur Rós concert. It’s not like any other band that I can think of. Like, really. No one sounds like them. No one works like them. We all go to concerts for feelings of exaltation and connection, but Sigur Rós is genuinely different. It’s a presentation, more like a minimalist classical concert than a typical rock concert. But it’s also visceral, aggressive, and overwhelming. I would’ve been genuinely fine to sit there for an hour at a time without clapping, like I did when I went to see Jonsi and Alex Sommers perform “Riceboy Sleeps” in Montreal with C Sean Nevison. You let them do their thing, and you’re rewarded immensely. It’s catharsis, transcendence, renewal, redemption. It’s what I sort of wish more religious services were like.
I’ve attended loads of performances and have participated in literally thousands more over the years. And I can say that, from my vantage point, with my personality, this was the most overwhelmingly beautiful and meaningful concert experience of my lifetime.
But I need to talk about Philly. Harris’ point above is that, for this to REALLY work, the audience needs to hold up their end of the contract. If the band stops mid-song for a long silence, you sit with the silence. If Jonsi sings a very extended, unaccompanied high falsetto note, you take it in and let it happen.
Philadelphia was emphatically NOT ready to hold up their end of the contract.
During said long-silence, after about ten seconds someone yelled out “LET’S GO!” During Jonsi’s high falsetto note, people reacted as if Kenny G was doing his gimmicky circular breathing and errupted in screams of WOOOOO!
I really have no judgment for how people respond to music. You want to yell “WOOOO” or “LET’S GO” because that’s what’s coming from the depths of your soul, so be it. But I have to admit, I really wanted the audience to uphold their end of the contract. Let the song stop before the WOOs. Let the silence happen. But it didn’t. If Harris is right and this is the unspoken contract, Philadelphia did not hold up their end of the contract.Not even close.
But Sigur Ros did. They never flinched from what they were doing. They were gut-wrenching, overwhelming, gentle, strange, spiritual, sensual, and above all, beautiful.
Like most Sigur Rós fans, I have an unusually deep love for three of their records: Ágætis byrjun, ( ) , and Takk. But even though the set list drew heavily from those three records, it didn’t feel like a “greatest hits” or fan-servicing event. Everything was new, and everything was for us. I don’t know how else to say it.
Jonsi barely spoke to the audience, didn’t introduce songs or band members, didn’t try to shape our experience of the show with words. And yet it seemed like everyone knew the whole concert was really, deeply there for– and God, this sounds so corny– our healing, as an audience and as human beings living through insane, violent, and hopeless times. It felt like months of therapy compressed into a few hours, but it also felt like church would if the sucky parts were removed. I’m going to be living with it for a long time, but I’ll do so with wonder and gratitude. The show was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and for that I’m immensely grateful.
Bryan Consalvi
says:Love love loved seeing my favorite band Sigur Ros for the very first time. It was such a wonderful experience, words cannot describe. The venue, The Met was also incredible and perfect for Sigur Ros, as the acoustics were amazing! Thank you so much for coming to Philly, I cannot wait till you come again. I hope it is not too long! Thank you thank you for the giving us the worlds most beautiful music.
Eric Matuszak
says:https://xpn.org/2022/06/08/sigur-ros-the-met-philly-2/
Photos from the first three songs in the first set by my friend, Joe del Tufo.
Felix
says:This was my first time seeing Sigur Rós and it was hands down the best live show I’d ever been to. The emotion you feel is something undescribable. I went with my friend who’d never heard of them and he immediately was in awe.