Sufjan Stevens - Day 1: oysteryogurt

oysteryogurt

Sufjan Stevens - Day 1

Jul 18, 2005 13:24

Last night was the first of two Sufjan Stevens shows at Great American Music Hall in SF.

Diego and I left Sacramento around 4:30pm, and found parking and got to the venue about 5 minutes before the doors opened. There was already a line of 25 people or so, so when we got in we were about four 'rows' of people back from the stage. We were able to get a pretty central location though, so that I could take a bunch of pictures and video.

Liz Janes opened. She came on about 5 minutes early, and played until 8:30pm. She was pretty good. Don't know that I'd buy her CD, but she has a very nice voice.

When she was done, Sufjan came out and started setting up the stage for his set. I took this time to take some pictures using the flash, so that I could be sure to get some clear shots. He was done setting up just before 8:45pm, but he didn't actually come out and start playing until 9:15pm.

He initially came out alone, and opened with Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL (after a bit of trouble with the sound for his guitar ... I got the whole thing on video). After that song, 7 people joined him on stage, every one of them clad in grey and orange, with an orange letter "I" on their shirts. Sufjan introduced them as the "Illinoisemakers". The next song had a brief intro, and he played, The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (Part I: The Great Frontier, Part II: Come to Me Only With Playthings Now). After that song, he announced that they had all been working on some "cheers" (the girls in the group -- two of them being Liz Janes and her friend -- were all dressed as cheerleaders) that they were going to try out for us. The first one that they said they were going to do was for Peoria, and it wound up being them playing Prairie Fire That Wanders About. Later on though, they did actual cheers that weren't album songs. (I got all of the cheers on video, too).

Next they played, They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!. I got it all on video, minus a couple of seconds of the instrumental intro where I was having trouble getting my camera to start recording. After that was The Seer's Tower, followed by my favourite song of the album, John Wayne Gacy, Jr.. I got that whole song on video, including the mistake at the end where he started to sing, "Are you one of them?" again instead of, "And in my best behaviour ...".

Sufjan only played one song not from Illinois, and I'm pretty sure that it was right after Gacy (this is the only song that I can't recall the exact placing in his set). He played A Good Man is Hard to Find. After that was a cheer for Jacksonville (during which Sufjan had to ask the others what the first line was), which of course led into Jacksonville. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! was next, followed by Chicago, and then what Sufjan said was the "hardest" song, Come on! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition, Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream) (I got it all on video as well). There was one final cheer -- for Metropolis -- followed by the last song of the set, The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts (which I also got on video).

They all left the stage briefly, and then returned, most of them wearing green shirts that said, "Come on Feel the Illinoise". Sufjan was the only one not wearing one, as he said that he had lost his. He only played one song for his encore, which was Casmir Pulaski Day.

The entire show was done by 10:30pm, which is probably the earliest I've ever finished a show in SF.

We left SF, stopped off at In-N-Out in Pinole, and then made a quick detour through Vallejo to give Jayme a hug (because she had called me in a really depressed mood while we were on the way to SF). We got back to Sac just after 1am.

I'm really excited for the second night. Lyndsay will be going with us, as will Diego's friend Christa. I probably won't take as many videos or pictures this time since I got so much (I have 800mb of video) last night. We'll see though. Speaking of the video, most of it is really good quality, so if anyone would like to see it, let me know.