Sufjan Stevens - Day 2: oysteryogurt

oysteryogurt

Sufjan Stevens - Day 2

Jul 20, 2005 00:23

Yesterday was the second Sufjan Stevens show at the Great American Music Hall.

Lyndsay met Diego and me at my house a little before 3pm, and Diego's friend Christa showed up a while later. I drove again, and we made much better time to SF than the night before. We got to the city at around 5:30pm, and were able to find a parking spot RIGHT in front of the GAMH. As we were getting out of the car, some guy saw Lyndsay and said, "Oh, you're so pretty! There's a supermodel in the backseat!" It was funny. We stopped at will call, then walked a block down O'Farrell to the Thai restaurant that Jeff and I found when we went to the Of Montreal / Tilly and the Wall show. The same guy passed us again and said, "Bye, pretty girl!" to Lyndsay in his gay slur. We went into the restaurant, and surprisingly, the guy working there remembered me, saying, "You've been here before!", even though it was over a month and a half ago that I was there.

After eating, we went and stood in the line that had formed outside of the GAMH. As we were standing there, Lyndsay and I noticed two people walking towards the end of the line where we were standing ... one of them was Bob. He looked just as shocked as I'm sure that I did, and we both said an awkward "hello" and then didn't speak again for the rest of the night.

We were able to get spots directly in front of the stage, with just one short girl standing in front of me. Bob was standing a few people to our left, and Lyndsay said that he kept looking over at us. I also saw this guy that Jayme spent about 15 minutes talking to at the Stephen Malkmus show.

Liz Janes went on a bit late this time, but Sufjan came out on stage to introduce her. Part way through her set, he came back out and played drums for her. I got several pictures of that. All of the "Illinoisemakers" came out for one song and played with them (Liz had sung the song the first night, but it was much better with everyone accompanying her). She kept the trumpet player out for one more song, though he had never played with her on that song before. She quickly taught him the song, and then they played. While I enjoyed her set both nights, the second night was most definitely better.

Sufjan Stevens started at around 9:15pm again. Someone came out on stage and introduced the Illinoisemakers, and they all ran out onto the stage jumping and cheering in their cheerleading outfits. They opened their set with The 50 States, which was really good. Next, they played The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders, followed by Prairie Fire That Wanders About. After that came They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!, The Seer's Tower, and John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (which he played right this time, and I got on video). That was followed by Casmir Pulaski Day and then Jacksonville. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! came next, followed by Chicago and Come on! Feel the Illinoise!. They ended their set with The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts.

For the encore, Sufjan played his cover of The National Anthem, which had been requested on a note that was passed to him early on in the set. His rendition of the song was pretty amazing. The only bad thing was that some idiot yelled something weird at the very end of the song, when Sufjan closed his eyes and there was silence. Everyone looked around saying, "What??" and Sufjan looked pretty pissed. He sent everyone offstage, and then played one more song that had been requested: Romulus. I got a video of the entire encore, and my memory card ran out about 2 seconds after the last note of Romulus. It was perfect.

Both nights were amazing, but night two definitely takes the cake. I have tons of great video ... which, as always, I'll send to anyone who wants it (though no one ever seems to want it, anyway. hah). I also got some more good pictures, which I'll post below. Wednesday is the The Go! Team show, which should be a blast. I'll no doubt have a ton of pictures to post from that, too.