the light pressed up against your shoulderblade
I went to see Sufjan Stevens tonight and it was quite probably the best experience of my life. I feel like I say that about gigs a lot but this... it was something else. He opened with Seven Swans and it was utterly beautiful. There was a screen at the back of the stage and a meshy one that came down in front of Sufjan and during the song lights that looked like stars floated across both screens and it gave this amazing effect. It was an absolutely transcendental experience. Oh my gosh everything was absolutely perfect I can't blather on enough about it all. He played Too Much second and oh my his dancing hip movements O M G. Sufjan and all 11 or so others playing in his band had fluoro tape patterns all over their clothes so they stood out in the dark and it looked like some fluoro tribal ceremony or something as equally ridiculous it was amazing. He broke a string during Too Much (apparently he has never done that before) then played Enchanting Ghost which I don't know well but it was beautiful. Age of Adz gave me shivers it was incredible and I can't just keep saying everything was incredible and amazing but that's exactly what it was so I can't stop won't stop.
I keep on every song but oh well, before I Walked Sufjan made a wee speech about how with the newest album he wanted to move away from folky narrative and recorded lots of sounds and arranged them to form rhythms and such to make the songs. He talked about how important dance is and how we live inside our bodies but often don't understand them because we are inside them looking outwards. He is just so so wonderful and I feel so gushy and ahhh. So then he played I Walked and his dancing was the best thing ever ever ever. He's like some space robot thing with his dance and hip-rolling every which way. Everything he did was so enchanting, right from the start of Seven Swans I felt like I was in a trance, I couldn't look away from him. Vesuvius was amazing too, the meshy screen came down and there was a triangle hipster volcano on the back screen and all kinds of animations and such going on everywhere. Then he told a little story about how he used to be a birdwatcher when he was younger then he moved to New York and discovered he could watch other people in their apartments while also realising they were all watching him. So he moved on to people watching and says it is now one of his favourite hobbies.
Everything he did and said was so wonderful and inspiring and I feel like I'm getting some of my creative flow coming back just from watching him.
Sufjan also talked about some schools that he went to - Steiner? I wasn't really sure, but basically he said you could just do whatever you want there and some other one called Interlochy or something similar which he said was the same but the most horrid experience in his life and he felt sorry for anyone who went there. Apparently all you do is make oboe reeds all day??? This is what he told us and I choose to believe it.
Just before playing Get Real Get Right he talked about Royal Robertson, the inspiration behind a lot of the album and he had images of Royal & Royal's artwork on the screen behind him and he sounds wonderful, then Suf said Get Real Get Right was a dance song he wrote for Royal and of course everything was amazing amazing amazing!
Futile Devices was amazing for three reasons, one because it's a beautiful wee song, two because of the line "when you crochet I feel mesmerised and proud" and I'm just like yessssssss, and three because of the wonderful haunting casio solo played at the end.
Impossible Soul is such a great song and it just keeps going and going, about halfway through it (it's 25 minutes long) the backup dancers - yes, there were backup dancers! - came down from the stage to pull us up to dance so Ben, Phoebe and I got up and danced right up next to the stage and Sufjan was mere centimetres from us and a hundred balloons dropped down on us including totally gigantic ones and Sufjan put on this ridiculous headdress which looked to me like an elephant and was made of tinfoil-y stuff. He was dancing and jumping and everyone was having the time of their lives and it was incredible. Everything ended so happily and it was perfect.
He finished and was just the most gorgeous thing ever then the audience all called him back for an encore and he came back and played "Concerning the UFO Sighting..." which was utterly beautiful. Then Casimir Pulaski Day which I think is probably my favourite Sufjan song, it just gets to me so much, honestly the number of times I've listened to it just before going to sleep then just lying there thinking about it - I can't count how many times. Then of course closed with Chicago. How could he not play that? He had to and it was gorgeous and everyone was singing along and it was totally wonderful. Then it was all over, but! Not quite yet. We asked one of the stage guys very politely for a setlist and Ben, Phoebe and I all got them, it was a perfect end to a perfect night. Oh and I bought Michigan on vinyl so now I have 1000000x more incentive to finally get a record player
I am incoherent right now, nothing will ever top this night.
I keep on every song but oh well, before I Walked Sufjan made a wee speech about how with the newest album he wanted to move away from folky narrative and recorded lots of sounds and arranged them to form rhythms and such to make the songs. He talked about how important dance is and how we live inside our bodies but often don't understand them because we are inside them looking outwards. He is just so so wonderful and I feel so gushy and ahhh. So then he played I Walked and his dancing was the best thing ever ever ever. He's like some space robot thing with his dance and hip-rolling every which way. Everything he did was so enchanting, right from the start of Seven Swans I felt like I was in a trance, I couldn't look away from him. Vesuvius was amazing too, the meshy screen came down and there was a triangle hipster volcano on the back screen and all kinds of animations and such going on everywhere. Then he told a little story about how he used to be a birdwatcher when he was younger then he moved to New York and discovered he could watch other people in their apartments while also realising they were all watching him. So he moved on to people watching and says it is now one of his favourite hobbies.
Everything he did and said was so wonderful and inspiring and I feel like I'm getting some of my creative flow coming back just from watching him.
Sufjan also talked about some schools that he went to - Steiner? I wasn't really sure, but basically he said you could just do whatever you want there and some other one called Interlochy or something similar which he said was the same but the most horrid experience in his life and he felt sorry for anyone who went there. Apparently all you do is make oboe reeds all day??? This is what he told us and I choose to believe it.
Just before playing Get Real Get Right he talked about Royal Robertson, the inspiration behind a lot of the album and he had images of Royal & Royal's artwork on the screen behind him and he sounds wonderful, then Suf said Get Real Get Right was a dance song he wrote for Royal and of course everything was amazing amazing amazing!
Futile Devices was amazing for three reasons, one because it's a beautiful wee song, two because of the line "when you crochet I feel mesmerised and proud" and I'm just like yessssssss, and three because of the wonderful haunting casio solo played at the end.
Impossible Soul is such a great song and it just keeps going and going, about halfway through it (it's 25 minutes long) the backup dancers - yes, there were backup dancers! - came down from the stage to pull us up to dance so Ben, Phoebe and I got up and danced right up next to the stage and Sufjan was mere centimetres from us and a hundred balloons dropped down on us including totally gigantic ones and Sufjan put on this ridiculous headdress which looked to me like an elephant and was made of tinfoil-y stuff. He was dancing and jumping and everyone was having the time of their lives and it was incredible. Everything ended so happily and it was perfect.
He finished and was just the most gorgeous thing ever then the audience all called him back for an encore and he came back and played "Concerning the UFO Sighting..." which was utterly beautiful. Then Casimir Pulaski Day which I think is probably my favourite Sufjan song, it just gets to me so much, honestly the number of times I've listened to it just before going to sleep then just lying there thinking about it - I can't count how many times. Then of course closed with Chicago. How could he not play that? He had to and it was gorgeous and everyone was singing along and it was totally wonderful. Then it was all over, but! Not quite yet. We asked one of the stage guys very politely for a setlist and Ben, Phoebe and I all got them, it was a perfect end to a perfect night. Oh and I bought Michigan on vinyl so now I have 1000000x more incentive to finally get a record player
I am incoherent right now, nothing will ever top this night.