(no subject)
http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/ Listen to their live performance from 9/11.
takk
A curtain dropped on the stage as ambient sounds played. My pulse raced because I knew that a moment I had waited on for 3 years was very fast approaching. Lights shine from behind the curtain, behind four mysterious men, silhouettes are painted onto the paper thin curtain and music begins to play.
"heftur með gaddavír í kjaftinum sem blæðir mig". My eyes tear up because I've waited so long to see and hear him sing. His voice is ethereal, no other living being on this planet can make sounds like he does.
The respect for this band in a theatre filled with 200+ people was incredible. If the band was playing anything, if there was sound coming from the stage, there was complete silence in the crowd. A group of people from england sat behind us, one of them brought their young daughter, she talked during the concert a lot, and not even that could ruin this concert.
During Sigur Ros' first song, I hear behind me, "Are they famous?", the little girl asks. I don't hear a response but a few seconds later I hear in an excited whisper, "reaaally?" Cutest thing ever.
The band plays viðrar vel til loftárása and during what is supposed to be a very slight pause in the song, all eight people that are on the stage, the four members of Sigur Ros, and the four members of Amina, the string quartet that accompanied Sigur Ros, they all freeze on stage at the exact same time. The lead singer, Jonsi freezes while holding the microphone and violin bow with his right hand, the rest of the people onstage freeze. There is COMPLETE SILENCE in the theatre. This goes on for 10 seconds and Jonsi takes an unexpected breath and the song continues as if it never stopped. It was so beautiful and awesome that I had tears in my eyes and the biggest grin on my face.
I didn't take these pictures, but that is during viðrar vel til loftárása. The dolls in the background were the images projected during that song and that is exactly how the band looked when they froze on stage. It was incredible.
This is Jonsi playing his electric guitar with a violin bow. The sound it creates is like no other sound I've ever heard.
All of my life I've heard the phrase "Take my breath away", and just figured it was some gay phrase that came from movies and music. I pretty much wrote it off and some cheap way to communicate a feeling.
Every single time Sigur Ros' music would rise in a crescendo and explode at the top of the cresendo, it literally stole the breath out of my body and forced me to inhale. I had never experienced anything like that and I know I won't ever again, atleast until I see them in concert again.
And lastly I come to popplagið. This is the greatest live song I have ever heard in my entire life. On the album, popplagið finishes off an album whose entire second half is a crescendo. This song itself begins as a very slow and quiet song. Over the course of 11 minutes, it became the fastest and loudest song played all night. Seven or so minutes into the song, the curtains began to close again, and the lights began to shine to show the silhouettes of the band. The song sped up and sped up to the point where sounds were indecipherable from one another, all the sounds were loud and mixed and it was just one big audio orgasm.
This is what Jonsi looked like at the end of popplagið. He was pulling and pushing the violin bow so hard it was like he thought he was holding a saw and he thought his guitar was a tree that needed to be cut down. It was so beautiful and made me want to get up and dance; instead I sat there perfectly still like everyone else in the audience, save a head or two hundred nodding.
The band finished popplagið and I knew it was over. What I had waited on for years had now passed. I wanted to cry because I knew it was over but all I could do was smile, and applaud their beautiful performance. After a few minutes of applauding, all eight people that performed for us came back out onto the stage to bow and applaud us for attending their concert and loving every second of it. We stood there and cheered for one another for five minutes atleast. Jonsi would hold his hands above his head and we would mimic him like monkeys. All eight of them disappeared behind the stage, yet we all continued to cheer for them. They all came back out once more and cheered for us.
All the while, they stood in front of a projection that read "Takk..." Icelandic for Thank you.
Thank you Sigur Ros, you gave me the best night of my entire life. I am complete.
takk
A curtain dropped on the stage as ambient sounds played. My pulse raced because I knew that a moment I had waited on for 3 years was very fast approaching. Lights shine from behind the curtain, behind four mysterious men, silhouettes are painted onto the paper thin curtain and music begins to play.
"heftur með gaddavír í kjaftinum sem blæðir mig". My eyes tear up because I've waited so long to see and hear him sing. His voice is ethereal, no other living being on this planet can make sounds like he does.
The respect for this band in a theatre filled with 200+ people was incredible. If the band was playing anything, if there was sound coming from the stage, there was complete silence in the crowd. A group of people from england sat behind us, one of them brought their young daughter, she talked during the concert a lot, and not even that could ruin this concert.
During Sigur Ros' first song, I hear behind me, "Are they famous?", the little girl asks. I don't hear a response but a few seconds later I hear in an excited whisper, "reaaally?" Cutest thing ever.
The band plays viðrar vel til loftárása and during what is supposed to be a very slight pause in the song, all eight people that are on the stage, the four members of Sigur Ros, and the four members of Amina, the string quartet that accompanied Sigur Ros, they all freeze on stage at the exact same time. The lead singer, Jonsi freezes while holding the microphone and violin bow with his right hand, the rest of the people onstage freeze. There is COMPLETE SILENCE in the theatre. This goes on for 10 seconds and Jonsi takes an unexpected breath and the song continues as if it never stopped. It was so beautiful and awesome that I had tears in my eyes and the biggest grin on my face.
I didn't take these pictures, but that is during viðrar vel til loftárása. The dolls in the background were the images projected during that song and that is exactly how the band looked when they froze on stage. It was incredible.
This is Jonsi playing his electric guitar with a violin bow. The sound it creates is like no other sound I've ever heard.
All of my life I've heard the phrase "Take my breath away", and just figured it was some gay phrase that came from movies and music. I pretty much wrote it off and some cheap way to communicate a feeling.
Every single time Sigur Ros' music would rise in a crescendo and explode at the top of the cresendo, it literally stole the breath out of my body and forced me to inhale. I had never experienced anything like that and I know I won't ever again, atleast until I see them in concert again.
And lastly I come to popplagið. This is the greatest live song I have ever heard in my entire life. On the album, popplagið finishes off an album whose entire second half is a crescendo. This song itself begins as a very slow and quiet song. Over the course of 11 minutes, it became the fastest and loudest song played all night. Seven or so minutes into the song, the curtains began to close again, and the lights began to shine to show the silhouettes of the band. The song sped up and sped up to the point where sounds were indecipherable from one another, all the sounds were loud and mixed and it was just one big audio orgasm.
This is what Jonsi looked like at the end of popplagið. He was pulling and pushing the violin bow so hard it was like he thought he was holding a saw and he thought his guitar was a tree that needed to be cut down. It was so beautiful and made me want to get up and dance; instead I sat there perfectly still like everyone else in the audience, save a head or two hundred nodding.
The band finished popplagið and I knew it was over. What I had waited on for years had now passed. I wanted to cry because I knew it was over but all I could do was smile, and applaud their beautiful performance. After a few minutes of applauding, all eight people that performed for us came back out onto the stage to bow and applaud us for attending their concert and loving every second of it. We stood there and cheered for one another for five minutes atleast. Jonsi would hold his hands above his head and we would mimic him like monkeys. All eight of them disappeared behind the stage, yet we all continued to cheer for them. They all came back out once more and cheered for us.
All the while, they stood in front of a projection that read "Takk..." Icelandic for Thank you.
Thank you Sigur Ros, you gave me the best night of my entire life. I am complete.