setlist
vaka
fyrsta
samskeyti
salka
ný batterí
njósnavélin
svefn-g-englar
mílanó
hafssól
olsen olsen
popplagið
st. louis post-dispatch
sigur rós makes music that compels you think not so much of ready comparisons
to other bands, but rather to geography -- specifically the geography of the quartet's
home country of iceland, with its frozen wastelands, fjords, barren plateaus, and
volcanoes.
during their 100 minute set at the pageant thursday night, the group played songs that moved at a glacial pace, with singer jon thor birgisson's wordless falsetto vocals soaring and swooping like winds dancing through the canyons of a distant mountain range.
without warning, orri pall dyrason's drums rumbled, and the band, abetted by the string quartet amina, sprang to life with volcanic violence, the rhythm section thundering and birgisson providing sheets of noise from his guitar, which he played with a bow.
after such dramatic crescendos, the music would subside and it would all begin again, as if this were a pattern as steady and sure as the processes that created then sculpted the land of their birth.
fire and ice - that's the best way to describe sigur rós' sound.
the show featured a number of songs from the band's just-released album, whose name is an empty set of parentheses. the songs aren't titled, nor do they have any lyrics - at least, not in any real sense. birgisson sings them in a made-up language he calls "hopelandish."
also of note were several songs from sigur rós' previous release, "agaetis byrjun," including a version of "svefn-g-englar" that was stunning in its simplicity, yet still managed an epic sweep. "track 8," a song from "( )," closed the show, moving from a funereal march to full-on rock attack, something the band seems too self-constrained to pursue, except in jarringly spontaneous bursts.
the show didn't have the feel of a rock concert so much as a formal recital. the
group didn't address the crowd between songs or even acknowledge them, really, until
the end, when in lieu of an encore, the entire company took a pair of curtain calls
in front of a backdrop that read "takk" ("thanks.") that's fine, though. by that time,
sigur rós' music had said everything that needed to be said. .
(daniel durchholz)
