haukur heiðar hauksson if you made a poll and checked the ages of people who listen to sigur rós, it wouldn’t surprise me if the biggest age group was of your average university-student. with that said, and the fact that the tickets to this concert were only 80 kr (or about 2/3 of a £) it came as no surprise that the tickets for this concert sold out in a few days. the concert was held because of the 80th anniversary (hence the 80 kr tickets) of iceland’s university’s student council.
the venue was háskólabíó (which means “university-cinema”) in it’s biggest auditorium which takes 1000 people in seats. háskólabíó is a normal cinema, but it also serves other purposes, such as university lectures in the smaller auditoriums and the biggest auditorium is also the only venue for iceland’s symphony orchestra.
björn and i weren’t sure that we’d get tickets until very late, because of the limit, one ticket per university student. we are not in the university (…yet…) so we were basically fucked. but björn’s kind older sister sorted us out, by giving us her’s and her friend’s tickets… talk about taking a fall for the greater good. :)
once we got inside, we found us some seats, rather close to the stage, but not too close. and as we were sitting in those seats, waiting for the band to appear… it hit me. it hit me, just like it hit me before in wales last august: i’m going to see sigur rós live. a feeling very similar to the one i felt this summer in paris when i saw radiohead live for the first time, and like i said above, when i saw sigur rós in wales, supporting radiohead. now of course, that wasn’t the first time i saw sigur rós live, but it was just so damn long ago since i’d seen them… many, many, many months.
as you may know, if you’ve been to a sigur rós concert, the band “likes” to make the audience wait a while before their appearance. it wasn’t too long this time, maybe 10 or 20 minutes, and the crowd was very calm, people were just chatting with their fellow students. björn and i were probably the youngest people there, except for storme, which i spotted sitting in the first row (where else?) just before the concert started.
now to the concert itself. it all started with a very subtle tone from kjartan’s synth which proved to be the first sound of a new untitled song, which they’d never played before, at least not to our knowledge. it’s a very “ordinary” sigur rós song, but i like a lot. it has all of the sigur rós characteristics (low to high volume, about 10 mins, falsettoed hopelandic :), slow drums) and is in my opinion very hypnotic, which is perhaps due to goggi’s soothing bassline. after that, nýja lagið and e-bow followed and then came svefn-g-englar, which i don’t understand why they’re still playing (and by that i mean that they play it at every single gig, which i just find odd). after that came the nothing song, which has become one of my favourites, although it didn’t sound that great here. then they played another untitled song, which we just call the tedious song (more as a joke, though). in this song sigur rós go perhaps a little bit too far in their long-song contemplations, but don’t get me wrong, it’s a great song, but it perhaps takes a little too much time to get started. the death song followed and then our little chaps went off the stage.
but what do you know… they came back. and to our great amazement, steindór andersen came on stage with them. björn and paul and i had seen him sing/recite poetry with sigur rós before at the icelandic opera house at ‘orðið tónlist/the word music’ a 5 hour long “concert” held by bad taste where sigur rós played two songs. that was really great, and i did think to myself afterwards, that this was too great for them only to play it once. they obviously thought so too. at háskólabíó the program was almost the same and at first steindór recited some traditional icelandic poetry while sigur rós made some background music. then they played a great song which we are not sure whether sigur rós wrote or whether it’s an old icelandic folk song (because it sounds quite like it could be) and steindór sang. he has a great voice, the old chap… and a great outfit too :)
after steindór left the stage, and we were suddenly living in a post-steindór world, there was only one thing left to do. to strip. the boys started pulling each others’ clothes off while the pulsating beat of a porn-tune filled the air. the tension was high, expectations were going through the roof and then……… to find out the rest please click here.
on a more serious note, like most of you know, the only thing left to do is to play the greatest climax song in the history of the world. the pop song. most people that are really into music, are never the same again after hearing this song played live for the first time. and what more is there to say? this song is really too good for me to try and explain how it is in words. however… about their performance on this song on that night, that i can talk about. it was okay. i’ve heard it better, and i’ve heard it worse. not that they’ve ever played it straight out badly, but when you’ve heard it many times live, comparisons between gigs are bound to appear in your head.
sigur rósar’s performance at that concert as a whole was just okay. jónsi’s had a slight fever and his throat was a little sore and he apologized honestly for that. he still did a very fine job indeed but you could notice the lack of intensity in his voice sometimes.
because i saw them live three times in less than a week, comparison between the three is just something i have to do in these reviews. in my opinion, this was the worst gig out of the three. that of course doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily so, and some people might disagree. but they’re not writing a review, now are they? :) (haukur heiðar hauksson)
esbs
says:
Matthías Jochumsson þann 19 október síðalstliðinn fögnuðu stúdentar 80 ára afmæli stúdentaráðs með tónleikum hljómsveitarinnar sigur rósar í háskólabíó. ekki var annað að sjá en gestir kynnu vel að meta þá nýbreytni að afmæliðbarnið gæfi gjafirnar og þeir þæðu, því fullt var út úr dyrum.
sigur rós hefur verið í hópi vinsælustu hljómsveita landsins síðan hún gaf út plötuna ágætis byrjun. þó að lög af þeirri plötu hafi náð mikilli hylli kjósa drengirnir í hljómsveitinni að leika mestmegnis óútgefin lög á tónleikunum. þannig spiluðu þeir aðeins tvö útgefin lög á tónleikunum, lagið svefn-g-englar af breiðskífunni ágætis byrjun og nýja lagið af svefn-g-engla smáskífunni. mörg laganna sem þeir léku í háskólabíói hafa þó verið á efnisskrá þeirra um tíma og vonandi munu einhver þeirra rata á næstu plötu hljómsveitarinnar.
tónlist sigur rósar er kafliskipt, stundum draumkennd og guðleg en á köflum matraðakennd og djöfulleg. þessi hughrif birtast ekki aðeins í andstæðum heldur beinlínis í átökum sem erfitt er að sjá fyrir hvernig muni enda. tónleikarnir í háskólabíói voru gott dæmi þó að síðasta lagið hafi bent til einhvers konar ragnaraka.
Guð, minn, Guð, ég hrópa gegnum myrkið svarta líkt sem út úr ofni æpi stiknað hjarta (Matthías Jochumsson)
esbs
says:
stúdentablaðið fæst laga sigur rósar á tónleikum hafa eiginlega texta og því er yfirbragð þeirra en dularfyllra en ella. stundum er sem hver heyti það sem honum er efst í huga þegar hlustað er á tónlist þeirra. á tónleikum þeirra í danmörku heyrði ég t.d. tónleikagest fullyrða við félaga sína að þeir syngju á dönsku, á öðrum tónleikum heyrði ég því líka haldið blákalt fram að þeir syngju á ensku. hvað sem öðru líður gefa textar sigur rósar hverjum og einum færi á að heyra það sem hann vill og má vera að það sé einmitt stór hluti af áhrifamætti tónlistar þeirra.
upplifanir fólks af tónlist sigur rósar eru sterkar, svo sterkar reyndar að sumum er fyrirmunað að hlusta á hana en aðrir eygja von í öllum sársaukanum sem tónlist hljómsveitarinnar býr yfir og svo vitnað sé til texta eins laga þeirra “það besta sem guð hefur skapað er nýr dagur” – og nýjum dögum fylgja nýjar vonir. (stúdentablaðið)
esbs
says:haukur heiðar hauksson
if you made a poll and checked the ages of people who listen to sigur rós, it wouldn’t surprise me if the biggest age group was of your average university-student. with that said, and the fact that the tickets to this concert were only 80 kr (or about 2/3 of a £) it came as no surprise that the tickets for this concert sold out in a few days.
the concert was held because of the 80th anniversary (hence the 80 kr tickets) of iceland’s university’s student council.
the venue was háskólabíó (which means “university-cinema”) in it’s biggest auditorium which takes 1000 people in seats. háskólabíó is a normal cinema, but it also serves other purposes, such as university lectures in the smaller auditoriums and the biggest auditorium is also the only venue for iceland’s symphony orchestra.
björn and i weren’t sure that we’d get tickets until very late, because of the limit, one ticket per university student. we are not in the university (…yet…) so we were basically fucked. but björn’s kind older sister sorted us out, by giving us her’s and her friend’s tickets… talk about taking a fall for the greater good. :)
once we got inside, we found us some seats, rather close to the stage, but not too close. and as we were sitting in those seats, waiting for the band to appear… it hit me. it hit me, just like it hit me before in wales last august: i’m going to see sigur rós live. a feeling very similar to the one i felt this summer in paris when i saw radiohead live for the first time, and like i said above, when i saw sigur rós in wales, supporting radiohead. now of course, that wasn’t the first time i saw sigur rós live, but it was just so damn long ago since i’d seen them… many, many, many months.
as you may know, if you’ve been to a sigur rós concert, the band “likes” to make the audience wait a while before their appearance. it wasn’t too long this time, maybe 10 or 20 minutes, and the crowd was very calm, people were just chatting with their fellow students. björn and i were probably the youngest people there, except for storme, which i spotted sitting in the first row (where else?) just before the concert started.
now to the concert itself. it all started with a very subtle tone from kjartan’s synth which proved to be the first sound of a new untitled song, which they’d never played before, at least not to our knowledge. it’s a very “ordinary” sigur rós song, but i like a lot. it has all of the sigur rós characteristics (low to high volume, about 10 mins, falsettoed hopelandic :), slow drums) and is in my opinion very hypnotic, which is perhaps due to goggi’s soothing bassline. after that, nýja lagið and e-bow followed and then came svefn-g-englar, which i don’t understand why they’re still playing (and by that i mean that they play it at every single gig, which i just find odd). after that came the nothing song, which has become one of my favourites, although it didn’t sound that great here. then they played another untitled song, which we just call the tedious song (more as a joke, though). in this song sigur rós go perhaps a little bit too far in their long-song contemplations, but don’t get me wrong, it’s a great song, but it perhaps takes a little too much time to get started. the death song followed and then our little chaps went off the stage.
but what do you know… they came back. and to our great amazement, steindór andersen came on stage with them. björn and paul and i had seen him sing/recite poetry with sigur rós before at the icelandic opera house at ‘orðið tónlist/the word music’ a 5 hour long “concert” held by bad taste where sigur rós played two songs. that was really great, and i did think to myself afterwards, that this was too great for them only to play it once. they obviously thought so too. at háskólabíó the program was almost the same and at first steindór recited some traditional icelandic poetry while sigur rós made some background music. then they played a great song which we are not sure whether sigur rós wrote or whether it’s an old icelandic folk song (because it sounds quite like it could be) and steindór sang. he has a great voice, the old chap… and a great outfit too :)
after steindór left the stage, and we were suddenly living in a post-steindór world, there was only one thing left to do. to strip. the boys started pulling each others’ clothes off while the pulsating beat of a porn-tune filled the air. the tension was high, expectations were going through the roof and then……… to find out the rest please click here.
on a more serious note, like most of you know, the only thing left to do is to play the greatest climax song in the history of the world. the pop song. most people that are really into music, are never the same again after hearing this song played live for the first time. and what more is there to say? this song is really too good for me to try and explain how it is in words. however… about their performance on this song on that night, that i can talk about. it was okay. i’ve heard it better, and i’ve heard it worse. not that they’ve ever played it straight out badly, but when you’ve heard it many times live, comparisons between gigs are bound to appear in your head.
sigur rósar’s performance at that concert as a whole was just okay. jónsi’s had a slight fever and his throat was a little sore and he apologized honestly for that. he still did a very fine job indeed but you could notice the lack of intensity in his voice sometimes.
because i saw them live three times in less than a week, comparison between the three is just something i have to do in these reviews. in my opinion, this was the worst gig out of the three. that of course doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily so, and some people might disagree. but they’re not writing a review, now are they? :)
(haukur heiðar hauksson)
esbs
says:Matthías Jochumsson
þann 19 október síðalstliðinn fögnuðu stúdentar 80 ára afmæli stúdentaráðs með tónleikum hljómsveitarinnar sigur rósar í háskólabíó. ekki var annað að sjá en gestir kynnu vel að meta þá nýbreytni að afmæliðbarnið gæfi gjafirnar og þeir þæðu, því fullt var út úr dyrum.
sigur rós hefur verið í hópi vinsælustu hljómsveita landsins síðan hún gaf út plötuna ágætis byrjun. þó að lög af þeirri plötu hafi náð mikilli hylli kjósa drengirnir í hljómsveitinni að leika mestmegnis óútgefin lög á tónleikunum. þannig spiluðu þeir aðeins tvö útgefin lög á tónleikunum, lagið svefn-g-englar af breiðskífunni ágætis byrjun og nýja lagið af svefn-g-engla smáskífunni. mörg laganna sem þeir léku í háskólabíói hafa þó verið á efnisskrá þeirra um tíma og vonandi munu einhver þeirra rata á næstu plötu hljómsveitarinnar.
tónlist sigur rósar er kafliskipt, stundum draumkennd og guðleg en á köflum matraðakennd og djöfulleg. þessi hughrif birtast ekki aðeins í andstæðum heldur beinlínis í átökum sem erfitt er að sjá fyrir hvernig muni enda. tónleikarnir í háskólabíói voru gott dæmi þó að síðasta lagið hafi bent til einhvers konar ragnaraka.
Guð, minn, Guð, ég hrópa gegnum myrkið svarta líkt sem út úr ofni æpi stiknað hjarta
(Matthías Jochumsson)
esbs
says:stúdentablaðið
fæst laga sigur rósar á tónleikum hafa eiginlega texta og því er yfirbragð þeirra en dularfyllra en ella. stundum er sem hver heyti það sem honum er efst í huga þegar hlustað er á tónlist þeirra. á tónleikum þeirra í danmörku heyrði ég t.d. tónleikagest fullyrða við félaga sína að þeir syngju á dönsku, á öðrum tónleikum heyrði ég því líka haldið blákalt fram að þeir syngju á ensku. hvað sem öðru líður gefa textar sigur rósar hverjum og einum færi á að heyra það sem hann vill og má vera að það sé einmitt stór hluti af áhrifamætti tónlistar þeirra.
upplifanir fólks af tónlist sigur rósar eru sterkar, svo sterkar reyndar að sumum er fyrirmunað að hlusta á hana en aðrir eygja von í öllum sársaukanum sem tónlist hljómsveitarinnar býr yfir og svo vitnað sé til texta eins laga þeirra “það besta sem guð hefur skapað er nýr dagur” – og nýjum dögum fylgja nýjar vonir.
(stúdentablaðið)