This was going to be an interesting night because I've always found I need to be in the right mood for Bon Iver recorded music but I've always been blown away when watching live vids or shows which have always been acoustic or stripped down. With this in mind I had a preconceived idea of what lay before me - a mellow evening of ambient pleasure.........
The Staves started the evening off with a wonderful blend of harmonies and acoustic guitar. I'd not heard any of their music before so was happy to have my eyes(well ears really) opened to their beautifully melodic folk. Sometimes it's nice to go into something blissfully unaware that you're in for a treat. I was transfixed throughout and will definitely be checking out more of their music and the Jools Holland show on Iplayer because apparently by way of some strange magic they were on the show while they were playing live for us ;]
Checkout The Staves here..
http://www.thestaves.com/
.jpg)
Anyway we were right obviously, the night had started on a pleasurable acoustic note and would continue that way surely. But hold on isn't that two drumsets and that seems like a pretty complicated setup with lots of lights are we sure we're at the right gig? On came the biggest band I've seen and there at the front was Justin Vernon so yep we were definitely at the right show. With lights swirling and the kick drums punching holes through our chests we were off lifted into a wonderful musicscape. I dont know about anybody else but I was mesmerized watching the drummers hammering away in unison as the other band members added layer after layer of sound. It was amazing to feel those songs that sound so beautifully simple through a set of headphones on a totally different scale and seeing how complex they are to recreate live.
Crowd interactions were few and far between but it was funny to see Justin repsonding to someone shouting out Bon like it was his first name. He introduced the rest of the band as the Ivers with a wry smile on his face. To be fare to the outburst I remember seeing him for the first time on Jools Holland being introduced as Bon Iver and then on videos with an ensemble but nothing really prepared me for the Behemoth that was set out before us. It would have been pretty funny if they would have all shouted back What!(maybe the picture in my head is funnier than the reality would have been ;]).
My preconceived ideas were blown out of the water any way because this was like seeing a Prog Rock extravaganza. It was all encompassing to the senses and a truly great experience. I said in a tweet that 'Gig' was too crass a word for this and it is. Bon Iver put on a 'Concert' and I recommend you go see them if it's still possible.
You can go find everything for Bon Iver here
http://boniver.org/
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment