Bon Iver - Forum Theatre - 19th January 2008
Featuring: Bon Iver
Written by: Steve Scully
Photographer: Kate Griffin
Published: Jan 19th '08
Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago inspires a skewed sense of pleasure – a form of schadenfreude, or pleasure from the discomfort and struggles of others. To make the record, Justin Vernon holed himself up in a log cabin for months, and out of this experiment was born a spacious and skeletal, yet unbelievably effective record. Tonight, at The Forum Theatre in Melbourne, Vernon and his band brought to life the heartache that For Emma so beautifully detailed, and all in front of over one thousand screaming Australians.
You could be forgiven for thinking that Bon Iver’s show tonight was, on the face of it, completely out of line with the band’s aesthetic: rather than in the remote wilderness of North Wisconsin, they were performing in a theatre in an Australian summer. Any doubts, however, that the music could not work out of its initial context were put to rest by a phenomenal performance from a talented and most amiable frontman.
Indeed, the greatest thing Bon Iver showed tonight was that the minimal arrangements on the record can be translated into a realised live performance. The re-arrangement of each song to suit the musicians and the live environment shows that Vernon is not merely a musician of great heart and honesty, but significant skill and musical nous. Each track was so tightly performed, and so beautifully constructed, that the songs were given a new context. Vernon ventured into the heat this evening, and brought all his emotional baggage with him – the crowd could be thankful that this man can express such despair no matter what the environment.
