Sigur Ros - Festival Hall - 1st August 2008
Featuring: Sigur Ros
Written by: Ed Butler
Photographer: Anthony Smith
Published: Aug 7th '08
I was getting frisked. At a Sigur Ros concert. This was an inauspicious beginning. After two transcendent experiences at previous gigs, the stars weren’t really aligning themselves here. Festival Hall, venerable, spacious, sticky-floored temple of rock that it is, hardly lends itself to the near-religious event that Sigur Ros have proven themselves capable of. At previous seated gigs in proper concert halls they crafted momentous walls of sound, the Earth-shattering climax to Glossoli hitting the audience with physical force.
But this was a rock venue and, luckily, Sigur Ros’ most recent release, Með Suðí Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust, is as close to a rock record the band have ever come. And frontman Jónsi Þór Birgisson certainly seemed to have got in touch with his inner rock god. Far from the crop-haired, plainly-clad lead of previous visits, Jónsi sported a manic haircut and a full body, all black denim number complete with cowboy-style tassels on the sleeves. More than ever before, the Jónsi show.
All this change in aesthetics was an unusual choice when the first seven songs or so were all lifted from Ágætis Byrjun and Takk…. When the first new track, ‘Við Spilum Endalaust’, was unveiled live, the contrast was stark, far more so than is apparent on the album. The bouncy bass, chiming keys and triumphant vocals were the sign of a happy band.
Towards the end of the opening set, more songs from Með Suð… appeared, most prominently ‘Inní mér syngur vitleysingur’, and the closer, single ‘Gobbledigook’ swept the band from the stage in a flurry of ecstatic hand-clapping from the crowd – this served to add punctuation marks to the thumping rhythm, as the horn players set aside their tubas et al to pick up confetti guns as the players left the stage.
All this may make it sound like it wasn’t a good show. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Sigur Ros are probably incapable of putting on a bad show. But, compared to the life changing experience that was their 2006 Palais show, this was merely an excellent gig. Sigur Ros are a new band, a happier, healthier band, and while this can only be a good thing for their longevity, the profound experiences that once were Sigur Ros shows may be a thing of the past. Now, rather than existing in a different sphere, they may simply be first amongst peers.
