Last Night Sigur Ros’ Attractive Nothingness
posted by on October 6 at 13:22 PM
Last night, Sigur Ros played at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, a schmancy classical-music venue that fits what the band has to offer very well. I’m not a huge Sigur Ros fan, but I’d heard they were something to experience live, and the Benaroya gig seemed like the perfect place.
The band took the stage just after 8pm and started doing their thing: slowly building a mountain of sound out of guitar and synth and drums and trombone and glockenspiel and feedback. After the first couple sound mountains were scaled and descended, vocals were introduced, and the limitations of Sigur Ros were placed on full garish display.
It’s not that the lead vocalist for Sigur Ros sings in his native Icelandic—it’s that he sings in some made-up Sigur Ros language, which never signifies anything more than “I am singing nonsense.” For a lot of fans, I guess the sound of it all is intoxicating enough to let them ignore the lack of content, but not for me.
Illuminating comparison: The Arcade Fire, who make noise mountains as impressive as Sigur Ros’, but scale them with words that double the power. It doesn’t help that Sigur Ros is made up of such young folks: For a group of artists under 30 to travel to America in 2008 only to say “Balleephoophooglahl!” disappoints me in ways I can’t express.
I left at intermission.
You probably don't want to check out the Cocteau Twins then.
You are a complete fucking retard. Why don't you check your facts before you decide to go writing on the internet all willy-nilly? That act you saw was not Sigur Ros. In fact, had you stayed around long enough, you would have discovered that they are called Parachutes. You got the "band from Iceland" part correct. Gold star there. Had you returned after intermission, you would have noticed a change in the room sound [yes, it was at least 50 times better when Sigur Ros played. Funny that the headliner would sound better than the opener...], an array of visual projections, and, hold on to your ass here, better musicianship from the band on the stage...and it WAS amazing.
Um, if you left at the intermission, you didn't see Sigur Ros, you saw Parachutes, the opening band. They sang in English too.
Sigur Ros started playing right after intermission from 9pm - 10:45pm and it was all sorts of fun, with loud distorted guitars and mellow piano and cool crescendos. People were really into it. Things ended up with a bang with Sigur Ros bringing out some people from Parachutes to play drums during Gobbledigook to a big standing ovation from the crowd. Most people were grinning like Joe Biden during the debate.
Thanks for your Parachutes review :) you should really check out a Sigur Ros show some time. They're pretty great live.