Sigur Ros better than Green Day

Actually, I can’t prove that Sigur Ros is better than Green Day, but I do know this: Sigur Ros put on an incredible show last night at the Orpheum!

The show began when my friend and I were walking to the Orpheum and saw the ticket holders line stretch around Grandville, down Smythe, through the alley behind the Orpheum, down Robson and around Seymore. For those of you out of town, that’s about four or five blocks. I had no idea these guys were so popular! They sold out the venue.

Amina was the opening act. Four girls sat down on stage, two with cellos and two with violins, and began to create the most haunting, pleasent, depressing, happy sad music. Maybe even more haunting, pleasent, depressing and happy sad than Sigur Ros (who am I kidding! Sigur Ros is the best at that)! The real treat was when the girls each took turns trading their strings for guitars, organs, vibraphones, xylophones, toy pianos, music boxes, a saw, glasses with water in them and other instruments I couldn’t recognize. Beautiful beautiful music. They also provided the strings for Sigur Ros later on in the evening.

A white sheet was draped across the front of the stage and Sigur Ros entered through the smoke and the lights. The stage was backlit and Sigur Ros played the entire first song behind the sheet, playing with the silouhettes and lights. The curtain was removed to reveal the band with the lead playing his electric guitar with a cello bow. The soothing tones and melodies along with the beautiful Islandic language were perfectly complimented by the harsh lights, the pounding drums and the images of birds, telephone wires and children jumping on trampolines that were projected on the screen behind them.

They played about 14 songs stretching each one from their normal 6 minutes to a good 8 or 10 minutes. The two hours went by in a flash. The sheet came back across the stage to bring to life the shadows of the band that flickered with random images and colors being projected onto the sheet. The band concluded the show with intensity, playing the crap out of their instruments to create the most beautiful wall of sound ever. When the fans failed to cease their clapping, the band came out and applauded the audience and took a bow.

Here is what I believe to be the set list for the evening (the word don’t have any accents because I can’t get Blogger to recognize them):

takk
glosoli
ny batteri
svefn g englar
saeglopur
se lest
njosnavelin
gong
andvar
vaka
viorar vel til loftarasa
hafssol
olsen olsen
popplagio

I can’t wait for them to come back.