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REVIEW: Sigur Rós @ Arlene Schnitzer Hall (Portland, OR – – 10/6/08)

7th Oct 08 (Tue) 8 comments

FYI… PHOTOS of the SHOW are at the BOTTOM

This was my third time to the Arlene Schnitzer Hall. It’s a great venue, and while I thought I would have gotten a better ticket via ordering from Klink (the Sigur merch site)… well, I was further to the back and left than I would have liked. It was still a good spot for pics and hearing some wonderful music.

The opener, Parachutes, is a band I got into sometime in 2007 due to a linkage to Sigur Rós via the MySpaces. I was excited to see them on the bill. They were obviously influenced by Sigur Rós. I mean… obviously. But in my world, that’s not a bad thing. They had 8 or 9 players, and at one point I know 10 people were playing with them. Again, very Sigur Rós-y, slow build, xylophone, strings, bombastic drums, keys, soft vocals. They played about 40 minutes, and I enjoyed them very much. I picked up their EP for $5 (usð)… i.e.- a steal. Unfortunately, my pics of theirs didn’t come out, as they didn’t have as much light on stage as Sigur Rós.

Now on to Sigur Rós…

Sigur Rós was… Sigur Rós. This was my 5th time seeing them, and while some may consider there to be the law of diminishing returns, with Sigur Rós the diminishments are such minutae that it’s not even diminishing anymore. Their shows are like taking a nap on a cloud during a rainstorm… or something. It’s completely surreal, mesmerizing, powerful, gentle, sublime, and… shiny.

(not my pic… obviously)

It’s funny to me, that with their non-English song names and their non-English singing… I still knew about half of the song titles within the first few chords. I think it’s osmosis or something, as I’ll admit that I don’t listen to them all that often (or often enough to know all of their song names). Anyway, thanks to the SR forum, I was able to fill in the remainder of the setlist (see below)…

10/6/08 Portland Setlist: (as noted on the SR forum)

Svefn-g-englar *fav of show*
Glósóli
Ný batterí *fav of show*
Fljótavík *
Við spilum endalaust *
Hoppípolla *fav of show*
Með blóðnasir
Inní mér syngur vitleysingur *
Svo Hljótt
Heysátan
E-bow – on setlist, not played
Viðrar vel til loftárása – on setlist, not played
Sæglópur
Festival *
Gobbledigook * *fav of show – confetti kaboom*
encore: All Alright *
Popplagið *fav of show*
* For pronunciations of the songs and album name from their most recent album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, go HERE (blog link with audio).

Overall, this was an amazing time. Every time I see Sigur Rós, I am blown away. This was their 2nd to last date on the North American tour (and their last date in the United States for this tour); so they’ve been getting a lot of practice lately. They were on top of their game, and put together an amazingly mesmerizing show

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