I cannot recommend the genius that is Sufjan Stevens, especially after seeing him live for the first time ever last night!!!! The show started at 8 with 4 songs performed by the warm-up act- DM Stith (Sufjan's piano player/ male backup singer.) He played his little ditties on acoustic guitar with some neat loops'n shit all the while joking about how Sufjan was much better than him. Around 20 tense minutes later, Sufjan AND HIS BAND came onstage. This was the beginning of a religious experience.
Him/ his band/ the stage were decorated psychedelically/ with whatever they could pick up at Party City; Sufjan himself had green neon tape across his face, shirt and arms, with a pair of white feathery wings on. I never really thought about it, but he has a funny way of talking, like a nervous/ distracted child (but this was not an issue at all.) The tour he is currently on is promoting his newer album Age of Adz- a loud, impulsive, apocalyptic orgasm, so fittingly that is how the stage looked and sounded. There was A huge background screen displaying constant Prophet Royal Anderson artwork/ gitchy screensavery stuff, and in fron tof that were the Solid Gold dancers who mimicked Sufjan's odd hand motions and ribbon danced. (see the hand motions in the video below.)
Sufjan started off with a calmish version of Seven Swans that periodically exploded into Age of Adz type cacophony before reverting back to normalcy. Afterwords he jumped straight into the Age of Adz with... the Age of Adz! So monstrous my ears and brain hurt at its beauty (something I never thought Sufjan could do to me.) During the show he pulled off his jeans onstage to change into sparkly costume pants, very funny. He would alternate loud Adz songs with quieter ones and the lights would mirror these changes by becoming less dramatic and static. He finished Adz with Impossible Soul, the 25 minute "magnum opus on psychoanalysis," some parts serious, some parts crazy dance party where Sufjan would break it down with the backup dancers. Finally came Chicago, the only song so far where the crowd knew all the words. And by this point, there was dancing and pure joy in the audience. It was truly indescribable.
The encore consisted of 4 hits from Illinoise.
When he left the stage, my heart left with him.
I'll post more videos if I find them. Also, the quality sucks and Age of Adz is so much better live.
13 years ago
