Sigur Ros - 10/3 @ Greek Theater (Tickets on sale Sun 6/22)

[thatguy]

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--tg

[thatguy]

I do get out sometimes...

I had dinner with my folks in Cupertino, then went up 101, took Dumbo, then 880. Google Maps sent me up 980 to 24 to Claremont to College to Piedmont. Traffic was a bitch. I lived in Kensington for about 5 years (til '72) and can usually still find my way around, but I had no idea where the heck I was until I drove past the Greek. I was running late because of traffic, so instead of looking around, I got reamed $20 for parking.

I haven't been to the Greek since I saw King Crimson with Everything But the Girl in '96. I love the Greek. My first real concert was there: The Kinks in '82. There was an opener called "Parachutes" that sounded almost identical to Sigur Ros, and I was trying to find my friend Mark and locate seats, so I didn't pay much attention. This place was packed! It was sold out and I should have got there earlier....

We wandered around a bit, then hooked up with some friends of friends and finally staked out some space in a stairwell.

They came on and opened with "Svefn-g-englar" (I don't really know the names, it's just the song from the Vanilla Sky soundtrack). They did the song "Við spilum endalaust" from the new album which is a great song, then they played something I don't remember. Then singer Jónsi Birgisson addressed the crowd in Icelandic for about 5 minutes, then asked if we wanted to hear it again in English. I still didn't understand what he said. Then they played some more.

They have a very powerful, epic sound and I found it was difficult to carry that intensity about half way through the show. I got kind of tired and sleepy (not bored though). They worked up to the a grand finale where the shot confetti cannons and Jónsi shredded his bow on the guitar a la Jimmy Page. The confetti was pretty spectacular. It looked like a multicolored swarm of bees attacking the stage. They finished and left the stage, then came back for an encore. About the middle of the encore, the sky opened up and it started to rain and the audience all cheered. They played several songs for the encore, left, then came back to bow, and that was the end. The show ended around 10:30pm. I hung with my friend for about a half hour before going back to the car. The traffic from the campus to the freeway was ridiculous. I didn't get back to Santa Cruz until about 2:00am.

All in all, it was a decent show, but I think I'm starting to like smaller venues now. (Am I getting old?). I'm looking forward to Dengue Fever at Bimbo's on 10/17. Any one interested in going?

--tg

[El Dingo]

I really wanted to go but I've kind of blown my ticket budget on upcoming shows (Pinback, The Dears and Mercury Rev).

I listened to my first Sigur Ros album driving to Reno. It was raining really hard and visibility was near zero. Hearing these quiet intros slow-build into epic power-chords was really scary. And awesome.

I'll catch them next time around.