We wondered if the Kansas City area was going to suffer from another night of noisey weather - this spring has been exceptional for the amount of thunderstorms passing through the area. The tornado sirens were going off as we put down a quick dinner at Jerusalem Cafe, making it back to the car just before it started to pour.
The few blocks up Broadway to the Uptown were driven largely by luck. The street was impossible to see through the thick blanket of rain - only the frequent lightning provided any sort of guide as to who or what might be in our way. I found an open parking spot and ran to the door, and we made our way inside.
We got in right around 8:45pm with no wait - there were very few people outside, or hanging around the lobby. I also noticed a sign on the entry door that stated the show was being filmed for an upcoming DVD - should be interesting to see how much makes the final cut. We made our way into the main room at the Uptown, finally able to see what a sold-out show at this place looked like.
Easy enough - it was packed. We went up to the balcony hoping to find a better vantage point, but with no luck. We decided instead to head back down, and found a decent spot stage-right, leaning against a pillar. There was no sense in trying to move any further inward, or closer to the stage - we had found what would probably be the best sightline we were going to get.
The stage was littered with instruments, with four or five translucent spheres hanging above. These spheres collected the lighting changes and at times seemed to represent the view from outside the embryo depicted on the cover of Agætis Byrjun.
With a simple keyboard chord, “Svefn-g-englar” started the show . . .
From there, the band proceeded through an hour and fifteen minutes or so of unintelligible vocal sounds, instrument switching, confetti launching, and doubling in size with the addition of Amiina on strings and then tripling with a five-piece brass section for a total of fourteen people on stage, culminating in the rousing drum-led chant-song “Gobbledigook” from the forthcoming Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust album. The opener on the album, this almost Animal Collective-leaning exercise brought everyone in the place up out of the carefully-crafted ambient daze of the first hour of their set.
By the end of the set, we found ourselves leaning against an outer wall, sitting down with eyes closed just listening to the sound of the band and all they were creating on stage. The crowd, calm and attentive to the end, began to file out after the semi-English “All Alright” encore.
The new songs did stand out from the older work - anyone who’s heard the stream of the new album can tell the group are going in a different direction than much of their previous output. But, at the same time - it was still Sigur Ros. Fans at the two remaining dates on this short tour - the Bonnaroo festival and NYC - may very well get a different band that what we got due to, if anything, the sheer size of the summer festival and the sheer size of zeitgeist surrounding anything in the big city. For us out here in the rural midwest, it’s not often that a group of this size schedules Kansas City on such a limited engagement. I’m thankful the city turned out in droves despite the weather to let Sigur Ros know they shouldn’t forget us the next time they’re coming through.
One further thing I’d like to give credit to - the sound was amazing for this show. For a band like Sigur Ros, that really can mean everything. I’ve been to events at the Uptown before that were unbearably bad - far too loud, far too much bass booming around cavernously . . . just no attention paid to the details. This was not the case tonight. I’d heard the show a couple of years ago at the same venue was utterly fantastic from a sonic standpoint as well, so here’s to the band’s front-of-house sound engineer for doing what it takes to get it right. Thanks!
A final note - Jonsi looked the part tonight - his suit looked very similar to that of the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz . . .