Sleepy Boy

[talktooloose]

Luckily, I have the day off from the office and could sleep if necessary, but I am currently drawing. Although the concert was over at 10:30, the process of moving thousands of Björk fans off the Island meant that we didn't hit the mainland until 12:30, at which point we had to bike home.

The whole show experience was a blast. First of all, we hung out on the lawn for hours with lots of proudly weird Björk fans including the couple dressed like horses in large foam headpieces and furry body suits. There were many cute young fags and a couple of guys in front of us who we suspected were a couple but were too shy for PDAs.

How was the concert? The sound was unbelievable for an outdoor event -- clear, layered, dynamic. The band consisted of Matmos (the elecontrics duo), the Icelandic String Octet and an intense and theatrical woman in a long gown playing harp, harpsichord, celesta and squeezebox. It was a near-perfect amalgam of high electronic and viscerally acoustic music.

The diva from Iceland was dressed like a mad marionette of a lounge singer in a black cocktail dress, green boa like frill, severe angled haircut and bright green patches in place of rouge on her glittered face. She sang with incredible force and commitment throughout. The set featured wonderful and sometimes playfully pornographic video and pyrotechnics including fireworks behind the stage set-up which we who were up front couldn't really see.

Did I enjoy it? Yeah, pretty much. The fact is, Björk is not really a big live performer. It is hard to penetrate her wall and she rarely speaks to the audience except to chirp, "Think Ya Verrrrry Much!" I have several live videos and I realize that they work better than the real live show. She is a studio creature who needs a certain degree of packaging, by which I don't mean fluff but rather electronic context which she orchestrates brilliantly. The show didn't have the punch of other big shows I've seen in the last while like Elvis Costello or Ani Difranco who seem to be there for the live experience, for the audience interaction, in a way that Björk might not be comfortable with.

Opening for her was an even more painfully closed-off performer: Bonny Prince Billy who seemed to sing the same folk-song for forty minutes while moving in strange quasi-balletic ways. Next to him was a glum woman playing accordian badly and singing only adequately. Pain.

Opening for both of them was the effervescent, brilliant DJ, Kid Koala, a musician and cartoonist from Toronto who used his sweetly shy comic manner to totally connect with the crowd while doing some of the most amazing scratching I've ever seen.

So, those of you who burned with envy for my experience might just as well watch the videos and listen to the albums. I think that's where you'll find the real Björk.

But the crowd was joyous and rapturous and fun to be with. And, as we all gathered our backpacks and headed for the ferries, the two guys held hands for a minute while they thought no one was watching.

Comments

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

That sounds awesome. I daresay the harp lady was Zeena Parkins, who has a place among the New Yawk New Music improvisationalists like John Zorn.

I remember being really excited when I saw her name as well as Matmos' attached to Bjork's Vespertine, but ultimately I was a bit disappointed. If you can get ahold of it, check out "Hidden Place (Hearts & Bones mix)" to hear what I think the album could've/should've sounded like. (The reverso-glitchy intro becomes a hook rather than a background, and the stream of consciousness lyrics get pared down to their barest possible. This tells me that Bjork, like David Byrne, works best with an editor.)

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

As it so happens, this musical gem was an online release: Hidden Place (Hearts & Bones Mix)

I love the way they sample and cut up the sound of cards being shuffled. It takes that reverse-glitch noise from sludgy to propulsive.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's yummy. I wish Vespertine could be this sparse and still have songs. I'm kind of conservative that way -- I like songs. But the mix highlights the fact that V is both too lush and not edgy enough and rather too new age.

I mean, some of her new "messages" are kind of duh! "Nature is ancient/But it still surprises". That's hardly "The modern things have always existed."

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The interesting thing is that the dramatic way they use her vocal clips in the song highlights the fact that she doesn't need to have to stick to any sort of set meter to have great effect. The three lines she has: "I'm not sure what to do with it... or where to put it." "I'll hide it under a blanket... lull it to sleep!" and "Careful, careful..." are evocative, but conceal more than they reveal. There's a lof of empty space in there that could be filled with more carefully selected snippets. That's the other thing about Vespertine-- she seemed a little rambly, but that could just be me.

[shawnsyms.livejournal.com]

I loved this post! Especially the ending.

: )

what about the fireworks?

[(Anonymous)]

They sure as hell impressed me! My friend was laughing like a delighted child and i had goose-pimples all over. Potent combination of music and visuals.
... or were you too close to the stage to see them?