I got to see Sigur Ros on Saturday night at the Red Rocks Ampitheatre in Denver. It was actually my first time in Denver at all and I've got to admit, I pretty much fell in love with the city during our one-day excursion. We stayed at my good friend's cousins' home, visited the Denver Art Museum (fantastic), and saw a little bit of downtown (including the Tattered Cover Bookstore on 16th St - also fantastic).
Then we headed out to the famed ampitheatre to end our perfect day with a perfect night of music. First of all, the venue was impressive and the view of the valley behind the stage was breath-taking - a fitting atmosphere for the kind of music we'd be hearing that night. Opening was Parachutes, who started out with a solo trombone looping on itself before giving way to a hushed but very pretty performance. They played a humble but solid set, all the while whetting our appetites for the performance to come. Sigur Ros took the stage at about 8:30, and they certainly did not disappoint - starting with several of their more subdued pieces, they slowly built up the emotion and tempo throughout their 2+ hour set. They leaned heavily on material from this year's gorgeous Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (or With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly), with a few older songs showing up. My particular highlight of the night was when Jonsi invited us all to join in singing the choral line for Með blóðnasir - the effect was immediately chilling, and I'd be surprised if anyone there didn't get tingles running up and down their spine. The open-air ampitheatre was the perfect setting for such sweeping and majestic music, and I found myself often just sitting back and staring up at the stars or out at Denver's twinkling lights in the distance as I soaked up the music. I couldn't imagine a better backdrop for what I was hearing. Put simply, it was a very near perfect night.
Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures (we weren't particularly close), but you can check out a pretty great video here.
Here's the setlist:
heysátan, fljótavík, all alright, njósnavélin, ný batterí, við spilum endalaust, hoppípolla, með blóðnasir, inní mér syngur vitleysingur, festival, dauðalagið, sæglópur, hafsól, gobbledigook
And the encore:
illgresi, popplagið
from the Parachutes EP (buy their music here)
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