CONCERT: Sigur Rós at Red Rocks

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

Parachutes - Your Stories

from the Parachutes EP (buy their music here)

Sigur Ros - Inní mér syngur vitleysingur

from the album Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (Amazon/iTunes)

NEWS: With a buzz in our ears...

Just a reminder that the new album from Sigur Ros is out this week. It's called "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" (in English: "With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly"), and it should be bought by everybody. It's beautiful from start to finish, contains the closest thing to a pop song they've ever created (see below), and there are naked people on the cover (see above). It's stacked up to be a winner.

For the unfamiliar, Sigur Ros is from Iceland, they play something they call "slow motion rock", and they made this video that I happen to love:

Now that you're all informed, here's what you need to do:

1. Head over to Sigur Ros' website and stream their entire new album, here.

2. Fall in love.

3. Buy the album when it comes out on June 23rd.

4. Go see them on Sept. 28th when they come to Salt Lake.

5. Fall in more love.

Now get to it!

Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook

from the album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (Amazon/iTunes)