Sigur Rós
March 29
Scotiabank Place, Ottawa, Ont.
On March 29, Icelandic ambient/post-rock band Sigur Rós gave the Ottawa audience what should be called an experience, rather than simply a concert.
The band that has been rumoured to have inspired Radiohead transported the audience from Scotiabank Place to another universe during an almost two-hour show.
Thanks to the lead singer and guitarist Jón (Jónsi) þor Birgisson’s ethereal voice, and the war, nature, love, and sometimes abstractly themed visuals accompanying the songs on a large horizontal screen, the experience was like an emotional shot straight to the heart that left some in tears during the first 15 minutes and all in a standing ovation at the end.
Describing the show as an out-of-body experience wouldn’t be an overstatement. If you think you’ve ever heard an artist sing impressingly well live, then you’re wrong. The band, and especially Jónsi’s voice, is without exaggeration better live than on the records, and that is saying something.
Being active since 1994, the band is now on a world tour to promote their upcoming seventh studio album, titled Kveikur. The core band, made up of Jónsi, drum player Orri Páll Dýrason, and bass player Georg Hólm, nicknamed Goggi, was joined by keyboard player Kjartan Sveinsson and a large group of various musicians, such as vocalists, flute players, and horn players.
New songs from their upcoming album, such as “Hrafntinna” and “Kveikur,” were enthusiastically welcomed by the audience, who seemed the most excited about their well-known hits, such as “Hoppípolla,” “Takk,” “Saeglópur,” “Glósóli,” and “Festival.” The name Sigur Rós means “victory rose” and is the name of Jónsi’s sister, Sigurrós. It is a common name in Iceland.
The concert started out with a large white canvas surrounding the stage, functioning as a white wall to host the projections, which were presented in sync with the music. As the music engulfed the audience deeper into thought and into Sigur Rós’ world, the canvas dropped and there was nothing else in the world but the ecstatic music and its raw echoes shared by the band members and the audience.
For someone who has lived in Iceland, it is evident that the music reflects the magic, the hollowness, the deepness, and strangeness of the land they come from. Their music in fact is much like Iceland — balanced with ups and downs, beautiful with a sense of melancholy and solitude, powerful, and yet timid in the most unexpected ways.
The audience, who thought they paid for a cool concert on a Friday night, left the stadium looking astonished, in a daze, and not quite comprehending what their eyes saw and ears heard. Sigur Rós continues their magical world tour, with stops in the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., Italy and Turkey, just to name a few, until the end of November 2013.
