Sigur Rózzzzzzzzzzz

My, my...how things change.

Back, during my formative years, I used to hate live performances, complaining that the songs sounded "different" or "not as good" as they were on the original albums.

Tonight, er, last night, I went and saw one of my favorite bands, Sigur Rós, play live at the Orpheum. For those of you not familiar to Sigur Rós, they are an Icelandic band that infuses very powerful, electronic and classical sounds in their music. Their music is very chill and--yes, I totally cribbed this word from the boys and girls at Wikipedia--ethereal.

It's that rare band that knows how to make music that grabs your soul and shakes it all about. Just absolutely gorgeous music. I actually keep their music on to help me sleep. It's very relaxing.

So, I dunno. Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised when I found myself falling asleep during their live performance. But shocked I was. And a little disappointed. It wasn't that their music was bad. Not at all. It was just as beautiful and crystalline as it's always been. And it was all the more impressive watching it being performed live.

So, why the snoozefest?

Well, see the reasons above. It was more of the same; identical, actually. To the last note. Look, if I'm shelling out bucco bucks, I want a little bang. Not to sound like a complete brat, but if I want to hear the songs exactly as I know them, I can just pop in the CD and listen to it. I want random guitar interludes, improvisation and audience patter.

Speaking of the latter, I went and saw the concert with my brother in arms, Erik, and I completely agree with his take on why the concert was lacking. He whispered, ever so softly in my ear (lol!!!), " ya know, for a band that's all about having a big stage production, they have absolutely no stage presence."

I concur, sir.

Say what you will about U2 (Best Band on Earth) and Coldplay (you know how I know you're gay...?), but they know how to play with the audience. I've seen both of those two bands live and there was a real give and take between band and audience, a dynamic. And there was nothing like that present, this evening. They barely even talked. They just jumped from one song to the next.

How very meh of them.

But that's not to say I didn't enjoy the music itself. It was breathtaking, no denying that. I was actually moved to tears at a few points. There music has and always will be lovely and pure. Hell, the music alone was almost worth the price of admission.

Almost.