Good-Shepard Faith Church - Wordless Music Series [8 pm] ~$15
Ending weeks of running myself ragged, coming down with a cold, etc, it was a pleasure experiencing the Wordless Music Series presentation of Icelandic (and Canadian) musicians. The night was full of some beautiful sounds with the occasional hiccups.
From the outset it must be said that the Good-Shepard Faith Church was hot and humid, and the evening's congregation (including Sufjan Stevens and other music notables) were sweaty, tired and hoping for some surprise guests. The first musician was Sandro Perri of Canada. Apparently, Mr. Perri's background is in electronica, but the event organizer assured us that though Perri's acoustic album sounded scary on paper, the music would be beautiful. Well, I believe that he was half right. The guitar playing was good (though the mixing was poor), but I felt that the singing needed work. He hit upon some good sounds, but they didn't last long. Sandro Perry played for about a half an hour to 45 minutes.
Up next were the main acts, Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurðsson and their ensemble. The first piece was a somewhat interesting piece with Muhly on piano (which he played most of the night), Sigurðsson on his laptop of sounds (sometimes with guitar), and a woman singing the numbered vocals (the words consisted of numbers in interesting repetitions and rhythms). The remaining pieces included violin, viola and various percussion instruments. At times the music included only a violin, viola, or, on one piece, only percussion on top of the sounds coming from Muhly and Sigurðsson. Will Oldham sang on three songs, but I can't say I enjoyed that very much. My friend and I agreed that we could have done without his appearance. Overall, the music was enjoyable even with the heat and humidity, but at the end of their performance our hopes were fulfilled when the organizer announced that their would be a fifteen minute break before we enjoyed a short, surprise Sigur Ros set.
The four men of Sigur Ros joined us in our heat overload with their acoustic instruments. They opened their three song set with a beautiful version of "Agætis Byrjun" (acoustic bass, piano, acoustic guitar, everything sounded wonderful). After which Jonsi said "it is very hot, my hands are sticky..." We all laughed, then they played what seems to be "Heima" from the movie coming out about them. It was another beautiful song that was song in English (at least partly from what I remember). Lastly, they played "Njósnavélin", or track 4 from "( )". This too was another song washed in pleasant guitar strings, hushed drum strokes, and soothing piano notes. It was to be a perfect set, but that was it. I cannot complain, for they played a surprise set for us, but we all wanted more. Who wouldn't?
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