Thursday, April 15, 2010

joy + tragedy : jónsi stuns the roseland

In front of an artistically imagined and singularly stagecrafted set, one fragile voice rang softly, slowly. Whispering in and out, incomprehensible at times but always utterly recognizable.

With ninety minutes of genuine, theatrical production, replete with an interactive set and costumes, the unearthly lead singer of Sigur Rós, Jón Þór Birgisson (Jónsi), made the fifth stop of his solo career at the Roseland Theater with a performance designed for an opera house but contained to a mid-sized theater in front of a few hundred people.

Spiritual and spectral, Jónsi strode ahead and Portland followed on his organic journey of birth, growth, and death as he told an auditory story accompanied by visually captivating animations and lights designed by 59 Productions.

The narrative ran the gauntlet from lonely sadness (as Jónsi opened the set alone on an acoustic guitar strumming “Stars in Still Water” to an awed, silent audience) to exuberant joy (“Go Do” followed by “Boy Lilikoi” at the midpoint), from violent climaxes to hopeless depths completely uninterrupted...

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Read the rest and see more photos on OMN.

1 comment:

Dan said...

Great review & photos… I was there with camera in tow, too… photos over at:

http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/jonsi-portland-2010/

~Dan