Sigur Ros @ The Greek Theatre October 3, 2008

Typical of a Friday night in Berkeley, it was nearly impossible to find parking. I have a love hate relationship with the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. I hate getting to the Greek Theatre, but I love the Greek Theatre itself. Upon arrival though, my road rage dies down and is soon forgotten as the band takes the stage. Tonight was no different, especially considering that it was a completely sold out Sigur Ros show (capacity at the theatre is 8,000). The theatre is set on a hill and cement rows of seats surround the stage. As the opening band played, most present passed the time until Sigur Ros took the stage by lining up for a cup of Blue Moon or a hot dog.

There are many things that make a band like Sigur Ros appealing. Perhaps it is the fact that they are from Iceland. Maybe some find them interesting because of lead singer Jonsi Birgisson’s perfectly pitched falsetto. Others might look to their ghostly and melodic music as unique amidst a barrage of bands that follow the same formulaic pattern when creating music. As for me, any guitarist that plays the guitar with a bow has my attention. Jonsi and the rest of his band mates played confidently and the crowd loved it as soon as they heard the very first notes of some of their older songs. For example, I remember the very instant everyone heard the first few notes of the bass line to “Ny Batteri” off of Ágætis Byrjun the theatre erupted.

The light show was incredible, focusing on casting shadows of the band members across the backdrop of the stage and creating a very atmospheric and ethereal feel to the entire set. One of the highlights of the show was the last song before the encore named “Gobbledygook”, off their latest album. Jonsi had multiple members of the opening band play a small drum tom. At one point it seemed like there were 15 people on stage playing drums. During the climax of the song, the drumming and strumming swelled and confetti was shot and spread across the audience from the ceiling of the stage from what looked like cannons. Some of the band members had confetti guns and spread it all over the audience. As confetti rained down and the stage was left deserted, everyone yelled for one more song.

They returned to the darkened stage and played the last track off their “( )” album named Popplagio, an 11 minute epic and grand song, one of those songs that builds up to a climatic, loud and heavy ending, the ending being Jonsi almost falling off stage as he rocked out with his bow in hand and the flickering lights casting his shadow all over the faces of those in the audience. Before the show started I told my friend, “Wouldn’t it be great if it started raining during the last song of the encore?” Well, it did. It seemed as if Sigur Ros had held back the rain during the entire night and on their cue it started pouring on all 8,000 bodies present. I have never seen better timing live. Never.

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