Sigur Rós at the Garden with Kveikur

Sigur Rós have returned with a world tour and a new, darker and more aggressive sound, and I loved every moment of it. This having been my first time seeing them live, it was an amazing experience I don't think I'll forget.

Poster by Alan Hynes (x)

Madison Square Garden, March 25 2013
Noted by the band to be the biggest show of their career so far (in the U.S.), given to the very lucky audience who attended the sold out show. I've read a couple posts on the concert saying how their performance really made the garden feel like an intimate venue, and I have to say that really captures the atmosphere Sigur Rós created. Watching and listening to them perform, it didn't feel like you where in a massive 20,000 capacity venue, instead feeling like you where just close by. It really was an amazing experience, both musically and visually.

The opening act was Tim Hecker, who provided a nice ambient/drone sound from behind the curtain Sigur Rós had set up. This sort of opening act reminded me of when I saw Steven Wilson on his Grace for Drowning tour at the Best Buy Theater when he had Bass Communion playing beforehand, to give an idea of how it was. Personally I thought his music worked great to listen to before Sigur Rós went on.

Now if you had ordered tickets for this tour, you would have received a free download of the Brennisteinn EP which included the songs "Brennisteinn", "Hryggjarsúla", and "Ofbirta". This gives a little insight into some of the new sound they are going towards, and who doesn't just want more music from this lovely band?

Once Sigur Rós started, their entire set was beyond amazing. Between the music, the visuals, and the overall atmosphere in the venue that they created, it was such an amazing experience. They started of the show with a curtain up surrounding the stage, which everyone was behind, that they projected images on and used the lighting inside to create other visual effects. There would be points where they used the inside light to make Jónsi appear to grow to great heights, to then back to normal. The same for how the light was angled on the other musicians inside.

01. Yfirborð | 02. Ný Batterí | 03. Vaka | 04. Hrafntinna | 05. Sæglópur | 06. Fljótavík | 07. E-bow | 08. Varúð | 09. Hoppípolla | 10. Með Blóðnasir | 11. Olsen Olsen | 12. Kveikur | 13. Festival | 14. Brennisteinn | Encore: 15. Glósóli | 16. Popplagið

In addition to the main band of Jónsi, Georg, and Orri, there was also some string, brass players, and an additional percussionist along with them. From what I could see, there were the three string players, a trombonist, french horn, and trumpet, all of which also doubled on backing vocals when needed. Even in the size of the garden with the band, you could hear them so clearly, and it really added to the whole atmosphere they had going.

Every moment of the concert I was just in awe of the music that was being played, I can not get over how fantastic of a live experience they were. It is no surprise that they sold out the Garden.

Every song they performed was with so much emotion, and just listening to them where their set to me was just perfect. The videos they used with each song, either projected behind them or on the curtain in front of them before it dropped, was stunning and matched exactly.

They closed with one of my favorite songs, "Popplagið" which is just such an emotion experience on album, hearing it live is a whole different and amazing experience. If you ever get the chance to see them live, I would highly recommend it, as I really hope to see them live again one day.

Kveikur
This album overall for me is one of their releases that is more notable, and up there with some of my other favorites from them such as Takk.. and ( ). They have described it as being "more aggressive" than their previous releases, and it is but still maintaining their core distinctive sound. Already I am thinking how I would not be surprised at all if this ends up being one of my favorite albums this year.

The album opens with the powerful, memorable, and beautiful song, "Brennisteinn". This is followed by "Hrafntinna" which continues with the really interesting percussion and also now starting to have more presence of the brass with the lovely ending at the end.

"Ísjaki" was the second song released from the album, and is the song that has Sigur Rós' first lyric video. I think this song is really upbeat, and just really fun to listen and jam out to. "Yfirborð" follows that, which starts out with a sound more reminiscent of their previous work, It then picks up a bit and keeps alternating.
"Stormur" is follows that, and then the title track "Kveikur". This song is more similar to the aggressive aspects of the first track "Brennisteinn", with Jónsi's falsetto vocals over the distorted guitar, bass and percussion elements.

"Rafstraumur" is another really great song off the album that is just really enjoyable to listen to, which is then followed by "Bláþráður". The album closes with "Var", which again goes back to the earlier sounds of Sigur Rós' previous works, with a beautiful and ambient sound with some piano being played over.

Hyrule's Symphony

Symphony of the Goddesses is essentially heaven for anyone familiar with The Legend of Zelda series. This concept was put together for the 25th anniversary of the series, which began in 2011 with only three concerts under the title of "The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony"; Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London. Following this there was a CD released consisting of recordings of pieces some of which were performed at these concerts, which was released with the special edition of Skyward Sword.

Possibly the most notable aspect of this concert is the centerpiece which in a way derives from the title of the whole tour, Symphony of the Goddesses. This would be the multi-movement work that is put together, which tells the audience the story of the goddesses, how they have impacted the land of Hyrule, and our lovely hero Link. But this whole work, which has four main movements, is a tribute to the mythology which is presented throughout the series, of the goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore whom also make up the iconic triforce.

The typical program of the concerts in the tour is the following, which can also be found on the official Zelda Symphony website;

~ACT I~
Overture
~INTERLUDES~
Dungeons of Hyrule
Kakariko Village ~ Hope and Calm
Songs of the Hero
~THE SYMPHONY~
Prelude ~ The Creation of Hyrule
Movement I ~ Ocarina of Time
Movement II ~ The Wind Waker
~ACT II~
Intermezzo ~ Great Fairy's Fountain
Movement III ~ Twilight Princess
Movement IV ~ A Link To The Past
Finale

 This is the basic template for the tour, however each city is gong to get a different encore. Each orchestra however is going to be different, as they are composed of local musicians from that city. Which to me really makes this performance all the more special and meaningful, and gives me hope as a musician if they continue these sorts of tours to one day be a part of playing the music to my favorite game series.

The conductor remains the same, and she was the fantastic Eímear Noone, who has done numerous conduction for video game orchestrations in both concert and the studio including notable works such as World of Wardcraft, Starcraft II, and Diablo III. She has also worked outside of the video game realm into the "classical" world where in 2007 she conducted the Los Angeles Ballet's production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.

In case you can't tell, I find all of this fascinating and love getting to look into the details of the performers, conductor, and all of that information especially as the focus of the show is Zelda. The performance of video game music in an orchestral concert setting seems to be becoming more common with this tour, as well as the popular concert series Video Games Live (plus the upcoming Distant Worlds concert to feature music from Final Fantasy). I love every aspect of these shows, and really hope that this is the sort of thing that grows to being more common.

My only complaint I could have with this is not with the concert and performers, but the audience. From Symphony of the Goddesses and when I saw Video Game Live, I noticed the audience members are not really familiar with the proper concert educate in regards to orchestras. I know that yes these shows are predominantly catering towards the gaming crowd, but still some things like not clapping between movements or making comments during a piece should be common knowledge. But anyway, aside from that little detour the whole performance is just fantastic.
 
The concert of this tour that I saw was the performance in the Theater at Madison Square Garden, on November 28, 2012. For this performance, the performers were the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Dessoff Choirs.

Before the orchestra began the second movement of the main Symphony, Eímear Noone went to take out a very special baton. Specifically one that was a replica of what Link uses in The Wind Waker, fitting for how the second movement is for that game. Just the details like that really add to the whole experience.

One thing particularly special about the show I saw at the Garden was that they did three encores. The first two, were "Ballad of the Windfish" and "Gerudo Valley". Now before the third and final piece, Jeron Moore the producer of Symphony of the Goddesses began with “The number three resonates a lot in the Zelda series.” Saying that basically made everyone completely cheer with joy knowing that we would be getting to hear more of such lovely music, and the show closed with a medley for "Majora's Mask" (which the video above is for).

The whole performance was just amazing, from the performers musicianship, the fantastic arrangements of the music from the series, and the videos which accompanied the pieces. Like one part I just loved was when the brass came in during the section for the "Dawn of the Final Day" of the Majora's Mask medley changing the whole tone of the piece. But anyway.. if you love Zelda, or just have an appreciation for music, go out and see this concert as it is just a great experience.