My wife and I and friends took the trek down to Denver this past Tuesday to enjoy the loveliness that is Sufjan Stevens. He played at the Paramount, a small cozy seated theatre in Denver in the heart of the 16th street mall. The excitement and beards were in the air and good old Sufjan did not disappoint. He appeared on stage with his shiny moon pants, angel wings, tape on his arms, and kicked right into a kick drum, electric guitar laced version of seven swans. The band consisted of two drummers, 2 keyboards, horns, guitars, and 2 back up dancers dressed in alien atire (awesome!).
From then on, it was all songs from the new albums. I wasn't quite sure what the new songs were going to sound like live, or how they would even be performed, but HOLY CRAP as soon as he broke into Too Much I was hooked. The new songs just straight up rock live, they are fun, upbeat, and cause your head to uncontrollably bob along with your feet. It appeared that Sufjan had been freed, and it was infectious, you could feel it in the air and in everything he did. He danced with reckless abandon, like he was drunk at a wedding, he explained what he was thinking with this new album and the freedom he felt from throwing away his old shtick. The Highlight was the 30 minute rendition of Impossible Soul, that included Autotuning (which was so incredibly cool live), The entire crowd standing up and dancing, and Sufjan finishing it off dancing with a costume monkey head.
So All of that to say, the concert was amazing, Go See him now!
I've been thinking a lot about music and how intertwined it is to our memories, how everyone person has unique experiences tied to specific songs, and hearing those songs takes you back to them. Well Sufjan has now been around long enough for this to occur to me. I stumbled upon Michigan during a bit of a rough patch, a confused, slightly angry, and very emo college kid. 6 years ago, my friends and I piled into a van and drove straight to Denver to see Sufjan at the bluebird theatre. It was a trip laced with aderol and completely random and ridiculous conversations while driving at 5 o clock in the morning.
Later I met my wife, and we passed back and forth mix cd's filled with Sufjan as we got to know each other. We danced in the car with him, and later got to see him in Austin. Eventually we got married, and my wife walked down the aisle to Vito's Ordination. And now, 5 years later, I got to see him again in Denver, coming full circle as it were. And it's really cool to look back 5 years and see that much in music.
