Moments...
Concert Review
Sufjan Stevens, My Brightest Diamond
Monday, September 25, 2006
The Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee WI
or Finding Moments of Unbearable Beauty and Joy in the Simple Things Makes Life Worthwile and Other Tales of My Childhood.
I remember her laughing and the smile on her face. The deflating balloon was bright red and the sky was overcast. We chased it from the backyard to the front, pushing it between us as it strangely hovered at the height of our tiny shoulders. And I remember the pang of regret as the wind suddenly took our balloon into the sky, having forever lost something she enjoyed.
But she was still laughing.
And in that moment, looking up at the sky at 4 years old, I felt my first glimpse of true beauty.
The balloon tumbled over houses and entered clouds as we watched it grow smaller but I remember thinking that when it comes back down, on the other side of the world, that someone else could enjoy it like we had. The clouds and the wind and our fluttering jackets kept me pinned sharply to that moment. And she was still laughing.
There's those rare moments in life, when the world stops spinning, and you're no longer caught in a piece of the machinery, but outside of time, in the presence of something greater than yourself. You can recognize beauty in something mundane or dirty... A dog chasing a squirrel. A child's laughter. A plastic bag caught floating in the breeze.
And in that second, the tragedy and the comedy of life are worth it. You are hardened and jaded, socially conditioned to be cynical, but then suddenly overwhelmed by the poetry of it all. You're reminded of your youth when the world through a child's eye was wide and beautiful and lyrical. Today, it's not a sunset or happy ending, but a simple falling leaf.
And even a big, strong man is moved to tears.
Indie music darling Sufjan Stevens knows those moments. From the very first song on his worldwide tour supporting his latest release, The Avalanche, we know those moments. It's an instrumental piano tune accompanied by a dozen or so other players, all of them dressed with large butterfly and bird wings tacked on their backs, helping us feel an innocence and exploration not felt since the days of our childhood. On-screen in the background is the simple image of a kite, tumbling and dancing in the breeze or being tossed by a blonde-headed four-year-old boy, as the string section tip-toes along the piano's playful melody. Horns and guitars blow an invisible breeze through the tiny auditorium until the sound is so large and epic that your blood courses rapidly. The boy on the screen is you. He's me. I'm too awake now. I can barely breathe. I'm closing my eyes but it doesn't help.
I've suddenly let a few tears flow and we've only heard the first song.
As rumored, a Sufjan Stevens show is eerily quiet. The music itself is actually as full as a symphony and chorus combined. But I'm talking about the audience. The experience of a Sufjan show is quiet. It's profoundly, reverently, laudably quiet. Each parishioner is awed in the midst of his own personal, spiritual awakening until the final revelation at the end of each song, in which his heart leaps with the touch of the spirit, roaring in applause and exalting his newfound glory.
And Stevens can't deny this element of his songwriting. He wont speak about the spiritual allusions of his lyrics because he does not try to make music "with a message", but in the simple honesty of his translation of beauty, we find truths deeper than physical tautologies. We find works like "To Be Alone With You" and "Oh God, Where Are You Now?" which reference life as aspects of religion. Hearing Steven's soft voice and heartfelt sincerity about his relationship with his God, despite his winged costume, one can't help but feel a stirring in whatever it is that you consider your soul. And if you're like me, sitting in the velvet chair of the theatre, surrounded by swirling crescendos, eyes clenched tightly closed, you're feeling guilty that it takes some unknown figure in entertainment to help you feel an emotional connection with your faith again.
But what matters is that throughout the 3+ hours of Steven's concert and the opening act (My Brightest Diamond led by Shara Worden, which I consider merely an extension of Sufjan Stevens in a sense, since all members of the act are also members of Steven's 'Chinese Butterfly Orchestra' which accompanies him) we are firmly rooted in the reality of everyday life. And therein lies the power. It's in the mundane story about a childhood fear of wasps that we catch a glimpse of beauty. It's in the tale of a first love who succumbed to cancer that we commune with our savior. It's in the history of the blue-collar workers in Detroit that we watch our lives flash by as both meaningless and all-encompassing. And it's in the brutal recount of the life of serial-killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr. that we confront our own demons. But in each case, living the simple vignette of daily, factual, pedestrian life is what makes us whole. Dirty and beautiful. Profound and mundane. It ties us to each other and raises us above insignificance.
Sufjan plays that piece of ourselves that we'd ignored or supressed or forgot. Suddenly, we remember that balloon and that laugh and we recognize the beauty. Tearfully, we gasp, as we're hit with that honest moment that makes life the grand gift it was meant to be.
Songs to download...
Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day
Sufjan Stevens - Oh God, Where are you now?
Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You
Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out To Get Us!
My Brightest Diamond - Something of an End
Videos on YouTube...
Intro - Sister
The Transfiguration
Predatory Wasp
Casimir Pulaski Day
Posted by heydomsar
2006-09-28
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
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