As of late I've been having a hard time assessing things. Yeah, yeah, I know, that's unbelievable coming from me, but it's true. I think it was good, you know overall, though I quibble with some of his arrangements. The brass and string section were excellent. And he's a great arranger. Just I don't like everything he did. But the stuff near the end was great. Actually Sister was really, the 2nd song after the instrumental song that was really beautiful was good, nicely arranged. The whole team jammed out Jacksonville, and that was fun. Most of the Seven Swans
songs were good. I mean A Good Man is Hard to Find, probably one of my favorite Sufjan songs of all time, he always performs well, and is always great. The encore, To Be Alone with You and The Dress Looks Nice on You were beautiful. That part in The Dress, you know what part I'm talking about. After the second the verse. Because they had like 4 or 5 people on guitars and banjos. Oh yeah. That was utterly fantastic. I mean, that part of the song when that countermelody comes in, you just want to hear it over and over. And it just was very ethereal with all of them complementing each other on it. Yeah. Let's see...
Oh yeah. Majesty Snowbird. The new song everyone is talking about. It is good. I don't know if it is amazing. It's solid. He hasn't lost it. It wasn't chilling like the first time I heard Chicago at my first Sufjan concert before Illinois came out, before Sufjan was big. I could just tell that was going to be awesome. I got so excited about Illinois. Don't get me wrong, Majesty Snowbird is big, huge song. And it probably is great. Maybe it is amazing. I don't know. As I said, I have this problem with assessing things. Probably goes along with some other things I'm combatting that I do find problematic, and this is in fact tied to it. Ah, everything has consequence.
Actually, I'm listening to it now, someone recorded the song (it's actually what I heard on Thursday). Okay, it's pretty good. It's somewhat different then his previous stuff. I really like the melody. It is beautiful. Very dynamic. A little predictable. (Or signature maybe?) He's definitely going in a different direction. It's not very folky except in parts. Very symphonic in tone, an obvious progression and logical step from Illinois, I guess.
Enough about that.
Oh, other highlights. Palisades was really good. They pulled that off strinkingly well. (Minus one thing that I'll get to in a minute.) They played The Lord God Bird which was cool. Believe it or not, I thought John Wayne was more chilling at his last concert, which was definitely not as good as this one. But he still performed it well.
And, and, and, they played another of my favorite songs: Detroit! Lift up your weary! Reconsider! Rebuild! (Or something like that!) No, it wasn't as....something as the album, but it was magnificent with the brass and string section. So, yeah.
My biggest quibble was, minus flubbing a few of the songs at beginning which is forgivable, he was probably nervous, the noise. Many of the songs built up to this noisy, unbearable auditory mess that I simply could not stand, and (yes I'm making a value judgment) really is not good music. Especially when used in the same manner over and over again. I know he has this fascination with noise, which thankfully he curbs on his albums (though not enough on The Avalanche) and uses to *great* effect on Michigan, but it was waaaay too much at the concert. And to what effect? Why? I still have no idea. I don't know what meaning it evoked nor what feeling except for me, pure irritation and bewilderment. Sufjan: cut the noise (and do you really need the distorted guitar?) and stick with the symphonic arrangements.
And that's all I've got.
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