Live Recap: Sigur Rós at The Auditorium Theatre
A band you can’t easily sing to but you can most definitely heal to.
Sigur Rós cleansed the minds of the Auditorium Theatre attendees with 2 full extraordinary sets. Saturday evenings never sounded so soothing, especially after a 6 year absence (at least from Chicago).
The first set utilized a leisurely pace to bring us back into the warm and familiar embrace of Jonsi’s falsettos, with the first 3 tracks from () Untitled, the band’s third album. When “Svenfln-g-englar” kicked off next, you could see some head swaying and soft energy trickling through the crowd. From the classic light bulb filled set flickering through a heavy fog, the specific guitar moaning sound from the singer’s cello bow, to the guitar filtered yelling moment.. we were grounded and we were ready.
Throughout the set, the band alternated their playing positions. One song would be performed with each of the members isolated in their space but weaved together by the long twisted strings hanging from above. The next would gather all 4 of them to Kjartan Sveinsson’s side of the stage, who rejoined the band after nearly a decade. These latter performances brought a different and more intimate experience, feeling as close as I’d ever get to a living room show with Sigur Rós.
After 10 songs and a short intermission, the band returned with a slightly changed set. The long strings were now untwisted and Glosoli brought the energtic vibes back up.
If during the first set we were reminded of a lot of () Untitled songs, the second one was more heavy on Takk classics, performing about a third of the album. Lights were dancing in blue and green hues in a very “northern lights” way and the mountains were peaking through the big screens behind the band. It was as if we travelled across the ocean and lived in their little Icelandic world.
One of the highlights was when Jonsi held a 30 second long silence in the middle of a song and the crowd started filling the gap: “I love you”, “thank you” or “spaghetti” cheered the air. Jonsi continued the song with no reaction but when the second big moment of silence happened… everybody kept completely quiet. EVERYBODY. As a reward, when the song picked back up and the rest of the band joined in, Jonsi started acknowledging the crowd for the first time. He rocked his guitar and advanced towards the crowd, moving to all sides of the stage, yelling and making eye contact. All of a sudden, we were all up on our feet, dancing and cheering. Yes, you read that right. There was dancing at a Sigur Rós show. And jumping too.
The band has been recording their first proper album since 2013, and blessed our little ears with 2 new songs, sprinkled throughout both sets. Everything came to a close with “Popplagio”, the last track on ()Untitled, bringing it back full circle. The evening had us hearing almost the entirety of that album.
If you missed out on the event, check out photos of the evening below, and see where you can catch the tour next here.
