Sufjan in Brooklyn - DayGlo Icarus
So I headed to the Prospect Park Bandshell to catch Sufjan Stevens last week. The weather was perfect and despite the intimidating line, we were quickly inside the venue, spread out on beach blankets on the grass (ok, more like rocks) with a snack and a margarita to share.
The Brooklyn show was the culmination of his tour in support of the Age of Adz which I had seen at The Beacon last Fall. And it was fun to see college age kids adorned in glowtape mingling with the crowd.
Sufjan arrived on stage like a day-glo Icarus, huge white angel wings splayed, and dug into the music. The whole experience is schizophrenic – he’s like a hyper sincere folkie crossed with George Clinton. The enormous band carries all the sonic sonic heft of a P-Funk concert. The stage is lit up with black light (Does he have some sort of LED light on his pants? why yes he does.) and your smacked around by the hyper-trippy visuals playing onscreen at the back of the stage.
I’m helplessly fascinated by Sufjan’s move into this musically adventurous, but often atonal and difficult, territory. Adz is a much more electronic-based album and I think it reveals itself best in the theatricality of a live setting (it’s almost too much on headphones). Buried amidst most of these songs remains the pop sensibility and gorgeous melodies he’s known for but they are blanketed by odd/minor chords and key changes. Within all that noise though, there’s still that nugget of melody, and when the instruments finally break we’re often left with just Sufjan’s quiet and haunting voice. The major chords reappear and wash over you. And it’s utter relief. The tension making the harmonies and vocals that much sweeter. (I’m repeating myself but you get the idea).
It’s as if he’s aware of how twee and lovely and strummy his earlier music was and is now constantly fighting it. This will all sound a bit over the top but I think of the scene in Amadeus where Mozart is furiously scribbling different variations of the Requiem. Sufjan treats his band like a huge orchestra, changing movements and rummaging through a series of styles and drum patterns like the setting on one of those 80s casio keyboards.
The concert as a whole had the same overall structure of the Beacon concert, culminating in the 25 minute joy/balloon explosion of “impossible soul” (this time with those enormous swaying balloons that seem to only appear outside of car dealerships) before he gave the audience what they seemingly wanted,“Chicago,” and some solid sincerity from Illinoise.
I really have no idea where he’ll go from here. But I find him an endlessly fascinating artist and I can’t wait to see….
Pro photos were cribbed from the Brooklyn Vegan article (the crappy ones are mine) which you can see here.
