Let me just start by saying that whatever I'll write about Sufjan and the show last night will be cheap, meaning I won't be able to describe it (already "describe" to start off is not even a good word for here)...
Nonetheless, I feel an intense need to speak out what perspires in me after listening or seeing Sufjan. To use the word "spiritual" when it comes to music is a bit bothersome for me because it already embodies a certain misunderstanding of the word I feel. In some cases I can see why people use the word and in those times it's because the music will elevate someone to the level where it draws the person to that innermost level within (I'm already selling it short...). However when I listen to Coltrane or in this case Sufjan Stevens, something "deep" (short again) happens. Now, if people want a start a conversation about how I just put Sufjan next to Trane in the same phrase, start your own post about it, for one I hate categories within music, for me music is music...
Spiritual for me often times draws me to worship, not the artist, nor something, but God himself. And thursday night it happened via Sufjan. Worship always brings me to conviction about who God is, about my faults, to utter joy, to enlightment, to things I can't describe, to change, to tears, to wonder, to ponder, to love, to goodness, purity, peace, to God.
Infused in his music, Sufjan speaks of God while speaking about cities, characters, rivers, wonderings, ponderings, poetry, shoes, bears, clouds... As an artist it is of an utmost blessing to "see" it take place. The show began and I was gone in it. At one point I closed my eyes to imagine God swirling around the Tower Theatre dancing amidst the populace. Word is bond! The show was on point (my mind can't decipher the things that are coming at me to put it in words, so I'll just stop here)...
Opening the show was "My Brightest Diamond" who featured Shara (I think) from the Sufjan crew and the drummer as well. Heck, I think her whole crew might 've been on Sufjan's line up. People told me that she reminded them of Portishead, however vocally she resembled Mia Doi Todd even more, personally. It was quite nice also.
Below is a picture of the crew circa Michigan with none other than the girl who's coming up later, Joanna Newsom (5th from the left standing next to the tiny froey girl from My Brightest Diamond in the red shirt):
By the way Tower theatre rocks acoustically, on ice...
Amen, Hallelujah and peace... Thank you Jesus
10 comments:
Hey Man we were there too and I say yes and Amen to what you said. Thursday night was indescribeable (is that a word)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yo, Lynne and I were jus talking about you guys last night. We are wondering when you guys could come over for dinner. Maybe we could go downtown one of these nights?!! And yes, indescribable is a word indeed. It was pretty unreal too, huh?! Hey brother, love love love. Lord willing we should link soon. peace ... Rubens
Mark Dixon here. I had to sign in as someone else because i switched my account to blogger beta and i can't comment on reg. blogger blogs?! I don't know why i switched, i guess i thought it was like an upgrade or something.
Hey Brian, sorry about not calling you back that one time in AUG. Honestly, I meant too. All's i can say is I won't blame you if you want to hurt me physically next time our paths cross.
Rubens, Was the Sufjan show good?
You said it my man. The show was tops!
The show was brilliant, bro! It was better than last time at the TLA. Tower theatre is the joint. Are you going to go to Joanna Newsom?
I'm still stewing on that. I think I may have to.
mark,
i clench my butt cheeks in anger at you.
the sufjan show was APOCALYPTIC! as in "disclosing a transcendant reality which is both temporal, in so far as it envisages eschatalogical salvation, and spatial in so far as it involves another, supernatural world." ~ john j. collins . . . .
or better put:
"In the tower above the earth,
There is a view that reaches far
Where we see the universe,
I see the fire, I see the end."
~the seer's tower, sufjan
well said, Rubens.
not cheap at all.
I wish so much I
coulda been there
in the pit with
you guys.
rad.
YO, Luke, is this Eletronic Barnacle Island? Or am I confusing identities/ aliases/ nom de plum's?
the show was pretty good. wee look at me bandwagon!
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