Live Review: Sigur Ros (9/17/2008) United Palace Theater, New York, NY

Last Wednesday while we were still in New York we headed up to the northwest corner of Manhattan for me to finally see Sigur Ros. The venue was situated in a Spanish speaking neighborhood where all of us Sigur Ros fans stuck out. The venue itself was very cool, it combined the ornateness of The Fox Theater with the massive churchiness of The Tabernacle. We made sure to get in our seats way in the back of the top balcony just in time for the show to start.

We were absolutely positive there was no opener for the show, and being so far back it was hard to tell who was on stage, so when the band started up right after 8pm, we thought it was Sigur Ros. Everyone around us was talking, the band was playing really low key, quiet stuff, way more low key than Sigur Ros, but sounded really similar. Finally near the end of the 35 minute opening set after not being able to recognize a single song, we did some iphone research and realized that it wasn’t a set break for Sigur Ros, but in fact a band called Parachutes had opened for them. We had totally punked ourselves. Parachutes weren’t bad, but they sounded like a watered down version of the headliner.

So then Sigur Ros came out as a 4 piece. Apparently this tour is the first time in a very long time they performed without other musicians on stage. Despite being without the other instrumentation, it didn’t feel like their sound was too thin or minimalistic or anything. They blasted the room loudly at all of their many climaxes, and it sounded great. The show was pretty much everything I thought it would be. They played a great set that included almost everything I could have asked for, and it all sounded flawless. I would like to see them again in the future with the added strings and marching band and all of that spectacle, but none of that took away from this brilliant performance.

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:55:40]
01 Svefn-G-Englar
02 Glósóli
03 Ny Batteri
04 Fljótavík
05 Við Spilum Endalaust
06 Hoppípolla
07 Með Blóðnasir / Svo Hljótt
08 Heysátan
09 Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása
10 Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
11 Sæglópur
12 Hafsól
13 Gobbledigook
14 [encore break]
15 All Alright
16 Popplagið

You can get the entire show in mp3 or FLAC here.

Awesome photos here

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One Response to “Live Review: Sigur Ros (9/17/2008) United Palace Theater, New York, NY”
  1. Sara Says: September 30th, 2008 at 6:38 pm

    Nice article. Follow Sigur Rós on the road! Post your photos and videos, from the concert or just…your life. See you there!

    http://www.30daysontheroad.com

    Sara

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