Sufjan Stevens: Age of Adz Concert at the Beacon
I have listened to Sufjan for awhile, but this was the first time to see him live. Also my first time to see a show inside the recently restored Beacon Theater right here on the UWS. The Beacon is a great place, even from the balcony where we were. Most of the show was all new stuff off the Age of Adz. This is much more techno and electronica than his previous stuff. But still some beautiful anthems and melodies. Then the encore was all his older singer/songwriter stuff. (Note: If Sufjan is not on "Stuff White People Like," he should be. But surely he already is?).
The funniest part of the show was the 10 minute speech on the insane UFO spotting artist Royal Robertson, who apparently inspired the new album. Sufjan admitted that he became interested more in mixing sound in interesting ways than in traditional songwriting. I'm not sure if the results are as "interesting" as he thinks. But more power to him. I found myself hearing a mashup of Beck and Bjork for most of the show. In that sense, it didn't sound groundbreaking or new.
To enjoy a show like this, you have to come prepared for a heavy dose of irony and manufactured plainness. For example, Sufjan works to belabor every single transition between songs. He makes seemingly offhand remarks, or has to carry a mike somewhere, or has to pick up and move beach balls by himself. It's all code: this is not corporate music; this is not a polished and seamless performance; this is just me and my band and we haven't thought through the transitions. Sufjan's dancing wasn't meant to be good. It was meant to be terrible, and therefore amusing. Same for his ufo inspired pants and silver jacket and backwards Darth Vader mask. It was the music equivalent of reading literary fiction as opposed to pulp. They want you to work a little bit as a listener. They will entertain you a bit here and there. But more often than not they want to deny you the sugary pleasures you've become accustomed to. It's all a bit like a high end design firm coming out with handwritten notes on cardboard. As long as all parties knowingly engage in the wink of nested irony, it kind of works.
The funniest part of the show was the 10 minute speech on the insane UFO spotting artist Royal Robertson, who apparently inspired the new album. Sufjan admitted that he became interested more in mixing sound in interesting ways than in traditional songwriting. I'm not sure if the results are as "interesting" as he thinks. But more power to him. I found myself hearing a mashup of Beck and Bjork for most of the show. In that sense, it didn't sound groundbreaking or new.
To enjoy a show like this, you have to come prepared for a heavy dose of irony and manufactured plainness. For example, Sufjan works to belabor every single transition between songs. He makes seemingly offhand remarks, or has to carry a mike somewhere, or has to pick up and move beach balls by himself. It's all code: this is not corporate music; this is not a polished and seamless performance; this is just me and my band and we haven't thought through the transitions. Sufjan's dancing wasn't meant to be good. It was meant to be terrible, and therefore amusing. Same for his ufo inspired pants and silver jacket and backwards Darth Vader mask. It was the music equivalent of reading literary fiction as opposed to pulp. They want you to work a little bit as a listener. They will entertain you a bit here and there. But more often than not they want to deny you the sugary pleasures you've become accustomed to. It's all a bit like a high end design firm coming out with handwritten notes on cardboard. As long as all parties knowingly engage in the wink of nested irony, it kind of works.
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