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It takes real strength to come to America and sell out concerts singing in your native tongue. I mean, how many people in the world let alone America speak Icelandic? Not very many. And yet, Sigur Ros sold out nearly all of their North American shows including last Thursday's gig at the Greek Theater. It should inspire hope in Albanian bands, Slovakian bands, Sri Lankan bands, and any other that you can conquer American hearts without singing in English, Spanish, French or any other more popular language. If (and there is an if) you are brilliantly talented musicians. Sigur Ros is a testament to the fact that music transcends all boundaries and all barriers. People will feel it in their bones, in their souls, and in their very cores. It binds and defines us together as human beings. Review continued below photo gallery
Ok, enough highfalutin' waffling. (Although I do enjoy a good waffle.) Let's get down to the performance. With stunning visual accompaniment, Sigur Ros took the stage and transformed the Greek theater into a magical place. No seriously, there is something about their music that can make every day objects seem bizarrely epic. The trees weren't just trees, they were ancient trees full of knowledge and wisdom. The audience wasn't just an audience, it was an audience of your compatriots that you loved and loved you back. Even the lights that shone into the night sky weren't just electricity, but seemed like beacons of hope in the darkness. Everything down to the glockenspiel was transformed. Instead of mallets hitting wood, the percussionist seemed to be performing some mystical rite.
Sigur Ros' greatest gift to the listener is that their music inspires the imagination. Some members of the audience were heightening their imaginations (as they tend to do) with forbidden fruits over the course of the night. So much so by the end of the first set my hair wreaked of forbidden substances. The garments that the band was wearing also lent themselves to the whimsical air. The lead singer, Jón Birgisson, was wearing a military jacket that wouldn't be out of place in Sgt. Pepper, the keyboardist, Kjartan Sveinsson, was all in black, the drummer, Ágúst Gunnarsson, had a sparkly crown, and the bassist, Georg Hólm, resembled the Mad Hatter in his finery. Of course you can get this sense from their albums, but seeing them live gives an extra element to the music. A certain energy that I believe is the result of the audience feeding off the whimsical music. I saw people whirling like dervishes in the aisles, drumming like mad on their seats, and desperately trying to sing along. It was gorgeous.
Top photo by Sandra Vahtel
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Er... Sigur Ros DOESN'T sing in Icelandic, as far as I know... they sing in a made up language that NO ONE understands! : )
the explanation, from Wikipedia:
Vonlenska is a term used to describe the gibberish sung by the band,[13] in particular Birgisson. It is also commonly known by the English translation of its name, Hopelandic. It takes its name from “Von”, a song on Sigur Rós’s debut album Von where it was first used.
Vonlenska is not a real language as it lacks a consistent grammar structure, word meaning, or even distinct words as such. Instead, it consists of meaningless syllables and resembles scat singing; the band’s website describes it as “a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music”.[14] Most of the syllable strings sung by Birgisson are repeated many times throughout each song, and in the case of ( ), throughout the whole album.
A valid point. Not all of Sigur Ros' songs are in Icelandic, however, a lot of them are. Here is an excerpt from www.sigur-ros.co.uk:
what language does jónsi sing in?
on von, ágætis byrjun and takk, jónsi sang most songs in icelandic but a few of the songs were sung in 'hopelandic'. all of the vocals ( ) are however in hopelandic. hopelandic (vonlenska in icelandic) is the 'invented language' in which jónsi sings before lyrics are written to the vocals. it's of course not an actual language by definition (no vocabulary, grammar, etc.), it's rather a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument. jónsi likens it with what singers sometimes do when they've decided on the melody but haven't written the lyrics yet. many languages were considered to be used on ( ), including english, but they decided on hopelandic. hopelandic (vonlenska) got its name from first song which jónsi sang it on, hope (von). tracks 7-9 on takk are in hopelandic.
It still does not detract from my original point, I think, that music unites us all.
At one of the screenings of their film they (the band) said that "hopelandic" was made up by a journalist and theyre tired of hearing about it. As far as the band is concerned Jonsi is just singing "do re mi" or "la la la".
That show was absolutely heavenly. I was overwhelmed with emotion for the majority of the show. :)
Love Sgir Ros, but was disappointed by this show.
hmm very interesting. It went completely unmentioned in Heima, which I thought was interesting because the documentary is based around playing shows for and connecting with the Icelandic people. In any case, I think the original point made in the article remains unaffected: SR is one of the only bands in the world to reach people universally without connecting with them lyrically.