Live: Sufjan Stevens

Festival Theatre - Tue Feb 1
First gigs in a new city are like a box of chocolate: you never know what you're gonna get. And there wasn't a single person in the room who could have expected the transcendent sensual experience that Sufjan Stevens produced tonight.

    There are a number things that make writing this review rather difficult. 1) Sufjan Stevens has never played in Adelaide before, which means for many reading this, they have no point of reference of what he's like live. 2) Most people familiar with Sufjan’s work know him as a folk artist. 3) It was a sit-down gig, and people tend to have negative preconceptions about that. 4) I have never seen anything like this before. Well, here goes...

    What strikes you most about Sufjan’s stage persona is his relative calm and nonchalance in the apparent madness going on around him. His band is the first part of that madness. Two drummers, two backing singers/dancers/rhythmic gymnasts, two tromboners, a guitarist, a bassist, a keyboardist and a pianist all surround Sufjan at the centre of the stage. Despite the sheer volume of noise that can be produced by all of these people it is kept completely controlled, as if everyone is telepathically wired into Sufjan’s brain. The interplay between the drummers is particularly extraordinary. Constantly eyeballing each other from opposite sides of the stage, they never fall out of sync. Even on I Walked, with one playing the natural part and the other the mechanised part, the beats stay perfectly matched throughout the performance.

    The second part is the music itself. Sufjan’s most recent album The Age Of Adz was a big stylistic departure, embracing these strange electronic soundscapes that he constantly reminds the audience were inspired by abstraction, outer space and the nervous system. And tonight focuses heavily on the new material, with almost every track taken from The Age Of Adz or Sufjan’s other 2010 release, All Delighted People. But even when mixed with his softer acoustic material, these surrealistic sonic constructs gel together. It’s amazing how he can pull off a song as epic and loud as Age Of Adz and then follow it up with something as gentle as Enchanting Ghost. But there are no barriers in Sufjan’s set – anything goes.

    Completing the madness is the visual display on stage. In keeping with the surrealism of his recent music, Sufjan and his band are decked out in fluorescent costume. Nothing new there. But when coupled with tin foil headdresses, Evel Knievel jumpsuits, flashing collars and cabaret boas, it makes for a pretty eclectic wardrobe. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The real visual stimulant comes from all the projections and lighting displays. There are two screens onto which images are projected – one behind the band and a thin veil that periodically drops in front of them – and on these are an array of optical splendours. The animated works of Royal Robertson come to life on Get Real, get Right; an ever-changing volcanic cross-section lights up on Vesuvius as the band appear to be burning up right there onstage; unnerving, oscillating polygons constantly reappear; while during set closer Impossible Soul, a giant crystal cardboard cut-out descends from the ceiling. Then a magical thing happens towards the end of this song when hundreds of multi-coloured balloons disperse throughout the theatre. This isn’t just a gig, it’s not just a concert, it’s a production. Sufjan is living proof that music affects you on more levels than the superficial, it appeals to more senses than just the aural.

    Then there’s Sufjan. You’d think for one man to dream all this up he’d have to be the maddest mother fuck up there. And at times you do. He sporadically interjects between songs to explain their origins and influence, which most of the time involve space, numerology, physics, love, bird-watching, heat, energy, outsider art and the human body. It sounds so disparate, so schizophrenic, but Sufjan’s real skill is taking all these unconnected concepts and giving them a voice through pop music. It’s madness alright, utter madness, but he somehow brings it all together.

    Sufjan Stevens has taken musical performance to a whole new level. Those watching him tonight are fully aware of that fact. Thunderous applause goes up after every song; possibly the loudest and longest standing ovation Festival Theatre has ever experienced occurs before Sufjan’s even played his biggest song; and when he does, it happens all again. Sufjan may have been striking in himself, but more remarkable was the afterthought that even if you weren’t familiar with or even liked Sufjan’s music, this still would have been the best gig you had ever been to.

Words: Jimmy Bollard

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E-NEWSLETTER!