my first post

hello all. so i've decided to start a blog about music for any number of reasons. i may also talk about food if i feel compleled :)

here's the first music related thing i'm gonna talk about.

so i just went to sufjan (pronounced soof-yan) stevens concert last week @ zellerbach hall in berkeley, ca. and it was pretty amazing.

first, me and my ex roomie laurene and my friend jerry had seats in the 5th row: pretty awesome.

second, in addition to just sufy on the stage there was a full choir (mozart something), 6 or so violinists, trumpets, horns, cello, piano, banjo, 3-4 guitarists, and the bells (gotta remember the bells), and more.

third, everyone was dressed in a boy scout like outfit with fairy wings connected to their backs, except sufy who had on bird wings. although it sounds lame, it was actually pretty reasonable.

fourth, music has and always will be meant to be played live. and suf was no exception. everything blended so well and it was like a orchestra, symphony like experience. except cheaper and the crowd was more hipster-like. felt like broken social scene at their very best. he only drifted into complete buzzed out noise once (or twice).

suf played classics from his amazing Illinois (chicago, jacksonville, decatur, casimir pulaski day, the man of metro steals our hearts) and some from Seven Swans (abraham) and Michigan (detroit). SO GOOD (im telling you). and some others not on cds: a christmas song (he'll be releasing a christmas collection soon), and a new song called Majesty Snowbird (which was glorious). I've been trying to locate the lyrics to Majesty Snowbird, but have had no luck as of yet.

anyways so, in dedication to one of the best concerts ive been to yet, please go take a listen to Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

so good.

i leave you with a much more eloquent excerpt from CNN about Suf's concert (same tour, different locale):

"He plucked a hollow-backed banjo and shook the bells and let the rich textures of the strings and horns wash over his wispy voice, creating a sound that evoked impish games, lonely prayer, 19th-century porch swings and the quietude of a land before it was rent by the roar of machines. At times it even sounded like a spirit observing from above, the ghosts of settlers remembering.

It sounds, somehow, like America."