I must admit that I'm not exactly a huge Sigur Rós fan... I only own one Sigur Rós album, their latest album, "Takk"... I always planned to buy "Ágætis byrjun" but the songs from that album were so overplayed on the radio (believe it or not) in Iceland that I never bothered.... However I decided to go with my friends to the free outdoor concert that was held in Klambratún Park in Reykjavík last night ( Sunday 30.07). Actually this is the first (and hopefully not the last) time this park has been used for an outdoor concert. The concert was broadcast live on national TV in Iceland and also in a film theatre in London via satellite. Approx 20.000 people showed up at the concert and the vibe was really relaxed... People brought their kids along and even their dogs.... The concert started at 20:40 with the warmup act Amina which played very ambient music... Their performance was followed by approx. 30 minutes of ambient noise.... Finally Sigur Rós hit the stage at 22:00.... Here's the setlist (courtesy of sigur-ros.info):
1. Takk...
2. Glósóli
3. Ný Batterí
3. Vaka
4. Sæglópur
5. Njósnavélin
6. Hoppípolla
7. Með Blóðnasir
8. Olsen Olsen
9. Viõrar Vel Til Loftárasa
10. Sé Lest
11. Svefn-g-Englar
12. Svo Hljótt
13. Heysátan
14. Hafsól
15. Smáskífa
16. Popplagið

Regarding the show: I must say that I enjoyed very much this concert, especially the songs from "Takk" and "Ágætis byrjun".... The sound system was awesome and it captured especially well the sound effects used by the band in the intros and interludes.... Getting to finally see "Svefn-g-Englar" performed live... it just gave me goosebumps.... I also must give props to the brass section that Sigur Rós used for some songs..... The last few songs before the encore were relatively mellow so it was nice to see the band kick it up a notch in the first encore song.... The last song was an amazing experience.... The backdrop was used to great effect with constantly changing silhouettes of the band mixed with images of bombs and other stuff.... The concert ended with a massive feedback from Jónsi's guitar and some VERY low frequency noise..... It was, as I told my friends after the show: "fantastic noise".... Finally, 20 minutes after midnight, the backdrop changed to "Takk" and the whole band + guest musicians bowed before a slighty smaller crowd than when the concert started.... All in all it was an amazing experience.... Enough talk for now, here are some pictures from the concert that I found... Enjoy!

An aerial picture of the crowd:




And here is some streaming audio/video from the concert from the National Broadcasting Service:
TV News report
I haven't found a audio stream of the whole concert... However Radio 2, that broadcasted the show, has online archives af the hourly news bulletins, including the 7 minute midnight bulletin... Except this time there was no bulletin last night, instead we have a few minutes from the Sigur Rós concert: http://dagskra.ruv.is/str...le=4245150


P.S. The footage from the broadcast will be used for an upcoming documentary about Sigur Rós called ")(" .... The documentary will be released on DVD

jealous!

Anx said:

well.... let's just say I don't blame ya for being jealous .....
Unfortunately there are currently no scheduled US dates for this tour... of course this could change.... You're going to Iceland next May, right? Who knows, maybe they'll do some concerts in Iceland around that time.... On this tour they will be playing 3-4 more shows in Iceland and those shows will be announced with very short notice... I'm guessing they'll be playing at rather obscure places around the countryside, if the last few tour dates in Iceland are anything to judge by
And here are some pictures from the concert I got from the Sigur Rós message board:

Anx said:

'Sigur Ros overplayed in radio ...'

I wish this could happen in germany and I would turn back on my dusty radio >(never played it for about 19 years).

I saw Sigur Ros on the Hurricane festival in germany, didn't know them before, but the time for this kind of concert (about 2 a.m.) the last concert on a hot exhausting day , never heard any beauty noises than that after all these Hives, Strokes, Mando Diaus.
Kind of cold music , and wh had 35° Celsius at in daylight.

(sorry for my germish)

purplehippieonthe1 said:

i'm still jealous that you're not in 103 degree chicago heat...i'm still working on the sigur ros part!