Written on a Bathroom Wall

I promised I’d give as good as a review as good as humanly possible for the Sigur Ros show at the Grand Ballroom; so here it goes. My boyfriend was the one who got us tickets off of e-bay due to the very mean people of the world who buy tickets for a band that they don’t even like just to sell them and make a profit off of them – but that’s an entirely different story. We were in row U and on the seating chart our row wasn’t even visible. So right off the bat, he’s depressed and kept thinking we were going to have THE WORST seats ever. We climb about 10 flights of stairs just to get to the ballroom, which was a workout indeed, only to find out we have floor seats and to conclude that there really isn’t a bad seat in the entire place. Phew. I start observing the people around me which I do constantly and see that it’s mainly men. Interesting. The lights go dim and this very petite blonde hair, blue eyed young man takes the stage. His speaking voice is very light and very awkward. The moment he started to sing, I knew I was going to be a fan. His voice reminded me of Jonsi (probably because they’re both from Iceland and both have very soft, beautiful voices). He played every instrument up there from the organ to the guitar to the piano. I couldn’t have asked for a better opener for Sigur Ros. And if you are a fan of Sigur Ros but couldn’t make it out to the show, check out his music, you’ll probably enjoy it. His name is Helgi Jonsson.

After his beautiful performance, there was a short break and Sigur Ros filled the room. After every single song, the crowd applauded like I’ve never heard before, yet no one stood during the performance…except for the grand finale… but I’ll get to that later. Honestly, I don’t remember the set list, but I do remember holding back tears, fighting to be better than that crying girl at a Sigur Ros show, yet the tears came. Yeah, yeah, yeah – laugh if you want. At least I didn’t pay $100 dollars just to sleep at one of their shows (and yes, people DO do this… just put on their cd and go to bed!!) ANYWAYS, I was completely blown away during every single song, and was super duper surprised about the crowd, let me explain: normally at a very quiet part of a song, some a-hole will scream something obnoxious. Here, no one did. Complete silence. To be a band and to have that much control over your audience is beyond words for me. After songs some would yell “WE LOVE YOU” which I thought was very adorable because the people who screamed it were definitely men. The only songs I did not know were the new ones, except for of course, Gobbledigook. They waited until the very end of the show to play this, and when they did, my boyfriend and I rushed to the stage and we were about 5 feet away from the stage. Being that close to Sigur Ros made me feel like the most special person in the world, even though there were hundreds around me. And to share that entire experience with the person (my boyfriend!) who introduced me to the band and who made me fall in love with them was surreal. This review does the show no justice, I understand that, but I wanted to tell my experience first hand. To see for yourself, save up a few bucks and get your butt online and get some tickets. I guarantee you…you will not regret it.

These were the band guys - very talented, very lovely, very happy:)

Helgi Jonsson is all the way to the right.

They came back out twice to bow, no encore, but the bow-ing was very acceptable.

*pictures from brooklynvegan.com