Sigur Rós Perform a Career-Spanning Set at LA's Shrine Auditorium
What was more of an immersive experience than a standard “concert” simply took us by hold from start to finish. Last night at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, Sigur Rós put on a career-spanning performance that entailed two full sets with an intermission in between. Simply put, it was like nothing we had ever witnessed in our long history of attending performances. Luckily, we were there front and center to recount the night, and have a full photo gallery to be perused below.
To attend a show with no opening act is 100% a rarity nowadays, but with a catalog of music that spans 25 years, you don’t really need one if you’re as profound as Sigur Rós are. Entering the Shrine Auditorium was like walking into a time machine packed to the walls with fog everywhere, ominous ambient music slowly playing over the speakers, and an air of suspense looming throughout the room. Having gotten the opportunity to speak with fellow concert goers before the show who had yet to see them in person, you could cut the tension and feel the anticipation growing with every minute.
Finally, Sigur Rós hit the stage to an automatic applause from the near 5,000 in the auditorium and immediately made their way into their opener, “Vaka” off of (). One thing we’ll say is the immense amount of respect shown in the concert hall. If you’ve experienced Sigur Rós’ music, you can obviously feel the seriousness of it, but at the most pivotal moments you could hear a pin drop; it was so quiet. Fans were focused and cheered only at the most appropriate times which felt so nice as a huge fan.
Although the second set was certainly filled with more of their “hits”, the first set did boast some of their most well known songs such as “Svefn-g-englar” off of Ágætis byrjun for example. Seeing them in the past always felt special, albeit being in a festival setting, but there’s legitimately no better place to witness than in a sealed auditorium where the acoustics can reverberate, you can feel the bass sitting in your seat, and being surrounded by fans who didn’t just stumble upon them at a festival. If Sigur Rós comes anywhere near you, even a few hours driving distance, we can virtually guarantee that it’ll be one of the most memorable concert adventures of your life. Years and years later and the band still has one of the most exotic stage performances and you can’t deny that Jónsi’s voice has aged like a fine wine.
With all that being said, please go ahead and check out the links below, our photo gallery, and make sure to follow along on their social media to keep up with the latest news.
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