Horns, strings prominent in Sufjan Stevens set
Published Sept. 26, 2006
If times could ever be rough in the Sufjan Stevens camp, those times are now. Indie's most delicate singer/songwriter released the most widely acclaimed record of 2005, the masterpiece Illinois, but after this year's release of Illinois session outtakes and an upcoming Christmas box-set, even Stevens' most loyal followers are asking him to ease off.
None of that seemed to bother the crowd that settled into The Pageant in St. Louis on Sunday night, most of whom quickly got around to discussing how to actually pronounce the man's name ("My friend swears it's Suf-john.")
Stevens made his way onto the stage followed by a dozen or so backing members. All wore butterfly wings, this tour's "theme," save for Stevens, who donned a rather daunting set of bird feathers. As goes the quirkiness of Sufjan Stevens, he later introduced himself as The Majesty Songbird and his band as the Chinese Butterfly Brigade. The bird theme reverberated throughout the night.
The latest installment in his vaunted 50-state project, Illinois, provided an interesting contrast to Stevens' previous works — most notably the god-folk of Seven Swans — as its sweeping grandiosity never overwhelmed his more understated songs.
Live, at least, they might have even drawn sides. When the trumpets and trombones and violins swelled, Stevens' voice was sometimes lost in the shuffle.
When Stevens manned his banjo, he was haunting, spooky and captivating, but The Pageant is made for bigger and better things. The stage was expertly set — horns stage center, strings back left, guitars, keys right — so that each section could breathe when it needed to, but when all played simultaneously, it was the strings that set the sound-scape and the horns that consumed the air. But it was the drums that powered the night's best moments.
A majority of Sufjan Stevens' songs don't even have drums, and when they do, they're usually buried under the instruments that he is most known for. Live, the drums could only be blunted so much, and they provided a swift kick in the ass to the buoyant "Jacksonville" and "Dear Mr. Supercomputer."
The nature of Stevens' shows means that everyone is standing stationary, so each song was accompanied by a synched video on a projection screen behind the band. They varied from jittery, Blair Witch Project-style images to grainy home video to psychedelic kaleidoscopes to vintage stock film for the city songs. When the projection work lagged, so did the show. "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." received a mood appropriate nearly black screen, but with just Stevens on piano, there was almost nowhere to look.
Stevens closed best foot forward. Pre-encore set closer "Chicago" received another reworking, this time with just drums behind the vocals on the verses. The result was a rollicking, tumbling, build-up to the song's blasting trumpet solo. "They Are Night Zombies!!" was the night's most vivid moment; its choral chant and funk bass line finally getting people moving. "The Dress Looks Nice On You" sent the crowd off floating.
Above all, Stevens was able to maintain his air of mystery throughout the show while still somewhat engaging his audience. He introduced "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!" as a song about a flashlight-stealing dragonfly, and said that his new batch of songs was about birds. Even with the ability to talk, he was still best conveyed through his music. And that music sounded great.