Björk (with Joanna Newsom)
2007-05-15
Red Rocks
Morrison, CO
I wouldn’t say Brian and I are big Bjork fans. I mean, we have her Greatest Hits, Debut, and now Volta (her latest)...But she was up there on the “artists we need to see live” list – and happened to be the opening concert this year at Red Rocks. (Always a fabulous place to see a show – of just about any kind!)
It was an evening with the musically progressive – and the “fashion forward” as we’ve come to call them. A nice mix of ALL types of sub-cultures: the dreadlocked hippies were out in full force along with the “metrosexual” guys dressed to impress – and a strong showing of the “alternative / counter-culture” folks dressed to entertain. A sampling of the “entertainment”: A guy dressed head to toe in a white outfit (complete with fur ringed crown and tail) like Max from Where the Wild Things Are , who was accompanied by friends dressed as various “wild things”! Men wearing eye shadow and face paint a la Michael Stype. More mohawks than we’d seen in quite a while – complete with “chin straps” of sideburn/beard head outlines. And of course plenty of hair colors that don’t occur in nature (on hair both natural and fake). The moral of the story: when you’re headed to see an artist popularly known for her odd sense of style (think “Swan Dress”) – it is true that ANYTHING goes!
Joanna Newsom was the opener, an artist we haven’t heard but think we might like (you know how people typically ignore / talk through opening acts). The hard part about Joanna’s music is that she is primarily a harpist / vocalist (though she had a violin, mandolin?, and drummer with her on tour – which one of our bench mates said was unusual) – so it wasn’t perhaps the best type of artist for an outdoor venue. She certainly has a unique child-like voice (kind of like Bjork actually) – and amazing harp skills. Her minimalist arrangements reminded us allot of Low – who we also like… So, we’ve already picked up her latest album.
After Joanna’s set – we weren’t quite sure what we were in for next. Bjork has a very “decorated” set – with a bunch of medieval/Icelandic Viking(?) flags around her three percussionists, 10 piece “Icelandic Girls Brass” section, and keyboardist, and three flat screen displays to show off the various electronic mixing toys that Bjork uses to produce her unique tunes… First on stage – the 10 piece brass gals – dressed, I kid you not, in large blue, yellow, and orange day-glow “sacks” from head to toe that make them look like either tellatubbies (Brian’s vote) or Umpa-Loompas (V’s vote). They all have flags attached to them (over their heads some how) – and tend to bounce along to the rhythm of any particular song… Bjork bursts onto the scene in literally a blaze of fire – in a dress that has to be big enough (wide) for 3 Bjorks to fit in (with the bottom half in rainbow stripes and the top half in multi-color splotches) and oversized large pointy toe “pixie” shoes. Quirky sense of style for sure. Essentially she looked even smaller than she is (because she’s not a tall person) – and like some type of doll or puppet as she bounced around the stage!
But – though we weren’t overly familiar with some of the newer tracks – the dance mixes she and her team can put together were amazing… complete with laser light show (explaining the hippie attendees!)... There is this CRAZY percussion / mixing tool that one of the percussion guys has which looks like a large kettle drum with a frequency being pumped through the drum head – which he then drops little “blocks” on to adjust the tone of the frequency and rhythm of the beat… I have NO idea how it works – but I know we both would love to play with one. It just looked like too much fun!
Great people watching before the show. Good vibe from the crowd. Great set.
