MP3: Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Bon Iver has been more than a band or an album in 2008. The musical project has become a phenomenon.
The legend is as follows. Musician Justin Vernon - fresh from the dissolution of his band, the break-up of his long-term romance, and battling a bad case of mono – sequestered himself in a remote cabin in the Wisconsin woods in 2006 with little else but food, guitar, and recording equipment. He emerged with 9 songs – mostly sung in falsetto - that he shared with a few friends on the internet using the moniker Bon Iver – a phrase borrowed from Twin Peaks that means “good winter.” The buzz built and in February 2008, Jagjaguwar Records gave the 9 songs – now called For Emma, Forever Ago – a proper release and critics and bloggers around the world unanimously canonized it for its barebones emotion and guts.
It is with this story – and the ridiculously high expectations that always accompanies such drama – that Bon Iver finally made it to Louisville, Kentucky’s Headliners Music Hall on a fittingly bone-chillingly cold evening just a little more than a week before Christmas.
Headliners was packed – a continuous line of people spilling out of the front doors for hours before the show. The fans were mostly between 25 and 30 years of age – adults who were finishing high school and starting college back when Dashboard Confessional made barebones acoustic-broken-heart-rock semi-mainstream the last time. But these fans were no longer interested in being broken-hearted in public along with Justin Vernon like they had been 8 years ago with Chris Carraba. The audience here was much more guarded – willing to drop $15 to support such art, but weary of being caught with tears in their eyes.
Vernon – accompanied by 3 other musicians who rotated instruments throughout the evening – ventured on to stage a little before 10:30 PM while the antsy crowd erupted. Vernon armed himself with an acoustic guitar while the other three men sat themselves behind various drums – and the quartet started into “Skinny Love.”
Listening to For Emma, Forever Ago as a recording, it is hard to imagine how it could be adequately recreated alive. Its power is not in bombast; it is in subtlety. How does a group of musicians playing a sold-out bar make this music connect in this setting?
Well, for one, they have to slightly recalibrate it.
Many of the tunes from Vernon and Co. had a much more defined edge when played live – the most notable of these being the new tune “Blood Bank.” While the version of this song currently being passed around cyberspace is somewhat low-key, in concert Bon Iver treats it as full-on rock song. Vernon even injects a body-shaking guitar solo as the tune’s finale.
Secondly, Vernon seems to realize that certain moments from For Emma, Forever Ago can’t be recreated live. Thus, the band filled their 70-minute set with as much non-album material as possible – as if to make the live show a companion to the record, instead of some culmination. This meant the band played new songs – the aforementioned “Blood Bank” and one called “Beach Baby” – and two cover songs – The Outfield’s “Your Love” and Talk Talk’s “I Believe in You.” It is in these moments that Bon Iver makes a case for their legitimacy as a band – not just a one-record wunderkind. Bon Iver approaches even their cover songs – especially “Your Love” – with a certain specificity. Their version of the tune sounds like trademark, heavy-falsetto Bon Iver – not just like some band playing an Outfield song.
But just because they didn’t attempt to recreate the whole album, doesn’t mean Bon Iver doesn’t strive to bring some of the intimacy of For Emma… to their live set. To end the show, Vernon instructed the crowd in a sing-along section for “The Wolves (Act 1&2).” He also told the crowd, “At the end we’ve changed it up a little. You’ll feel us slowing up. When we come back in, I want everyone to scream at the top of their lungs. When else are you going to get an opportunity like this?”
With such prodding even those audience members concerned about their image were able to join in, creating an eerie and intense musical moment that succinctly summed up what people find so fascinating about Bon Iver – the ability of the musical experience to make you want to scream…
SETLIST
Skinny Love
Lump Sum
Blood Bank
Beach Baby
Your Love
For Emma
Flume
I Believe in You
The Wolves (Act 1&2)
ENCORE
Creature Fear
2 comments:
Great synopsis, and thanks for posting the setlist. I'm so glad you told me about it -- most powerful concert I've ever been to in a long, long time -- the album affected me so much. I was mesmerized, in a trance -- so I was probably one of those quiet audience members! ;)
Talk to you soon -- jud
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