I love seeing Konono No 1 live, but felt awkward having to sit down during their upbeat rhythmic music. It was cool to hear their Congo drumming and finger pianos through their lo-fi speaker system, amplified inside the famous Music Hall.
Seeing Björk always gives me chills and everyone must see her perform live. The crowd erupted as soon as the 10 piece Icelandic Women’s Brass Ensemble ran across the stage in their fluorescent garments. She started the evening with “Earth Intruders” with Konono No 1 accompanying her. The stage even had some pyrotechnics which made the stage erupt with fire. She had many surprise guests including Min Xiao-Fen for the song “I See Who You Are” and my personal highlight when Antony Hegerty joined her to sing duet on “Dull Flame of Desire”. He actually jumped up and down in pure excitement. The stage was beautiful and good pacing throughout the show. I’m glad she played a bunch of Vespertine songs, (which is my favorite album) and even played “Army of Me” which blew me away. The laser light show that accompanied some of the songs were quite spectacular to see at the venue. The sound wasn’t perfect and the Medulla tracks were slow, and the set was short, but at least she came out for 2 songs for the encore. It was also cool to see the reactor instrument being used live.
Set list:
Earth Intruders
/ Venus as a Boy
/ Aurora
/ I See Who You Are
/ Oceania
/ Dull Flame of Desire
/ All is Full of Love
/ The Pleasure is All Mine
/ Pagan Poetry
/ Jóga /
Where is the Line
/ Army of Me
/ Innocence
/ Wanderlust /
Pluto
==
= The Anchor Song / Declare Independence
Pictures and videos from the show.
Pagan Poetry (live from the show)
Links
http://www.bjork.com/
Reactable Instrument (scroll down for Bjork clips)