The Entroporium

I’m really honestly trying not to emulate one of those blogs that seem to feature Sufjan Stevens three times a week, but we saw him play the Great American Music Hall on Sunday night and sometimes these things can’t be helped, y’know?

I started the evening needing to dump an extra ticket. This was no problem as lots of folks were outside clamoring for that magic moment. Susie glommed on to a couple of nice looking young ladies – “Follow us to Edinburgh Castle. If our friend didn’t bring a date, his extra ticket is yours.” We learned along the walk that they were 18-years old (!) from Stockton (!!!) and neither had heard of Pitchfork nor MP3 blogs(??!!), but they loved Sufjan Stevens and jumped around like giddy schoolgirls when they realized they were getting our ticket. It’s pretty darn refreshing that ornate chamber pop has an avid audience of teenagers out there in a “middle of the country” area like Central California. Yes, I realize that Pavement and Grant Lee Buffalo come from there, but these acts still aren’t exactly approved for MTV or Clear Channel radio outlets.

With the crowd standing in riveted silence all night — which in itself was pretty amazing given the number of underage folks in the room — I may have been the only person in the room who was faintly disappointed (and only faintly, I should emphasize, before I go into my big semi-diatribe). The band struggled with some of the intricate songs – “Come On Feel The Illinoise!” was introduced by Sufjan as “the hard one” – and the mix was terrible, the bass and drums way too high and the ornamental percussion too low.

Since Stevens aspires to the compositional and aural complexity of Stereolab, Steve Reich or Stephen Sondheim, it may be worth his while to get a top-flight sound man and perhaps even a more accomplished band. I realize he’s just an indie fella and those guys don’t come cheap, but Stevens’ songs and performance really deserve the kick that this would give. A perfect example is the way that The Wondermints, Brian Wilson’s sidemen, have kicked his career into overdrive and allowed him to create and reproduce live some of his most ornate, formerly unperformable works.

So again I beg: Get this man a MacArthur Grant!

The other big mistake of the night was also economics-based, though this was a revenue shortfall rather than of a cost budgeting issue. I overheard a number of people lament that neither of the Illinois T-shirts featured onstage were available for sale. Sufjan, you’re leaving money on the table.

[Soundtrack]
Brian Wilson – Surf’s Up.mp3
Perhaps it’s not fair. How can I put Sufjan Stevens up against one of the great pop compositional achievements of the 20th century? Well, for one, I intend this as a high compliment – that Stevens can actually get here (and may be within shouting distance already). And let us not forget that Wilson was a mere 24 years old when he wrote and originally attempted to produce this track- and already had Pet Sounds and a few other indisputably great records under his belt. So it’s definitely possible for an indie artist to aspire to this.
But most of all what I’m trying to show here is what a difference it makes to have a truly professional experienced band and a top-notch sound person. Imagine Radiohead without the sonic excellence; it might just be the new clothes for the emperor.

Check out pictures and video from Sunday night’s show courtesy of Abir’s Concert Blog