Seattle Subsonic

Sufjan Stevens at the Paramount

October 31st, 2010

Sufjan Stevens is the most talented artist of our time. No joke. His performance last night at the Paramount is the factual reference I am using to back up this bold statement. This conceptual genius put on the most amazing display I have ever seen, he appealed to my visual just as much as my aural senses, as well as played with my emotions for the better part of roughly 2- 2.5 hours. I have always been a fan of Stevens way of creating music, his method of creating conceptual pieces off of an aforementioned topic took his music to another level. He creates to conjure up a feeling, a memory, a state, whatever. The Age of ADZ has nestled itself in my heart as perhaps Steven’s magnum opus of conceptual albums. All love stories that take place throughout history and the future. His ideas probably expanded beyond any time-space continuum I could comprehend, but thats okay because anyone can appreciate the theme, love, heartache, and madness.

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For his latest album Stevens drew upon many different sources, from his own heartache (which made this show particularly personal, and quite emotional to watch), to a schizophrenic southern gentleman who painted apocalyptic scenes from different eras from images that would appear to him. Sufjan would create a love-story during the apocalypse of the future and he would do it perfectly. Keeping the entire sold out audience on the edge of their seats the entire time.

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There was so much that went on during his performance that I feel like I will fail miserably trying to explain it all because I will miss some little subtlety that made the show just that much better. The light show which created a 3D effect whenever a mesh screen would come down in front of the band was such a great effect. There was one song of “jumping into the mouth of the volcano” as Stevens would put it, and the screen effects conjured up this rising lava that pushed the feeling of sinking into this epic death, complimenting the arrangement so well.

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The back screen had a range of visuals from a cartoon city being attacked by aliens with t the buildings moving in time with the music to a 80s style dance party where it was clips of what looked like an American Apparel ad girl on dancing on acid- but tastefully. Whenever the dance screen came on I think it was Stevens way of letting the crowd know that they could dance on these songs and it was okay- no judgment.

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Every part of the evening was perfectly orchestrated. Stevens came out and performed Seven Swans first, taking the audience to hell then heaven right from the start. Incorporating spooky Halloween noises throughout. He moved into all new material and told his stories. Towards the end he set the plot of him being a patient and the audience his therapist and he was letting go of all his demons- and it was this stretch of about 4 songs flowing into one another that really showed what a conceptual artist Stevens was. He took the audience threw a tale of heartbreak to madness and I was right there with him understanding and feeling all that he had wanted to convey with his music. The songs ranged from an 80s style rap video dance off with hype girls (with whom Stevens danced out some solid steps) to the mellowest kind of folk that was reminiscent of his style in Seven Swans. Oh yea and that was on the same song- he showed the audience that he could make it grand in two completely different ways. The limits this guy totally expanded last night really blew my mind. I felt like my brain was working out the entire time because of all the senses he engaged in just one show. He kept me enthralled from start to finish.

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After playing all of his new material, Steven said he had one more, throughout the entire show I kept thinking- in the spirit of epic love songs I really hope he plays Casmir Pulaski Day, I mean love doesn’t get any more genuine than that. But he ended on Chicago, and I wasn’t going to complain. A standing ovation ensued and finally Sufjan came back out by himself and walked up to the piano to played Concerning the UFO Sighting just breathtakingly. He was then joined onstage by a few of his band-members and captured my heart when they played Casmir Pulaski Day… perfectly, better than I could have ever imagined. Next he dedicated That Dress Looks Nice On You to one of his trombone/trumpet (I cant remember which) who wore a dress as part of his halloween costume. Just when I thought that was it, Stevens wowed me one more time by playing the most epic song of madness, keeping right in with his theme of the evening, ending with John Wayne Gacy Jr, haunting the crowd one last time.

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By the time I walked to of the beautiful Paramount Theater my head was spinning. I just couldn’t stop thinking about what an amazing show Sufjan Stevens put on. And this might be because I just saw Amadeus recently but I kept making comparisons of Stevens to Mozart- yea I said it- and I’ll back it up. Both of these artists talents being encouraged and nurtured by their [step]fathers from an early age they both have expanded the limits of music of there era. Mozart writing his music for the conceptual themes of operas and even composing his own death. Count Orsini Rosenberg once critiqued Mozart saying his music had too many notes- as though his brain could not process all of the notes that Mozart presented to him. This is exactly the kind of limits that Stevens is pushing today- incorporating new sounds into music making his concert not only about the aural but the visual and the emotional. He is a walking genius and I hope that he gets the kind of recognition he deserves.

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They picture- meh, its from my point of view at the show, and a broken camera- deal with it.