5 posts tagged “sufjan stevens”
There is something in this song that is somehow related to how I feel right now, but I don't know how I feel exactly.
Books, movies, music; what's in your top 5 right now?*/**
Books
- Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
- Naked - David Sedaris
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
- Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor
- Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
- Harold and Maude
- The Big Lebowski
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- The Life Aquatic
- I Heart Huckabees
- 138th Street - The Walkmen
- Romulus - Sufjan Stevens
- Memphis Moon - Magnolia Electric Co.
- Common People - Pulp
- Theologians - Wilco
*These are in no specific order.
**This list will no doubt be invalid in 24 to 48 hours.
***These are what I am currently listening to over and over. Not favorite songs of all time. Except for Romulus, which is my favorite song of all time, and which I am always listening to.
I have been reluctant to write about the Sufjan Stevens performance John and I attended on Sunday night at Town Hall, only for the fact that my meager description could never do the evening justice.
Let me say, I have been to some amazing shows. I have seen just about every musician I have a great love for at least once. Going to shows has been my part-time job, for whatever reason. One of the major reasons I moved to New York was solely for the music; the guarantee that everyone will come through here, and I will hopefully get to go. After Sunday, however, I'm ready to retire.
It was - by far - the best show I have been to since I moved, and probably the best show I've been to ever. Sufjan Stevens is an absolute nut. And I mean that in the warmest way possible. He seems so genuine, and that comes across in his music. He had a fifteen piece band, all of which were wearing butterfly wings and masks. He had someone actually start the show by playing a saw. Yes, as in "I'm going to saw this tree down." A saw. It was beyond incredible.
He announced the themes of the evening were flight and transcendance. He spent the time in between songs telling stories about his family and the tour. He played the banjo and piano and made me feel like I wanted to laugh and cry all at once. During "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts," Superman blow up dolls were dropped from the ceiling and into the audience. During "The Worst Christmas Ever," he did the same thing with Santa dolls. Everything was bright and alive and he made everyone feel as though we were all part of something; part of the show.
As I said, my words don't depict the evening accurately enough. It's really one of those "you had to be there" things. You just have to go and see for yourself.
In about four hours I'll be seeing Sufjan Stevens at Town Hall. And you won't.
[Sorry. That was mean. True, of course, but mean. I'm just really excited. I guess Mr. Stevens wouldn't think that was very nice.]
Show us someone who inspires you.
I have lots of people in my life who inspire me in many different ways, but I'm picking someone I don't actually know, because this person inspires me creatively, to write. Sufjan Stevens is probably my favorite musician at the moment. [We're actually going to see him on October 1st.] Whenever I listen to his music, I want to write. I went through a really long dry spell with my writing, and his music brought me out of it. He starts an idea in his music, and then I want to finish it on paper. Were I to finish my novel, and were someone to turn it into a movie, Sufjan Stevens would most certainly do the soundtrack. There's something so wholly original about him; this is a rare quality. Before, I could never listen to music while I wrote. I needed silence. Now his records provide the perfect background to my story writing.
Sufjan Stevens wins the inspiration category because his music got me writing again at a time when I never thought I would.
