Austinist: Austinist Show Review: Sufjan Stevens @ The Paramount

Matt

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 22:52:42 -0600

MightyBest, you seem to have some serious reservations against Sufjan, and that's fine. But not if you make rash, unwarranted comments because of those reservations. You are attacking the character of Sufjan Stevens. I don't think that's fair, when it sounds like you are just sick of the praise he recieves.

April

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 11:31:23 -0600

Austin City Limits will present Sufjan Stevens followed by Calexico on Saturday, Nov. 17.

beth

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 10:46:03 -0600

i loved your review! just one question for ya: do you know when this will be airing on the teevee?

B

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 18:05:58 -0600

Here are the other setlist from this weekend: Saturday - 9/16 1. Sister 2. Lord God Bird 3. Casimir Pulaski Day 4. Detroit 5. To Be Alone With You 6. Dear Mr. Supercomputer 7. Jacksonville 8. Predatory Wasp 9. Abraham 10. A Good Man is Hard to Find 11. Majesty Snowbird 12. Seven Swans Encore 13. Chicago Sunday - 9/17 - Austin City Limits Taping 1. Lord God Bird 2. Casimir Pulaski Day 3. Jacksonville 4. Wasp 5. Detroit 6. A Good Man Is Hard To Find 7. The Dress Looks Nice On You 8. Chicago (taping was done with the wings on!)

joshuahuck

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 17:24:26 -0600

ok, mightybest. thanks for the clarification!

MightyBest

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 16:29:44 -0600

To be clear: I wasn't accusing anyone of plagiarism with my "cribbing" comment. I just meant that to point out that I haven't read much of anything else about Sufjan online and it seemed apparent that you had in the way you were talking about the critiques other people have had of Sufjan. And reading those other things is obviously not a bad thing and is totally what you should do when you're writing for the love of writing. And while I don't agree with your love of His Royal Pompous Eagle Scoutbird, I actually dug the writing. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have read far enough down through the review before just posting a COMPLETELY sophomoric critique of the show where I said something more like, "Sufjan smells like dirty cheese when he forgets to wear his sleeves on stage for his encore." Hm. That would have summed up my thoughts in far fewer words...

odam

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:26:47 -0600

i was at the same shows as katy and agree that the quality of the music and the sincerity of his performance outweighed sufjan's grandiosity. not sure it was as good as damien rice at the paramount in 2003, however.

Katy

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:16:12 -0600

I attended both the Friday Paramount show and the Sunday KLRU ACL taping. I found Sufjan to be much more endearing and present on Sunday than he was on Friday. And despite any hint of the grandiose, it was the most awe-inspiring and even magical show I've ever seen, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

joshuahuck

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:12:09 -0600

truecraig, theres a place for people with your problem. you're not alone. www.themilkshakemakesmepoopgroup.org be strong, bro.

truecraig

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:02:14 -0600

What's up with the foundation-free meta-critique, there, Mighty? "Cribbing"? Are you from the past? Damnit, I'm sorry. Now I'm meta-critiquing too. Now no one will read my mighty wind either. And since no one will be reading... milkshakes make me poop.

joshuahuck

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:43:46 -0600

mightybest you're entitled to your opinions. accusing this review er of plaigarism is another thing. we here write because we love to write. we don't troll the internet in search of blobs of text to repackage. just'cause you don't like where i'm coming from doesn't mean you need to demean this website and debate with unfounded criticisms. for pete's sake, can't we keep it real?

Paige

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:28:05 -0600

Wonderful review, and totally fair criticism, if I do say so myself. It's the cloying that irks me, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get over it. So maybe the criticism seems fair because it's my own, but I'm not sure if seeing him play would have done much to change my mind overall. I'm willing to admit he's a talented musician, and I'm even willing to admit that his compositions are inspiring at times and even bordering on brilliant, but at the end of the day, I can't like everything that's brilliant, right or wrong. Mighty Beast: while I wouldn't be quite so willing to throw the Colplay comparison into the ring (despite my reservations about Sufjan, Martin & Co. make my skin crawl these days in a much worse way), I can see where you're coming from. "Too cool for songs about love" strikes me as particularly apt in this case: it always seemed to me like the Sufjan set is more in love with the self-conscious and unnecessary insertion of intellectualisms he's so very fond of (and look at me, taking part), leaning on the "but he's a genius" explanation to support their mystic relationship with things we aren't even sure Sufjan himself understands. In any event, the never-ending conversation about him is always interesting to me, I love to hear what other people's impressions are.

MightyBest

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:09:21 -0600

I, too, used to love Sufjan. Then I saw his show, which was like sitting too close to a Boy Scout earning his Eagle or the golden boy of a church choir that loves himself way more than anyone, even you crazed fans, ever ever could. The reviewer here for the most part is crazy in love with his royal songbirdness, but even though I can tell he's cribbing from other reviews, I'm glad that even this congregation member sees the negligible connection bit and continues to entertain the possibility that it's a lot of sanctimonious posturing. And while the idea that Sufjan could ever hope to "remain" humble seems like it is too late by about 23 years, the idea of him being a tiny Mozart came across to me during the show, too. In AMADEUS Mozart comes off as a total prick with his little laugh and everything, but obviously his music has transcended his own personality defects. And yes, you can argue that the music couldn't have even existed without those defects, and the same is true of Sufjan – the sweeping grandiosity of the string section (whether they're "his band" or not) can't exist without the sweepingly grandiose way Sufjan likes to see Sufjan in his mind's eye. Whether the world of indie rock works the same way as the world of classical music… I think we'll have to wait 200 years to know for sure. For my part, I'd argue that he's not doing anything fully original enough the way Mozart did and the way The Flaming Lips do or The Beatles did. Give Coldplay or Snow Patrol a little backing from the Tosca String Quartet and you've pretty much got the same thing musically. Lyrically, obviously, Coldplay and Snow Patrol go after the songs about broken hearts and the sweeping grandiosity of love itself instead of trying to prove how awesome they are by playing vaguely Nabokovian mind games of mixing in metaphors and wordplay, but that's why they get to be on MTV while Sufjan gets to have all the hipster kids who are too cool for songs about love.

James

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:54:40 -0600

My introduction to Stevens was at the ACL taping at the KLRU studio on Sunday night. His performance and material were mesmerizing. Haven't heard any of his work on CD.

mike

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:48:22 -0600

the show saturday night was great. does anyone have a set list?

joshuahuck

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:42:44 -0600

no offense, but i'd say that's a rather naive statement to make, no matter how good his music is. you're one of those "rock is dead", "rock is back" people aren't you?

allen

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:40:29 -0600

whoa, nice wallpaper

anonymous

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:19:26 -0600

Witnessing the savior of American(a) music in his 'youth' sure was something to write home about. Feel free to download a desktop image from Saturday night: 800x600px: http://tinyurl.com/rpqh8 1024x768px: http://tinyurl.com/qgscl 1152x768px: http://tinyurl.com/pzd96 1600x1200px: http://tinyurl.com/rnh9r Photo Credit: Chris @ gorillavsbear.blogspot.com

pd

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:56:02 -0600

The Saturday show was awesome...Sounds like he played almost the exact same show both nights.

Declan McManus

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:47:15 -0600

It was pretty damned amazing from my viewpoint and I was very glad I skipped out on Van Morrison for the show.

odam

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:22:04 -0600

great review. amazing show. i heart the harmonizing violinist. let her know, please. thanks.