Bon Iver @ Lakeshore Theater – 4.10.08

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Well I was anticipating this show for a while, ever since I had gotten the album “For Emma, Forever Ago“, which was just such a chilled out folk masterpiece. From my understand Bon Iver is Justin Vernon, and he basically has a guitarist and drummer with him on this tour. They play with him on every song except the last one, “Re: Stacks”. The album is incredibly brilliant, and was basically just recorded by Vernon in a remote cabin in Wisconsin. This is one album I wholeheartedly recommend to any and all, it is great.

Anyway, so I was heavily anticipating this show last night, and he certainly delivered. He played the album from start to finish in the exact same order as the album, and it was great. While he doesn’t venture too far outside the realm of the original structure of the album, there are a few parts where added in sounds or the extra bandmates give it a stronger feel live. On “The Wolves (Act I and II)” it was very cool how the whole audience sang along with the “what might have been lost…” outro of the song. My personal fave live probably had to be “Blindsided”, which is a great song but just sounded even cooler live. They were all great though. “Lump Sum” really took on a whole new vibe/energy live, to where I initially didn’t even recognize it, it was awesome.

Vernon was also very humble and thankful to the crowd, very sincere, and you can tell this guy didn’t really plan on having such a success and is just loving it, it was a very cool vibe and I hope he continues to tour and make records. Pretty much every song sounded awesome, and it was certainly the most intensely quiet show I’ve ever been to, meaning that everyone was focused on the music, and you could hear everything just perfectly, the crowd was in silent awe pretty much. When I whipped out my camera to snag some photogs during the first song my camera starting up and opening sounded like a jackhammer considering how quiet the audience was. This show was just great, and as I said, this album just rules and is certainly one of my favorites so far this year. So buy the album and if you can catch any of the rest of the tour, definitely do it.

Bon Iver – Lump Sum – From For Emma, Forever Ago
Bon Iver – Blindsided – From For Emma, Forever Ago