Friday night, we went to see the spectacular Sufjan Stevens at the Belly Up Tavern. First of all, Sufjan, will you be my boyfriend?
Anyway, this show bumps something I really can't think of to enter my Top Five All Time Shows category. I think it's even #2, right after Radiohead at the Santa Barbara Bowl. One day I'll make a post where I list the other three, but first I will need to figure out what they are.
This man is a creative genius. His songwriting is so beautiful, so poignant, and so bizarrely adventurous. For the love of god, the man wants to do an album for every state. So far, he's done Michigan and Illinois. His earlier works range from the freakishly experimental orchestral to spiritual and gentle songwriterly sketches. This tour was the "Come on feel the Illinoise" tour, and they wore Illinois cheerleading costumes and even had pompoms and did some intermittent cheers. Another reason to love this man: he plays oboe and english horn, as does your friendly blogger here. And he's episcopalian. And he loves drywalling.
"Sufjan's other interests include graphic design, painting, running, knitting, crocheting, weaving, quilting, cleaning, photography, haircutting, and dry wall installation."Honestly, you should all run to your nearest small venue to see if he's playing there this summer/fall. I promise you an incredible, beautiful show, complete with hand-claps, cheers, costumes, and some of the most remarkable stories that make you feel like you totally haven't lived yet or made any real mistakes or had your heart or body broken nearly enough. At the very least, just buy the CDs and listen to what Illinois or Michigan sound like in musical form and secretly* wish you were in his band.
* = announced publicly on the internet.
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