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Sufjan Stevens

Presented by Adelaide Festival Centre and Billions Australia
Reviewed Tuesday 1st February 2011

http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/afc/whats-on/music-and-concerts/sufjan-stevens.php

Venue: Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Season: One performance only
Duration: 140 mins no interval

Adelaide audiences are notorious for the number of latecomers, who show no respect for the performers nor consideration for other patrons. Productions regularly have to start late, delayed by their tardiness. Not so with this concert. At the appointed time the house lights dimmed and, with no further ado, the performers entered and went straight into the first number. For once, the latecomers got their just desserts and missed the start of the performance. More fools them. This was a concert of which it was worth hearing and seeing every second.

Sufjan Stevens is not an easy person to label, as his music covers such a wide range of styles and seems to be always evolving, developing and finding new directions. He admits to a basis in folk music but his influences are diverse. It is clear that he has listened to, and absorbed an enormous variety of music, and he uses that knowledge to create his own sound. He has explored electronic music and there are sounds reminiscent of those that were created back in the early 1970s in England by EMS (Electronic Music Studios) and their first portable synthesiser, the VCS3, used by such groundbreaking bands as Pink Floyd, The Who and Kraftwerk. There are subtle hints of the jazz-rock bands, such as Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago. The more one hears of his music the more one is amazed at how much he has incorporated and transformed into a unique style of his own.

There is a great deal of spirituality in many of his lyrics, too, and he embraces everything from gentle, moving ballads to high powered, driving numbers. He covers a wide range of material, from universal themes to very personal, introspective songs, to which many of the listeners can easily relate.

With two drummers in his band, there is ample opportunity for polyrhythmic complexities, adding yet another dimension to his orchestrations. He plays banjo, guitar and piano during the evening, with the rest of the band providing keyboards, guitar, bass and brass, as well as two female backing singers/dancers. The range of timbres made possible by this ensemble allows Stevens to create a rich tonal palette on which he can draw.

Their costumes and instruments for this concert were adorned with fluorescent strips that looked almost three dimensional under the well-designed lighting. This, in conjunction with a projected backdrop, paid tribute to Royal Robinson, the artist and schizophrenic ‘prophet’ whose paintings have been animated to form a part of this production and whose imagery is the inspiration for The Age of Adz, the latest album from Stevens, on which this concert was primarily based.

Apart from a couple of short interludes, during which Stevens gave a brief introduction to a particular song, spoke about his music, or of the life and work of Robinson, this was an evening of non-stop music. The audience delighted in his music and lapped up the performance, relishing every song, hushed for the ballads and dancing in their seats for the upbeat numbers.

Eventually, though, the final number arrived, accompanied first by the audience standing to dance, as best they could between the seats, then balloons falling onto the audience and, lastly, glitter cascading onto the stage. It seemed as though the standing ovation as they left the stage would go on forever. After several crescendos, and a few bouts of stamping feet, they returned for an encore, more standing ovations and, after more than two hours of music, a reluctant finish. Those who were there will remember it for a long time to come.

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide.

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