{"id":14329,"date":"2013-11-22T23:17:41","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T23:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=14329"},"modified":"2013-11-22T23:17:41","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T23:17:41","slug":"sigur-ros-nottingham-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=14329","title":{"rendered":"Sigur R\u00f3s @ Nottingham Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some years ago there was a cable channel called Classic FM. It was right at the end of the block of music channels on my Sky receiver at the time, and every night before I went to sleep I\u2019d start at MTV, and scroll through every channel trying to find something interesting to listen to. I have a very low annoyance threshold where rap and r\u2019n\u2019b is concerned \u2013 it\u2019s set at about zero on my annoyance-o-meter \u2013 so I would usually end up on Classic FM within about 15 seconds unless I found some rock music, which was rare (even Kerrang was playing bloody rap, which serves it right now it has gone belly up).<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, there were a few artists which caught my attention back then. Sigur R\u00f3s was one of them. The music was haunting, and the accompanying videos made it more so. Take a look at this YouTube video for Gl\u00f3s\u00f3li and you\u2019ll see what I mean.<\/p>\n<p><iframe data-src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bz8iEJeh26E?feature=player_detailpage\" height=\"292\" width=\"520\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I decided that I would definitely go and see them if I got the chance. Well, on Wednesday night I did. And I wasn\u2019t disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>Sigur R\u00f3s come from Iceland and are often classed as \u201cpost-rock\u201d \u2013 which basically means they use sounds and minimalist vocals to a large extent. However, they have developed it to such a degree that quite a few of their songs have been used in soundtracks to various TV shows and adverts because they are not just discordant noise \u2013 like many early post-rock bands\u2019 songs were \u2013 but coherent and complete. The fact that they\u2019re from Iceland \u2013 and if you remember Bj\u00f6rk or her original band, The Sugarcubes, you\u2019ll know what I mean \u2013 means they\u2019re a little bit off the wall. \u201cArtsy\u201d would be one word you could use to define them.<\/p>\n<p>This was reflected a little by the audience. Anyone who reads any of my reviews about gigs I\u2019ve been to will know that I do a bit of people-watching, and in this case I\u2019ve never come across a crowd like it. It\u2019s hard to explain, but I\u2019ve never seen so many people wearing woolly hats with ear flaps indoors before. Nor have I seen so many people sitting on the floor eating packed lunches at a gig before. With one or two exceptions \u2013 and by that, I mean one or two people &#8211; the end of every song was met with polite applause and nothing more. But they were well-behaved and there was very little barging (that\u2019s where you get a decent spot, watch the support act, only to have a load of latecomers try and get to the front when the main act is due to come on).<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 524px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 524\/394;background-image: none; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"Sigur Ros at Nottingham Arena, 2013\" alt=\"Sigur Ros at Nottingham Arena, 2013\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/sigur_ros1.jpg\" width=\"524\" height=\"394\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In total, there were 11 musicians on the stage, though Sigur R\u00f3s technically only consist of three members these days. This is because they make use of strings and brass, with the core members playing bass, guitar\/vocals, and drums. However, the supporting artists also provided additional vocals, keyboards, guitars, and percussion.<\/p>\n<p>The setlist was as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yfirbor\u00f0<\/li>\n<li>Vaka<\/li>\n<li>Brennisteinn<\/li>\n<li>Gl\u00f3s\u00f3li<\/li>\n<li>Stormur<\/li>\n<li>Hrafntinna<\/li>\n<li>S\u00e6gl\u00f3pur<\/li>\n<li>Var\u00fa\u00f0<\/li>\n<li>Hopp\u00edpolla<\/li>\n<li>Me\u00f0 Bl\u00f3\u00f0nasir<\/li>\n<li>Rafstraumur<\/li>\n<li>Kveikur<\/li>\n<li>Festival<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Encore:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Svefn-g-englar<\/li>\n<li>Popplagi\u00f0<\/li>\n<li>Avalon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Every song was played faultlessly. Their music is very deep and multi-layered and you can lose yourself in it very easily. That\u2019s what I used to do when I watched it on Classic FM \u2013 I could fall asleep to it (and I mean that in a good way).<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 524px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 524\/394;background-image: none; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"Sigur Ros at Nottingham Arena, 2013\" alt=\"Sigur Ros at Nottingham Arena, 2013\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/sigur_ros2.jpg\" width=\"524\" height=\"394\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of the set the stage was enclosed by a thin curtain, and this was used to good effect as visuals were projected on to it \u2013 so instead of the usual rear-projection (which they used later), you had a sort of front-projection. It added to the atmosphere immensely.<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 524px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 524\/697;background-image: none; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"Sigur Ros at Nottingham Arena, 2013\" alt=\"Sigur Ros at Nottingham Arena, 2013\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/sigur_ros3.jpg\" width=\"524\" height=\"697\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Having said that, because it had to be released at some point (and I didn\u2019t know if that would happen at the start), the support band \u2013 I Break Horses \u2013 played behind it, so you couldn\u2019t see them too well. A bit of a shame, but they still sounded OK.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, it was a good concert and I\u2019ll definitely watch out for them touring again.<\/p>\n<p>All rounded off with a nice curry, this time at Chutney on Maid Marian Way. I was a bit wary of trying a new one \u2013 but I didn\u2019t fancy walking all the way up to the Mogal-e-Azam, so this one is now on the \u201cmost favoured\u201d list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some years ago there was a cable channel called Classic FM. It was right at the end of the block of music channels on my Sky receiver at the time, and every night before I went to sleep I\u2019d start at MTV, and scroll through every channel trying to find something interesting to listen to. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-related"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}