Sufjan Stevens

I doubt anyone is really surprised I went and saw him, any more than they will be surprised that I blogged about it afterwards. I'm very shallow, what can I say?
So let's jump right into it.
As a preface, I will say that I had my music palate cleanse well before the concert. I watched five episodes of Arrested Development and did my french homework. I was primed and ready!
The concert was at the Mesa Community Arts Center, which sounds super lame (cause it's Mesa) but it wasn't at all. It was called the Ikeda theater (I think). It was very modern with these very geometric walls with this blue LED lighting in the cracks.
The first performer was D M Stiff. The crowd was kind of apathetic, but after his first song someone called out and asked for his name again. I'll admit I had forgotten it too...
The only song titles I remember are Thanksgiving Moon and My Impatience (or Impatient Me?), both show stoppers. The former was accompanied by a trompone and trumpet (it might have been a French Horn, I'm sure someone will tell me the difference someday). It was really melodic and touching. Pretty sweet for a dude with a guitar and somewhat faulty equipment. He attempted to loop himself clapping, to some success, on a song. He mentioned afterwards that it usually turns out much better. We heard proof of this on the last song when he looped his vocals into an eerie chant and then into a sort of choral climax. All and all, very rad.
Then, after reading a day old newspaper and chatting with the guy to my right about iphones (in a short aside, I'm buying one here soon so I went online to read reviews. I swear it was like iporn), it was time for the main event.
I have been waiting to see Sufjan Stevens since the summer of 2006. I had just finished my last real year of school. I had a PACE class over the summer and then an English class at a community college in the fall. That was the end of high school for me. I had a job (but no car) and had been enjoying my newfound bridge into the great wide real world.
Sadly, I was seventeen and rather stupid. I went out with a bunch of kids from school one night and we did a "Senior Prank". Needless to say, it went very badly. This led to a confession (welcome to Christian school) and punishment. Supposedly, we had to do community service once a week for five weeks (or some such nonsense). The first week, there was five of us. The next there was three. The next only two. And the last, only me.
It was on this fateful day After graduation (which I hadn't attended) that I was forgiven and acquitted of my punishment. The principal noticed that I was the only one there and had been there consistently. I don't claim to have ever liked the man, but I credit him with this one act of kindness. He let me off the hook.
So I called my mom and wandered to the nearest mall. I had been listening to Nick Drake and my friend Kyle had noticed and recommended me two artists which I'd like: Elliot Smith and Sufjan Stevens. Other than the All Delighted People EP and some album about a moon, I own discographies for each (thanks Dynamite). But that day, I bought my first. I bought a brand new Come On Feel The Illinoise, with Sufjan in a cape across the front, under the plastic security wrap. To date this nostalgia even further, I pulled the case open and popped the cd into my cd player. I know right?
The first measures of music came through the headphones and I was overwhelmed.
I used to carry around a little notebook that said "Memorandum" across the front and I wrote this note:
Everything has changed
And maybe I have too
With all this history in mind, the heartbreak and the roadtrips, let me just say this:
I was not dissapointed.
And that might just be an extreme emotional reaction, but from the first song (Futile Devices I think) to the last (John Wayne Gacy Jr.) I was enthralled.
I had listened to the new album once or twice, but live!, with the Royal Robertson apocalyptic artwork projected a story high, lights flashing, dancers shimmying, recalling the Danielson Family!; I fell in love! It was like I had thought I had truly loved it before but now I was re-tought to feel emotion and was given a new, better (more electro!) love to use. The Age of Adz was dark and raw and dancy. Too Much and I Walked were energetic and up tempo. Get Real, Get Right was like a love letter to Royal, giving him recognition for having had an effect on Stevens. Sufjan gave a short speech on Royal and his work and what happened to him, further asserting the connection he felt when creating the album.
More than anything though, even with much softer songs like the Owl and the Tanager, it was just fun. Vesuvius had a flames and a geometric volcanoe projected over the band. The real show stopper was Impossible Soul. For this last act a diamond was lowered in front of the dancers, who were then projected onto it. From there the song only escalated to auto-tuning and then further to a dance party and a mild 'battle' between Sufjan and his dancers. This culminated in a sort of 'sing off' between auto-tuned Sufjan and one of the girls, who finally broke and began to giggle helplessly. She continued to giggle and laugh until they launched the final song (before the encore of course).
Chicago.
Too amazing for words.
After the five minutes of non-stop roar from the crowd, he did Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois. Just him and a piano. Then he moved on to probably my favorite song, Casimir Pulaski Day, which I find amazingly touching. From there, his band collected guitars and banjoes and moved straight into The Dress Looks Nice On You, during which I called a sleeping Shelbi. I'm not sure if she heard any of it or will remember it tomorrow, but it reminds me of her too much for me to just let that chance slip by. He then ended with John Wayne Gacy Jr. I heard some girl (a newbie perchance?) remark that the songs namesake "Really was a monster, though."
With that being said, I drove home.
On that day back in '06, before I even had a cell phone, I walked back to the school and waited for my mom to pick me up. I'm pretty sure that since that day then, I really haven't been back to that building since. I have no idea what happened to those people I was so caught up with. Monstrous, I know.
Sufjan told the audience about his anxiety about playing the new material. He thanked us for being loving crowd and told us about his fear of the open spaces. He said that in Age of Adz, he confused heartbreak with the Apocalypse.
"And in my best behavior, I am really just like him..."
Moving forward.