Gig review: Sufjan Stevens, Glasgow

Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond at Oran Mor, Glasgow, Scotland 12/10/2005

Sufjan Stevens is an unusual sight our on our shores. To promote his latest album, Illinoise, a collection of songs celebrating the great mid-western state of Illinois, this quirky American singer-songwriter is touring with a backing band who double as a cheer squad. Scotland doesn’t have cheer teams, we’re not a nation which takes easily to self congratulation. This October evening in Glasgow Scotland were supposed to seal their qualification for the World Cup Finals in Germany next year, but just as we had begun to believe it might happen, it had all gone sour three days earlier.

So one could forgive the assembled crowd for an air of general bemusement when Stevens and his ensemble takes to the stage amid the fanfares and pompoms of a college basketball game. The set kicks off with a whirlwind tour of the US as Stevens and co offer up rapid-fire couplets describing the states of the Union. This earnest, playschool skit centres on the mantra: “It’s part of the act/The 50 states/Pack up your bags/It’s never too late.” Stevens wraps up the song by announcing “We’re going to pack up our bags and go to Illinois!” and informs the crowd that the tallest man ever was from the state of Illinois, the first of a great many facts dispensed over the course of the evening.

The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders, is a song bristling with keyboard, tambourine and even mute trumpet accompaniment, a sign of Stevens’ grand ambitions. The most striking aspect of this particular performance is the coordination between the players, not simply in terms of the music itself, but also in the accompanying actions. Sufjan Stevens and his band have clearly taken their cheering duties as seriously as their musical ones and their dedication has paid off with a unique stage act that compromises nothing.

Thankfully the theatrics don’t dominate the proceedings. While Jacksonville begins with an uncomfortable "gimme a J, gimme an A…" cheer, it is at this point that Stevens changes tack, rolling comfortably back into the more familiar territory of the indie kids. In Jacksonville and the songs that follow, The Predatory Wasp of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us and Casimir Pulaski Day, we glimpse Stevens’ real talent as a songwriter, as he captures a feel for small town America without coming across as another Springsteen clone. This nostalgic approach to song writing as well as a taste for the surreal are evident in The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts. Sufjan takes an obscure town in the midwest and elevating it to the mythic proportions of Superman’s great city. This rousing playout gets the thumbs up from the faithful and the band take their curtain call with predictable panache.

Article Author: Yashin

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