but who does the piping of heaven...?

So this week has been pretty action packed. I can't even believe that all this shit happened within the time span of one week.. it's been pretty unbelievable.

September 28, 2008
I saw Beach House at the Swedish American Music Hall with the lovely Sienna and her boyfriend Jason. It was neat because there were rows of chairs.. and Beach House is really a show that you want to sit down for. So somehow I managed to find seats three rows down from the stage and oh boy oh boy, the show was great. It was funny because the stage set up was so simple.. like something you'd find in a high school auditorium except even smaller... but this show really exceeded my expectations and I had pretty high expectations for them considering I love both of their albums. Victoria was just beautiful and so charming.. I was definitely in a dream like state the entire time.


September 30, 2008
This was the night of My Bloody Valentine. We got there and tried to wait in what we thought was a small line... there was actually just this random break in the line and as we looked further down the street we noticed that holy shit, this line was huge. It was funny because one of the security guys said, "You guys have to get in line and wait.. there are all these people in front of you...." and then he bursts out "YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN CARE" in a voice that is usually only used to exclaim crazy things like "why don't you love me anymore??" or "I'm going to kill myself"... what the hell? That sounded so out of place and awkward.. shit dude, we didn't mean to hurt your feelings. We ended up following this trail of people that were winding around the block... the line ended up not taking very long and as we get into the SF Design Center(the first time for us all), we were just astounded by how huge this place was. It was just like a giant warehouse where there are massive vampire raves(you know, like in Blade where the human gets mauled by all these crazy hip vampires). Wow, this show was packed. We managed to find a spot near the right of the stage and I was standing behind a guy who looked like a lesser Dwight Schrute. Can you imagine that? A LESSER DWIGHT SCHRUTE. Really.... How funny looking do you have to be...? Anyway, this show was so unreal... the setting, the lights, the sound... all of it combined was just really amazing. I mean shit, these guys hadn't done anything for over a decade and they were coming out with something to prove. The lesser Dwight Schrute and his equally weird looking friend actually left with a 1/3 of the show remaining... the guy next to me and I locked eyes as he exclaimed, "SCORE!!"... yeh, we had a moment. Not like that though... as his boyfriend came up and gave him a congratulatory back rub. So now I had a clear unobstructed view of this awesome set-up... geez louise. For their conclusion, they ended up playing "You Made me Realise".... fuck, this is where I wish I was equipped with all sorts of music terminology... but they took the last 10 seconds of the song and pretty much extended it to about 15-20 minutes... the best way to describe it is by using a title of an Arcade Fire song... it was like a fucking "ocean of noise" .... I don't even know.. but it pretty much blew my mind.

Here's a video of them playing "Soon" at the venue I was at... the lights are sure to give you a seizure. Enjoy.



October 3, 2008
This day will be the day that I remember as my favorite show EVER. I saw fucking Sigur Ros which is easily one of the top five shows I wanted to see in my life... and I was filled with nervous anticipation all day. We actually were super fortunate enough to find street parking but the spot was a little tight so I got out of the car to help my friend Anthony parallel park. As I'm getting out and helping him, this car drives by and this girl rolls down the window and with all the venom she could muster, she yells out "YOUUUUU BIIIIITTTTCCCHHHH" I'm dumbfounded at this point as to why she was filled with so much hatred towards me... I look in the car and Anthony has his mouth wide open in shock.. also confused by what the hell just happened.. And then at once we both just started laughing because the situation was so ludicrous haha... ok but real quick, it's important to note that this was an outdoor venue......... and...

Anyway, the show was just a mind fuck explosion. I was on the brink of tears the entire time because everything was just so beautiful. I can't even believe a voice like Jonsi's exists. For their encore performance, they did song #8 on the ( ) album which is my favorite song.. they were building up at the song and at the fucking crescendo, I kid you not, it started raining. They had these crazy white lights in the background that highlighted the outline of the rain as they were just going to fucking town on the stage. How insane is that? It was as if their music dictated the weather. It was honestly one of the most amazing and beautiful things I have ever been fortunate enough to witness. It was funny because people around me were like, "Oh.. it's raining....." and I was just thinking "No.... god is fucking crying..." Sigur Ros were just like these ethereal beings too beautiful for this world. And this Taoist notion of the piping of heaven came to mind... and the question is, who or what does the piping of heaven? Well, after this night... I've decided that it's Sigur Ros that does the fucking piping of heaven. I mean, after the show I was just reduced to this blissful puddle-like state where all words were inadequate. The show was just so beyond anything I could say... so instead of saying, I just squealed and mumbled incoherently....

What an epic night.

So here are some videos that I found from our show..... but even still, the quality of the videos are not good enough to show the true depth and beauty of their performances.

Check out Jonsi singing into his guitar...