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| Info | Setlist | ||||||||||
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01. Intro - Brennið Þið Vitar 02. Earth Intruders 03. Hunter 04. Unravel 05. Jóga 06. Who Is It 07. The Pleasure Is All Mine 08. Pagan Poetry 09. Desired Constellation 10. Army Of Me 11. I Miss You 12. Bachelorette 13. Cover Me 14. Wanderlust 15. Hyperballad 16. Pluto encore 17. Oceania 18. Declare Independence |
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| Pictures (email) Observe that there usually is a NO camera policy at these concerts. | |||||||||||
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| Reviews |
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| I’d been waiting seven or eight years to see Bjork and tonight, finally, I got my chance. Thankfully, she delivered what I had hoped she would. Unfortunately, I saw Arcade Fire last night. A nearly impossible act to follow. When Bjork marched on stage to the crazy beats of Earth Intruders I almost couldn’t believe I was actually seeing her. At first I was taken aback by how small she was on stage, surrounded by a huge brass section as well as four gentlemen who spent the night tweaking out the weird sounds of Bjork’s music. But what she lacked in size she made up for in enthusiasm as she prowled and pranced on stage all night. After Earth Intruders (complete with massive flames!) she belted out three straight from Homogenic. Awesome? Yes. Hunter was fantastic and ended with Bjork shooting string (or something) from her hands. Unravel followed and it is perhaps my favourite Bjork song so hearing that was pretty special. Her voice was pitch perfect (in fact she hit every note all night, it was nuts) and the performance, complete with the brass section doubling as a choir, was stunning. Joga came next and that’s when the lasers made their first appearance. Looking back up at the Opera House and the full moon overheard with green lasers everywhere was definitely a sight to behold. Medulla got the next little run with Who Is It and Pleasure Is All Mine showcasing Bjork’s vocal gymnastics. Vespertine was only represented by Pagan Poetry but it was one of the set’s high points, particularly when Bjork hushed the crowd with her chant of “I love him, I love him.” The second half of the set was just as amazing. Army of Me was immense and it was followed by I Miss You which sounded great with such a huge horn section. After Unravel my favourite moment of the night came when Bjork performed Cover Me with just her keyboardist. We were on the rail right in front of her as she acted out the song…it was almost childlike in its execution. The look on her face was priceless. The main set ended with Hyperballad, which featured a stomping finale, and Pluto which continued where Hyperballad left off. It was a great way to end the set as the beginning of the show was a bit more quiet and subdued. When Bjork returned to the stage she introduced Oceania as the song “we sang at the Olympics in Greece.” I thought it was on odd choice for an encore song but she sang it beautifully. Then the band kicked into Declare Independence, the final song of the night, which featured confetti being blasted all over the place. The song built and built into a mess of beats and samples and when it ended Bjork thanked the crowd and vanished back into whatever world she inhabits. So years of waiting…and Bjork delivered. Finally. /a reminder - 3748 |
| Live - Björk - Sydney Opera House Forecourt - Sydney Festival Reviews, By angy, 26th January, 2008 It sure was a coup for the Sydney Festival organisers – Björk, the quirky Icelandic singer who’s been one of the most consistent fixtures on the musical landscape over the last twenty years (and most recently in the news again for attacking a photographer after landing in New Zealand airport), had agreed to participate in Sydney’s biggest cultural festival – just another reason why, alongside the 10,000+ people street parties and nightly parties at the Becks’ Festival Bar, Sydney has been an exhilarating place to be this January. But consistent with the unusual character that she is, her involvement had to be under her terms of course, and Björk wanted to perform at a unique venue – on the harbour to be exact. And that’s the story of how the 42-year-old star ended up performing under a full moon to a crowd of more than 5,000 at the Sydney Opera House forecourt. Excitement levels were high, but prior to the gig it was hard to know what exactly to expect. She’d received mixed reviews for her Big Day Out performance the previous Sunday on the Gold Coast, with disgruntled Rage Against the Machine fans complained about having to watch her ‘unusual’ antics while waiting for their beloved headliners to come on. And daily rag The Brisbane Times were less than kind in their appraisal, describing her set as “painful”, the cheeky reporter proceeded to make reference to her classic showtune It’s Oh So Quiet. “How apt those lyrics turned out to be, considering the mute reaction afforded Björk by the 53,000 music fans… Just what possessed the Big Day Out’s organisers to invite Iceland’s bad girl of pop to Australia’s premier music festival was anybody’s guess.” Ouch. But as it turns out, the Brisbane Times can’t be trusted to capture what’s happening in the musical world beyond the latest Delta Goodrem stadium performance because at the Opera House last Wednesday, on a perfect summer night, Björk did nothing less than captivate her audience. When she first pranced onstage a little after 9pm she was dressed in a frilly silver and gold dress, her face painted with that same red and green we’d seen from her first shows. It’s no secret that she’s an eccentric lass; she’s always fallen outside the boundaries of what we expect from our musical starlets and now that she’s approaching her mid-forties, it seems this is becoming even more pronounced. Of course, that’s all part of her charm: she exuded such an overwhelming charisma on stage, so much so that you knew you’d just go all silly if you ever got to meet her. And on the topic of her eccentricity, there was a strange contradiction in the energy she was conveying to the crowd. As she danced around the stage without a care, she was equal part an uninhibited little girl, and crazy old lady who’s retreated into herself. Being the complex character that she is, it’s no surprise the mainstream media just don’t get it. The rest of Björk’s sizeable entourage wore jester-like outfits, and behind them a row of raised banners adorned the wall which looked like they’d been plucked straight from an old English court. What images graced these banners? Animals of course. Duh. And her quirkiness was never more on display than when she’d occasionally halt her beautiful warbling between songs to thank the crowd in her unmistakable Icelandic accent. Looking towards the sky at one point, she exclaimed that, “The moon has gatecrashed her party.” Waves of affectionate laughter echoed through the crowd. It was simply the most whimsical thing she could have possibly said. Opening with Earth Intruders, the crowd were mesmerised immediately and the first truly emotional moment of the show came when she whipped out Jóga – a song that perfectly captures the way Björk has brought organic instruments together with electronic sounds throughout her career. It began with those familiar strings and her haunting, impassioned vocals, but when that industrial percussion rose to take prominence halfway through, it was greeted with its dazzling visual equivalent: bright green lasers that cut through the sky above the Opera House. It set the scene for what was an exhilarating performance, and the tone was lifted even higher when Björk launched into her rendition of Army of Me. That was the most dancefloor-friendly moment of the show, but the song that got the biggest reaction was Hyperballad; bringing the two girls behind me to tears no less. There was a ten piece female Icelandic brass section providing a musical backdrop to the evening’s entertainment, but while Björk herself may have been the centre of everybody’s attention, she was supported by a fairly hefty sidekick in the form of the cutting-edge musical technology that sat on stage alongside her. The crowd were permitted to observe via the visual screens on either side of the stage, and the device hyped the most prior to the show was the Lemur, a computer touch screen that was able to manipulate electronic sounds on the fly. But even more astounding was the Reactable Table, a large circular device again operated via a touch screen, with its operator perched above it looking like he was peering into a witch’s cauldron. On the outer edges of the round table were a series smaller circles, each sporting a rune symbol that when he drew them with his index finger into the centre of the table, he proceeded to manipulate by twisting and turning them, each movement reflected in the synthetic sounds pumping out of the speakers. At one point the operator did something particularly gratuitous, moving one circle back to the outer edge of the table and then quickly drawing another two in and spinning them around quickly, and the crowd collectively gasped in amazement. But the time Björk walked off the stage a little after 10pm and the lights went down, I thought that was all we were going to hear. After all, encores just didn’t seem to be her style. But again she proved to be unpredictable, as it wasn’t long before she bounded back on stage for a rousing performance of Oceania followed by Declare Independence, dedicated to our country’s indigenous population. With rousing shouts of “Declare Independance, Don’t let them do that to you, start your own currency, make your own stamp, protect your language,” her entourage were dancing around on the stage with her, those green lasers again being blasted into the sky, confetti exploding onto the crowd. And then the show’s stunning climax: fireworks exploding into the sky above the Opera House. It was one of those moments that made you feel like a wonder-struck child, staring in awe. As the crowd strolled away afterwards down the streets of Circular Quay, we knew we’d witnessed something special, something truly beautiful and a unique experience never to be repeated. Even if the subtlety was lost on that hapless Brisbane Times reporter. /angy - 3747 |
| The line, that wound its' way around past circular quay before the gates opened just demonstrated the multitude of fans who had waited years to see their favourite Icelandic songstress and were not do be disappointed! Having to stand up every so often as bums went numb on the steps of the opera house became somewhat of an obligatory exercise as we waited patiently for the blistering sun to disappear behind the closest building in proximity to Observatory Hill and then came the MC telling us not to take photographs but that didn't dampen anyone's spirits as NYC 's Shy Child appeared onstage. They were, well, interesting but not really my cup of tea. The next half hour flew by as my girlfriend and I contemplated lining-up in the never-ending queue for food and drinks that seemed to disappear into those waiting infront of the stage for Bjork to appear. We timed how long it took a woman to get from the end of the queue to purchase her drinks and then decided very adamantly against it as she was still in-line as Bjork's band procession marched on-stage and took their places to the right just as the very woman herself bounced across the stage to stop in the centre whilst the introduction for the catchy Volta opener; "Earth Intruders" rung-out across the forecourt! Flares blazing and the crowd hypnotized by her singing I knew we were in for a very special night. A few quieter songs followed and "Hyper Ballad" exploded at the end with an almost remixed outro with green lasers flashing crazily about the stage and above the crowd into the beautifully temperate night. Then came the aggressor "Army of Me" with confetti tape falling from the sky in front of the stage and the lighting going completely berserk it was a sight to behold and an emotional overload came over me. Then came the closer "Declare Independence" with fan-blown confetti tape and in operatic finale style, we were treated to what Sydney does best in times of mass celebration; fireworks! The crowd erupted even moreso than during the aforementioned "Army of Me" and as it all came to close the band strolled casually offstage and the queen herself simply said "Thanks for tonight" and that was it. Purely phenomenal! // /ALexbass - 3746 |
| Björk @ The Sydney Opera House I have waited for 14 years to see Bjork. As you can imagine, one builds an image, expectation and hope up in their head after all that time. Since the moment we got tickets to the days before and right up until the seconds before she walked on stage, I was extremely worried that she would not live up to my expectations. I was extremely worried that she would do something to make me disappointed, after all the bad press she has received over fighting with photographers to telling fans off for using cameras. Before when I have seen my other idols( and that’s the only word I can use to describe them) U2 and Radiohead, I have been super excited to the point of being giddy just before the band entered the stage. I was not like that with Bjork. I was almost numb to the whole thing because as I stated in my previous post, Bjork to me was almost not real. Being that she is who she is and that there is no other human being on the planet like her, it was rather a surreal moment when she walked on stage. Sean and I somehow managed to get right on the rail off to the right hand side. All we did was line up around 3pm. There were only about 40 people there at that point, so it was rather easy. The stage was dressed in flags not representing anything but animals and nature. The crowd went nuts when the flags were brought out as we all knew we were in for a show. The music began and her little troupe of horn blowers marched onto the stage dressed in what can only be described as clown outfits, with tall red hats extending to a bouncing flag. The crowd went crazy as the little Icelandic princess entered the stage bounding around like a puppy. Its incredible to think that this woman who still seems so child like in a beautiful way, is 42. She blew the roof off with Earth Intruders and then went straight into Hunter and Unravel. For those first 3 songs, I was so overcome that I had tears running down my face. I felt like a complete idiot but I didn’t care. I’ve never felt so overcome and awed at seeing a performer. I guess you can say I was star struck. Hunter was incredible and feisty with an ending reminiscent of something out of a Spiderman comic, as she shot some white string out of her hands which I ended up grabbing part of, as it flew across the front of the audience. Unravel was as beautiful and haunting as I could have imagined. I was just so happy to finally be able to hear that voice that is not of this planet, in the flesh. Now, she went and cancelled the Sydney Big Day Out performance due to throat strain yet Sean and I commented how perfect her voice sounded. I did not notice anything wrong with it all and we in fact talked about the fact that her voice hasn’t changed at all. Its beautiful, soft and strong, mischievous and haunting…magic. Between each few songs, she would delight us with a teeny little “siank you” in that gorgeous accent, never once wasting time on crowd banter. One of the most perfect moments of the night was the performance of Cover Me. She came over to the right side of the stage, which was right in front of us and cheekily acted out lines of the song, creeping on tip toe out to the edge of the stage and then back again like a pixie. She would have made a great Puck. I was very lucky to hear three out of the four songs I was desperate to hear, Unravel, Pagan Poetry and Jóga. Thumping and loud, Army of Me and Miss You were massive and got the crowd screaming for more. This was one show I did not want to end and it flew by so quickly. I see a lot of shows so I am often complacent and have become pretty hard to impress, I look at my watch, wonder how long till I can leave, not Bjork. I wanted it to go on and on and it seemed to end after it had only just begun. I could have watched her all night. I still feel I didn’t get anywhere near enough. I left the show exuberated and wanting so much more, but I was appeased as I knew I’d see her again 2 days later. AHERM. Bjork executes every song with passion and professionalism. She is very much in her own world of Bjorkness when she performs as she doesn’t interact much with the crowd, until its like she drops her game for a second with a cheeky smile or pulls a face. She pounces around the stage with little dance steps and appears to be constantly thinking about the story which she is sharing with her audience, adding little hand movements and head turns. She certainly put on a show with lasers and a light display to make the colours bursting on stage all the more fantastic…and I mean fantastic in the real true sense of the word. During the encore, which started with Oceania, her young female brass section stood around her in a semi circle dancing and enjoying every amazing moment. They beamed with happiness…wouldn’t you if you were on stage with Bjork as a young girl? They were absolutely gorgeous. Bjork did live up to my expectations and even more. She was pure bliss and like nothing I’ve ever seen. My only regret is that cameras weren’t allowed so I have nothing photographic to remember it by. The very lovely and super rock photographer Matt Booy sent me a copy of one of his gorgeous shots he got from the pit, so I thank him so much for that! If I had to choose one other band I could see again right now out of every band/artist in the world, it would be Bjork. It just wasn’t enough and so to make up for it, I’m on a diet of the Royal Opera House DVD and about to start on the Greatest Hits videos. Thank YOU, Bjork for one of the most amazing nights of my life. I hope I’m lucky enough to see you again sometime /shutterfly - 3745 |
| During the concert, the Opera House forecourt was absolutely filled with sound waves exploding from Bjork’s throat and from the other musicians and by crazy lights, including those that variously seemed to shoot out of Bjork’s eyes and by stunned and happy concert goers just trying to experience every detail and immersed in it all. There was an intense female energy that just drilled into the body. The bass was amazing and made the air seem to rumble. The stage lights at times appeared like a huge red mouth about to eat us alive (Bachelorette) and at other times like a window into a green sea that was roiling with little marine creatures making big sounds (Oceania). Bjork’s Shakespearean dress and leggings were similar in colour to the tiled sails of the Opera House and to the moon shimmer on the water of Farm and Sydney Coves. Bjork's movements interpreted the mood of each song and also through the dress. At one extreme, the folds could fall into a delicate, quiet outfit (Cover Me) or could explode into a frenzy of noisy fabric (Declare Independence). Of most note was that Bjork’s voice was so powerful and I couldn’t believe how strong it sounded and how she was absolutely nailing it throughout the concert. She sang each word so clearly and with such conviction and passion and just so perfectly - I absorbed it all with glee. The sounds exceeded the album recordings. We were so lucky and I was even more appreciative after discovering the next day that she had resulted in swollen vocal chords. I’ll never pass the ochre granite steps of the Opera House again without remembering that night of intense communication and feeling of energy spewing out everywhere and woohoo! Jumping around to Declare Independence! and just for hearing all of those great songs live while being able to variously look up at the gum tree on the sandstone cliff, seeing the underbelly of bats wheel overhead and basking in the moon light… – Thanks Bjork and for picking such a great venue to further enhance the experience. P.S. Bjork would have floored everyone at the Sydney Big Day Out. Everyone was ripe for a change in mood that night and when she was scheduled would have been perfect and the crowd there was a good type of people. The main arena would have just gone off! I was disappointed, but am exceedingly appreciative of the effort exerted at the preceding concert, and also that I want Bjork to protect her voice and energy first and foremost as I am so looking forward to the next place she takes us! Bjork said during the Sydney Opera House concert “we are grateful to be here” but in reality we are in debt to her for sharing her energies, for educating us about music and the making of art, for shaking our senses to a higher level. P.P.S. my friend who missed a ticket was going to sit in a kayak in Farm Cove to listen (but didn't), how nice owuld that have been as an option if she had played twice. /isylph - 3717 |
| Oceania + Declare Independence (with fireworks) Declare Independence (from outside the venue) Declare Independence (mosh version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU3L3oZ_6iU /YouTube - 3715 |
| http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/icelandic-space-pixie-alights-on-butterfly-wings/2008/01/23/1201024997586.html Richard Jinman Arts Editor January 24, 2008 Opera House forecourt January 23  Photo: Edwina Pickles SAY what you like about Bjork, but she sure is punctual. A few minutes after the designated 9pm kick-off, the lights around the Opera House's forecourt dimmed, the crowd of 6000 people cheered wildly and a procession of 10 Oompah Loompahs carrying an assortment of trumpets, tubas, trombones and French horns marched onto the stage with military precision. They were dressed in robes lurid enough to make the members of the Polyphonic Spree look positively drab and each had a red flag protruding from their head. The Oompah Loompahs raised their instruments to their lips and began to play, triggering a small explosion at stage left. As red smoke enveloped the stage a petite woman in an Alfoil dress with enormous butterfly wings and the kind of colourful facial make-up favoured by members of the Battlestar Galactica cast gambolled to the centre of the stage. She was clutching what appeared to be a small porcupine, but may have been a pom-pom. Bjork Gudmundsdottir, the Icelandic space pixie whose voice has been compared to "an ice-pick through concrete", certainly knows how to make an entrance. In stark contrast to the day-glo Oompah Loompahs, the rest of Bjork's band were a serious-looking bunch. The drummer struck his kit with fluffy orchestral mallets while two colleagues manipulated the electronic beats and samples by peering at the screens of their laptops like technicians at a nuclear power plant. There was nothing staid about Bjork's performance, however. As the singer launched into her second song, Joga, she began to hop and skip in what appeared to be an Icelandic version of the funky chicken. The drums clattered and a single green laser beam shot out of the stage and scribbled on the pristine white sails of the Opera House. Then two girls in the audience in swan outfits - a homage to Bjork's bizarre appearance on the Oscars red carpet - writhed with pleasure. Bjork finished the song. "Tink-you," she said in her odd blend of London and Icelandic. Apparently Bjork was booed by Rage Against the Machine fans when she appeared on the same bill as the American rockers at the Gold Coast leg of the Big Day Out on Sunday. Perhaps they thought she wasn't political enough. They've got it all wrong, of course. Rage are pantomime anarchists - Bjork is the revolution. /www.smh.com.au - 3714 |
| This was my first experience seeing Björk live, and this was definetely the best concert I have ever been to! And I'm fairly sure it will be for a very long time! I grabbed a position dead centre, just in the second row, having been in the line since about 4pm. While waiting, I heard the soundchecks, in which the brass could be heard playing 'Innocence' and 'Pneumonia'. I got excited as 'Pneumonia' has never been played live before! But alas, both of them were missing from the set list. But I couldn't have wished for a better show! It was everything that I hoped it would be and more. Thank you Björk! 'Jóga', 'Who Is It' and 'I Miss You' were simply stunning. All three benefited greatly from their new arrangements. 'Jóga' especially was awe inspiring, when it's huge pulsating beats began to climax at the beginning of each chorus. Björk seemed to enjoy herself during both 'Who Is It' and 'I Miss You', with some crazy dancing, and some sly smiles. I shouted out in excitement as Björk unleashed her "spider web" during 'Hunter', and half of 'Unravel' was performed with gibberish, and the audience was totally with her the whole time. During 'Pagan Poetry', I realised how lucky I was to be so close. To anyone else near the front, they will understand exactly what I mean when I saw that the "I love him" was powerfully sincere. I was intimidated to be standing in front of her, as she bared her soul to the audience. 'Hunter', 'Army of Me', 'Bachelorette' and 'Wanderlust' all just have to be experienced live! Just amazing. I was a little disappointed to not hear the crowd cheer as two songs from Medulla, 'Pleasure is All Mine' and 'Desired Constellation', began to play. It seemed they weren't as popular. But there was no denying the entire audience was transfixed by the end of each. The crowd could not help but be swept up into ecstacy as Björk slowly ascended, repeating 'again, and again" at the end of 'Desired Constellation'. And she showed immense power when she performed 'Pleasure is All Mine'. At one point, she walked to the very edge of the stage, leant out into the crowd, and strongly shaked a finger at herself as she bellowed "WOMEN LIKE US", as if she was issuing an offer to anyone to try and take her on. But there wasn't just power. There was humour! She had much of the crowd laughing during 'Cover Me', especially those of us up close. And at the end she raised her glass to the audience and took a sip in an amusing style. The eagerly awaited 'Hyperballad' and 'Pluto' duo did not at all disappoint. And it was beautiful to allow Björk to let us take the lead during the early parts of 'Hyperballad'. The sound from the audience was so huge by the end of it, that Björk had to run off to the side of the stage and place her ear right on one of the speakers to be able to find her place during the beginning of 'Pluto'. As she bounced back on stage for the encore, we were treated to 'Oceania', with an totally endearing ending. Björk and the brass members bowed cutely to each other as the song began to fade out. At one pointed, Björk streched up over the brass to offer a bow to Jonas also! And 'Declare Independence'! Well, what can you say? Simply stunning. There could've been no better way to see the show out. A truely awesome show. One that I will never forget. I've tried to explain it... but really, words just can't express it. Anyone else up there at the front with me, who's loved these songs for years, will understand! /mattyb - 3713 |
| Well, what to say? I'll get my only gripe out of the way fist in that I could have kept watching for another hour, the gig was a bit short but having said that read on to find out why it was so much more... Sydney managed to turn on a perfect night for the Opera house gig, the moon shining behind the famous cracked-egg and the city glittering in the background, the harbour bridge lit up just a head turn away and the harbour itself all combined to make the perfect backdrop for this long awaited (14 years!!) event. The now famous trumpets sounded as the crowd exploded into a frenzy that at long last we would be seeing Bjork in concert and then out she came to rapturous applause launching into Earth Intruders. The set list was a great mix from many albums and contained moments of intense quiet beauty (unravel) to include fantastic versions of "Who Is It" and "Joga". The surpise of the night for me came with "Army Of me", the raw power of the track and grinding beats really proved a departure from many of her previous concerts that i've enjoyed only on dvd. It was here they chose to unveil the full might of the light show with lazers and, from memor, pyros. The massive sound just swept through the crowd and I think took a lot of people by surprise! "Cover Me" was another, altogether different, favourite with Bjork singing conspiratorially with crowd emploring us to cover her as she went hunting... And then - Hyperballad. My single favourite song of all time brought to explosive life by the incredible new beats and the feeling rushing through the crowd was pure ecstacy. Involving the crowd who were blasting out the lyrics (evidently not just my favourite!) brought the energy up even more. Running straight from this was another great surprise with "Pluto", again it kept the massive sound and energy of the show going ending with such a bang as to leave many of us breathless. But, for me, the best was yet to come, with a great new hornn-oriented version of "Oceania" setting up the encore for the single best finale of a concert i've ever experienced. "Declare Independance", dedicated to Australia's indigenous people just blew the top off the Opera House fourcourt as it whipped the crowd up and up as everyone screamed "raise your flag" and the horn section thrashed about on stage and big pyrotechnics and fluttering paper filled the air and the fireworks went off from the hill of the botanical gardens I looked around and saw, plastered onto everyones faces, manid grins and expressoins of joy. What a way to end the night. I was, simply put, blown away by a show with such incredible energy and power, initial worries about the sound in the open space were put to rest as the fidelity was near perfect and the entire set packed an incredible punch. Thankyou Bjork, may your next wait to come here not be so long... /dayvbrown - 3711 |
| It was amazing from start to finish. When the Wonderbrass came on playing the intro, I was frozen in excitement and everyone I was with, too. Once Björk came on, everything just blurred so quickly and it was hard to fully realise that she was actually on stage, bouncing around to Earth Intruders. Hunter next was fantastic and she did the Hunter dance (which I joined in with). Unravel was so beautiful it produced a couple of tears from me. I admit that I wasn't able to focus well enough on Jóga. I was so incredibly pleased they played Who Is It, one of my favourite songs. It was beautiful with its new brass arrangement. Pleasure Is All Mine was great too, with Björk giving her amazing gibberish growls at the end. I was also ecstatic with a song from Vespertine. Pagan Poetry was undeniably beautiful. I exceedingly enjoyed Desired Constellation, she was amazing, especially when she belted out "Again and again"! DC molded angrily into Army of Me with the most wicked laser light show ever. The huge green beams bounced off the Opera House behind us. After that rock explosion came another favourite of Post, I Miss You. I was very surprised to see basically nobody dancing. The people down the front jumped a little to Army of Me and Pluto, but the only time everybody was moving even slightly was the finale. Bachelorette was brilliant, especially Jónas Sen on the piano. It was smile-inducing watching Jónas and Björk do Cover Me alone. She had a huge grin on her face when he finished the song of loudly and very noisily. It blended nicely into Wanderlust. Nothing got me more than Hyperballad, though. It is my favourite song in the entire world and there was Björk, singing it in front of me. She let us take the lead from "Every morning I walk towards the egde" and joined us again for "Like carparts, bottles and cutlery". It was all just perfect, especially when everything got really loud and smashed right into Pluto. All the hands down the front were following Björk's as she "ahhh"ed. It was like we were bowing to each other with hands. When the song ended, she said "Thanks for tonight" and bounded offstage. About five minutes later, she came back on, everyone was ecstaatic. "Thank you very much," she said. "What a great view. The moon has gate-crashed on us." Indeed behind the crowd was a wonderfully almost-full moon, looming somewhere above the Opera House. "This song we did at the Olympics," she said (or words to that effect). "A new version." Oceania was fantastic. It was such a beautiful arrangement with the brass. At the end, the Wonderbrass girls took turns in pairs to play the outro as the bowed to Björk and she made some sort of curtsy or hand movement back. She then announced "We have one more little song. It's for all the Indigenous people." She could have possibly said "...of Australia", but I couldn't hear because everyone was cheering so loudly. The Wonderbrass danced all around her as Björk told us to Declare Independence. I raised my flag proudly and quite enthusiastically, but I did notice I was the only one with a flag at all! Someone was waving a T-shirt to my right, but I seemed to be the only one who followed the song! Teehee. This big finale had laser lights, confetti and the Sydney Festival organisers gave us some beautiful fireworks. It was spectacular. "Thanks for tonight!" Björk yelled, and once again bounded off stage. /shallia - 3710 |
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