Skinny Love

I don't think I've ever been so satisfied with so little. For Emma, Forever Ago (short for an LP, and musically pretty minimalistic) was already excellent, but I was completely blown away at the Bon Iver show tonight. Except, it turns out that it wasn't really a Bon Iver show so much as it was a Phosphorescent show, with Bon Iver supporting. I even looked at the venue's website, and had simply convinced myself that he was the headliner. I didn't discover the cold, harsh truth until I got up to The Independent (probably my favorite venue, by the way) and walked in to the opening refrains of 'Skinny Love', apparently having missed 20 minutes of his set. But what followed was worth way more than the $12 ticket price and the hour-plus travel time.

My expectations going into the show were pretty low; while I love the album, I was skeptical of how his harmonizing vocals and looped guitars in the studio would translate to a live show. And most of the album he recorded by himself, only bringing in some outside help for two of the album's nine tracks, so what would he really do onstage? Oh, how wrong I was. After a great start (for me anyway) with 'Skinny Love', he and his touring band kicked it up with an amazing rendition of 'Wolves.' [EDIT: Someone awesome has put up videos of the show. Here's the version of Wolves I got - the audio quality toward the end isn't fantastic, and live the drums were just plain haunting, but it'll do. Check out the other songs too!] Maybe I'm just crazy and it was the draft from the door, but Act II sent chills down my spine, particularly as the refrain grew more and more insistent as the crowd started joining in. I can't recall the names of his drummer and second guitarist, but they really helped to create a little extra space so that the band could flesh out the music into something brilliant live. They proceeded to work through the rest of the album in order, with a great bluesy intro to 'Blindsided,' and a solo performance of 're: Stacks' to close out the set. (I kind of disagree with that choice, but hey, Justin Vernon said they rarely played it earlier in the tour, so who am I to complain.) At the end of the set, Vernon announced that they'll be playing at the Outside Lands Festival in August. I already can't wait to see those first couple tracks that I missed tonight. You can hear the whole album on their virb page, but do yourself a favor and see them live (and pick up a cd!)