Grow Until Tall

Jonsi, Leeds Academy, 8th September 2010

Perhaps it’s their country’s resemblance to an Alien world, but Icelandic singers have a habit of acting and sounding like they’re from another planet. The proper debut solo album from Sigur Ros singer Jonsi saw him mostly using English lyrics, not that you could tell. His haunting falsetto has been bewitching crowds for years, but to witness it live is a sensational experience.

The crowd was always going to be a step sideways from the usual student knobheads you get at the Academy, and it was all Guardian readers and their children. With this type of crowd and this type of gig there was always the danger of the experience being ruined by Talkers, but the hush the spread around the building as Jonsi took to the stage with just an acoustic guitar was equal parts reverence and excitement. Unfortunately this didn’t last, and we had a group of chatting types near us, but a curt “shut the fuck up” soon silenced them.

Dressed in rainbow coloured robes fit for Joseph, albeit a Joseph raised by Wolves on Summerisle, Jonsi brought with him a band decked out in similar woodland attire, rarely staying on the same instrument for more than one song. Among the appliances brought to life were a shell in a jar, an eight man Glockenspiel and some kind of collapsed Cello.

Go was played in its entirety, with a few additional solo tracks thrown in for good measure. The visuals were among some of the most breathtaking I’d ever seen. They started in an almost pantomime fashion, with scenes of a burning book leading to smoke being pumped onto the stage. But then an epic battle between a Deer and a Wolf unfolded in front of us like some kind of IMAX Grimm fairytale nightmare. Go Do was accompanied by thousands of ants, seemingly spilling out of the screen and scurrying amongst us.

The sonic range was all over the place. Heatbreaking acoustics would be followed by ukulele disco. I had always been fascinated by Jonsi’s voice and wondered what studio trickery was required to produce such sounds. Now I know, it’s all him. At one point he held a note for what must have been minutes, never faltering. Bollocks to autotune.

For the encore he bounced back on stage with some ridiculous headgear which even Jay Kay would deem too daft. But Jonsi pulled it off with literal gay abandon. Grow Till Tall was the final song, and I had been warned of the levels it would reach, so earplugs at the ready I faced wave after wave of noise as everyone on stage looped and layered and abused their instruments until an almost unbearable wall of sound was formed. Jonsi was screaming into his microphone but was almost unheard under the chaos around him.

As the fuzz subsided, everyone returned to the stage for one last bow. Jonsi is a man like no other, and this show was one of the most unique performances I’ve had the pleasure of attending.