Sufjan Stevens and Anathallo Rock Calvin
Joshua Welch
Issue date: 4/12/07 Section: Entertainment
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My favorite pieces Sufjan performed that night were "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," which imbued an eerie tone along with his Biblical response that we could all be capable of such acts, and "Seven Swans," which felt more powerful live than on CD as it models off of Christ's return. The final song, not counting his encore acoustic solo, was in dedication of and named after one of his favorite cities, Chicago. The audience stood, sang and clapped along; some raised the inflatables they snagged during the earlier pieces.
Anathallo's performance prior to Sufjan Stevens was no less amazing. Unlike Sufjan they did not include the visual spectacle of costumes, but it was not needed because of its amazing style of play. The band has eight members, some of which scramble from trombone to glockenspiel to bass drum throughout a single song, who combine a post-rock syncopated style of voice and ensemble that few bands could rival. Anathallo played six songs, five of which are on its first full-length CD, "Floating World." Singer/songwriter Matt talked about the new recording in Chicago as an introduction to a new song named "Noni's Field." His brother-in-law, and former member of the band, Nate, conducted a twelve-piece trombone ensemble from Central Michigan University to play along with the band on most of the songs.
Sufjan's performance consisted of nearly nineteen songs with dissonantly strong segues as a consistent theme and the song "To Be Alone with You" as an encore. Coupled with the half hour Anathallo performance, the full set lasted over two hours. Sufjan said it was the longest concert he did. Maybe it was, but I knew I wanted to see more of him and Anathallo. I really wanted them to play more songs because six songs of Anathallo was like taking only one bite of peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake.
The concert was part of Calvin College's Festival of Faith & Music held March 30-31. If you want to learn more about this year's FFM, visit http://www.calvin.edu/admin/sao/festival/ for information and http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ffm2007 for video clips of some of the performances.
Anathallo's performance prior to Sufjan Stevens was no less amazing. Unlike Sufjan they did not include the visual spectacle of costumes, but it was not needed because of its amazing style of play. The band has eight members, some of which scramble from trombone to glockenspiel to bass drum throughout a single song, who combine a post-rock syncopated style of voice and ensemble that few bands could rival. Anathallo played six songs, five of which are on its first full-length CD, "Floating World." Singer/songwriter Matt talked about the new recording in Chicago as an introduction to a new song named "Noni's Field." His brother-in-law, and former member of the band, Nate, conducted a twelve-piece trombone ensemble from Central Michigan University to play along with the band on most of the songs.
Sufjan's performance consisted of nearly nineteen songs with dissonantly strong segues as a consistent theme and the song "To Be Alone with You" as an encore. Coupled with the half hour Anathallo performance, the full set lasted over two hours. Sufjan said it was the longest concert he did. Maybe it was, but I knew I wanted to see more of him and Anathallo. I really wanted them to play more songs because six songs of Anathallo was like taking only one bite of peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake.
The concert was part of Calvin College's Festival of Faith & Music held March 30-31. If you want to learn more about this year's FFM, visit http://www.calvin.edu/admin/sao/festival/ for information and http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ffm2007 for video clips of some of the performances.
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