This year saw the greatly anticipated self-titled album from everyone’s favourite bleeding heart Bon Iver. Although front man Justin Vernon has kept himself busy through various side-projects, notably with Kanye West, he did not disappoint his ever increasing fan base. Predictably the European tour sold out within days.
Vernon and a surprisingly large eight man band took to the stage after the support act, Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards (who Justin Vernon had collaborated with earlier on in the year). Bon Iver’s set opened with the first four tracks of the new album starting with ‘Perth’. From the very beginning it was apparent that Vernon has amassed some fantastic musicians, particularly the two drummers whose impeccable timing and vast array of instrumentation was incredibly welcome and gave an added depth to the music, procuring meanings one cannot glean from listening in headphones from your laptop. Staggeringly this cacophonous percussion did not overshadow the intricate interplay coming from the quieter instrumental sections.
However the star of the show was Justin. His vocal range is formidable as was his guitar playing, highlighted by his solo in ‘Blood Bank’; a song that left the entire audience stunned. Yet the stand out song was ‘Beth/Rest’, not as previous reviewers have stated, because it is the best track on the album, but because it engages in a tense battle with 80s influences and feels atypical of Vernon’s overall sound.
Navigating his way through the old and the new he predictably ended on ‘Wolves (Act I and II)’ making the audience sing the refrain ‘What might have been lost’ until the band re-appeared for the encore of the popular ‘Skinny Love’ and ‘Emma’.
I left the show in awe of Vernon as a live entity: a musician to be revered. All of his songs are laid bare infront of the audience, deconstructed and recreated in ways that are impossible to comprehend unless you go and see the formidable Vernon at one of his compelling and powerful live performances.