Okay, so this event passed several weeks ago, but quite frankly, I'm still kind of trying to wrap my head around it and put into words the amazingness that I witnessed.
Let's start with a sketch, shall we? Bon Iver -- beautiful music makers, indie darlings, and composers of many a best of 2009 album lists -- played the Hollywood Forever Cemetery right here in my newly adopted city of Los Angeles. First of all, let me explain that the Hollywood Forever Cemetery is this enormous, beautiful cemetery in East Hollywood, and often they have events here-- there is an indoor venue that acts as a concert hall and a big open grassy space (where there are not yet bodies buried) where they project movies during the summer. So, Bon Iver plays the cemetery. But not only do they play in the big, grassy field, they play at sunrise. That's right, you heard me, sunrise. What does this mean, exactly? It means that at midnight a bevy of hipsters and sad music-listeners began trickling into the cemetery to stake out a good spot on the grass for a show that was to start about 6 hours later.
I arrived at the cemetery around 3 o'clock in the morning. The field was covered in sleeping bags and people in various stages of sleeping. It was quiet, but there was a buzzing feeling hovering over the crowd. We had all gathered here to brave the dark, cold night, and wait for the morning sun which would bring us warmth, light, and beautiful music. Up on the wall of a nearby building, an episode of Planet Earth was playing (you all know from my previous posts how I love this show), by a clever twist, the show had been stripped of its narration and replaced with ambient music, making it the perfect backdrop for wine sipping, cigarette smoking, a yummy food chowing.
Just before the sun began to rise, a Buddhist monk took the stage and announced that the audience was about to be blessed by a group of monks. They light candles and proceeded to chant to/with us for a good fifteen minutes. It was a pretty touching experience to be in this large group of people -- people who were friendly, community-minded, open folks -- and then to have these monks chanting to us. However, the chanting kind of only made people more anxious and excited for the band to come on.
And then, suddenly, there they were. Emerging from the still-darkness, Bon Iver took the stage. Getting to see this band perform live was privilege enough, all the members of this band are intensely talented musicians, I think nearly all of them picked up two or three different instruments during the course of their set, but getting to see them play while the sun slowly rose was an experience that I truly cannot describe in words. The thing about the sunrise that's so amazing is that when you're sitting out somewhere, experiencing the sun rise (not necessarily literally watching the sun rise from behind a hill, but just sitting somewhere as the world begins to get lighter) there is that special kind of soft, morning light that you get first thing in the morning. It's like the first rays of sun that rise are still sleepy and gray, groggy-headed things that haven't yet reached their fullest potential brightness. Moment by moment, the things around you become more and more visible. One minute you're sitting on a dark field with hundreds of sleeping bodies, the next you're covered in a thin, misty light. Every few minutes or so, I would turn around to take in the crowd behind me. The sun rising over this crowd was like watching a curtain being slowly raised-- every time I turned around, the audience seemed to grow.
Aside from the overall experience of witnessing this show, the other remarkable thing was how well Justin Vernon, the lead singer of the band, handled it all. When some people in the front started to get a little pushy, he just said "Hey, guys, everything cool?" and immediately the tension dissipated. He was humble and modest in the most beautiful way. Before finishing the set, he announced that although most bands often play anchors, Bon Iver would not be doing that this morning. "We're a very young band, and we are literally playing all the songs we have. I know it's totally inadequate, but I hope that you all understand, I wish we had more songs to play, but we don't." Frankly, I wouldn't have liked them to go on one minute longer than they did-- the beauty of a good show is that the band can satisfy while still leaving you wanting more. They play all the songs you wanted to hear without playing a two-hour set that leaves you tired and achey. I appreciated this about Bon Iver. I hope that as they continue to write and record music, they keep this philosophy in mind of satisfying the audience without exhausting them.
Upon leaving the cemetery at around 7:30 am, my friend and I went out for coffee and waffles at a nearby diner and then went home and slept until 3 pm. Even though this show took up my entire Saturday night and all day Sunday, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
All photos from Brooklyn Vegan.
Pre-dawn:
Post-dawn:
