I was one of the lucky few to witness the debut of Sufjan Stevens‘ BQE last night at BAM. Set in the regal Howard Gilman Opera House, the show consisted of two parts, the BQE and “Sufjan plays the hits”.
The civic-themed evening was a vision expressed by Sufjan through film and music. 8mm video choreographed to a live orchestra spanned the upper half of the stage, while intermittent live performances of hula-hoopers provided a more comical side to the show. The parallel worked, since the grainy film led us back to the early days of the BQE when car was king and the hula-hoop was invented. Sufjan played with imagery of tires and hoops spinning and our love-hate relationship with car-culture by building quiet melodies to intense frantic compositions.
Following intermission, Sufjan played most of his well-known pieces with perfection and beauty. Many of the songs were reworked with revised melodies or longer endings. After the show, I felt somewhat guilty getting in my car and heading back to the West Village across the Manhattan Bridge. But as I approached the on-ramp, I looked up to see signs for the BQE and just smiled.
More pics after the jump:
4 Comments
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nice pictures! im jealous
got to see antony there not so long ago, quite a place to see a show.
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So, I don’t know you but I just googled Sufjan’s post-BQE set and this blog came up. I, too, was lucky enough to go to the show last night and I am trying to find out the name of one of the songs he played. I was familiar with all of them except one–toward the end and it was just him and the piano. If you have any clue and would help me out, that would be great. Thanks.
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it’s called barn owl, night killer
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Sufjan in Brazil, please!