Sigur Ros with special guest: Siggi Armann

A Touch of Heaven
by: bill aicher

The following is a typical conversation between myself and someone I know regarding the Sigur Ros show in Madison on November 11, 2002.

Me: So I went to that Sigur Ros show I was telling you about the other day.

Some Guy I Know: Really? How was it?

Me: Dude, it was awesome. I've been to a ton of shows, and I know that right after you see a good show you're usually all like "that was the best show ever!" But this show was the best show I've ever seen. It was just unbelievable.

SGIK: Wow, that's cool. So, what was it like?

Me: Well it was very ethereal, almost like a religious experience or something. After the show my girlfriend was like "Man, I wish I'd get that kind of feeling when I go to church!" Their music is beautiful on CD, and I expected the show to be pretty cool, but this was above and beyond anything I could have expected. It was like I was high the whole time, just from listening to the music.

SGIK: Damn, that's saying a lot. I'm not surprised they were good though, I think they'd be a pretty good band to see live.

Me: Oh, totally. I mean, they had the whole bowed-guitar thing and a string quartet, and the bassist played bass with a drumstick for one track - oh and it was really cool when the lead guy sang through the pickups. It was a totally dreamy sound. I've heard people sing through the pickups before, but with his high tenor voice it really gave it a nice effect.

SGIK: Yeah, Jimmy Page used to do that bowed-guitar thing. It was a pretty cool effect.

Me: Yeah, but what was really cool was how they'd just build by going like this (I pretend I'm rubbing the bow back and forth slowly and then building momentum) until it was just a cacophony of sound - then they'd break into the song with just simple "bing" on the piano. Anyway, the show was really damn cool - the whole time I was sitting there waiting for the hand of God to come down and just rest itself upon the entire room. And that's saying a lot coming from me since I'm atheist!

SGIK: Oh totally - how was the opening act? Were they any good?

Me: It was this Icelandic guy named Siggi Armann. You know how sometimes your friends will be like "You gotta come check out this show - there's this guy in town who's totally cool" and then you go to the show and the whole time you're just thinking "this guy's shit!" Well that's pretty much how he was. He had really simple tunes, and I'm sure they can be decent - but when I saw him they were far from it. It's pretty obvious English was his second language, and he was really struggling. He would probably have been better off singing in Icelandic. Plus, he couldn't play guitar for shit either. On the plus side, a few guys from Sigur Ros came out and helped him out by playing some backup on a few songs - the drummer even used a bowed cymbal and that was pretty cool.

SGIK: Yeah, I love that sound.

Me: Yeah, so anyway it was a damned good show and I'd definitely recommend you see them next time they come through. Actually I'd recommend anyone see them - I mean it was just amazing.