Bon Iver

Chicago’s no place to be this time of year. I know it, you know it, and, unfortunately, musicians know it. I’ve always been of the opinion that any act coming through here worth seeing between the months of December and February are either desperate or brave. Justin Vernon (a.k.a. Bon Iver), as a willing participant in Schubas annual Tomorrow Never Knows festival, would fall into the category of the latter. Having spent the better part of four months in a Northern Wisconsin cabin during the onset of winter to record his debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver is no stranger to unbearable arctic conditions. As a result, he seemed to feel right at home as he slowly worked his way through the awaiting crowd and made himself comfortable on stage. The intimate closed quarters of Schubas’ concert hall must have evoked a similar aesthetic experience to when and where For Emma was crafted, making the night all the more perfect for the occasion.

Flanked by drummer and another guitarist, the night began with For Emma’s opener, “Flume.” The eerie siren effect that gently brushes in and out of this track felt more like a tornado warning slowly circling the room; commanding the attention of all those in attendance. Having been hooked by “Flume,” I was then drawn in further by the kick drum of the set’s second song, “Skinny Love.” On For Emma, it sounds like a distant heartbeat there for no other purpose, but to give the song a muffled pulse. Live it had this pounding cadence that brought the song a second breath of life. Some sounds used to provide balance on certain album tracks made their way to forefront in performance adding another dimension to them.

Some artists veer away from overtly personal lyrical content for the sake of not having to cycle through the experiences behind them while on tour night after night. Going into the show, I wondered if a heart on sleeve type such as Bon Iver would be able to numb himself to whatever lies behind his set list – as if he can just go through the motions of someone there simply to entertain. His facial expressions while in song tied in with his soulful method of singing and seemed as real as the lyrics behind them making his music that much more believable. His facial expressions along with his unkempt hair and month old beard also evoked a striking resemblance to a certain Joe Cocker circa the release of Jamaica, Say You Will.

This thought escaped my mind as quickly as it came when the introductory “ooohs” of “Lump Sum” struck up. On album, Bon Iver did quite a bit of overdubbing of his own voice using different pitches in his signature falsetto creating what sounds like a gospel choir of one. With the layering of such different ranges, it is hard upon listening to For Emma to zero in on just one. So, going into the show I was real curious to see how he sounded on his own. In fact, I was worried with the luxury of the recording techniques used that his voice by itself would sound dull in comparison. I was immediately proven wrong as his voice resonated gorgeously on its own with a just little bit of help from a reverb microphone, not his friends … sounding nothing at all like Joe Cocker.

During “The Wolves (Act I and II),” crowd participation was requested at the point when the song begins to accumulate loudness as the words “what might have been lost” are repeated over and over again. The combined voices of the crowd sounded more and more amazing as the song continually built momentum. When it reached its peak as cymbals crashed and feedback soared, I experienced some of the hardest rocking imaginable from three guys sitting down.

This was one of those shows that it’s really tough to say anything bad about because it was such an enjoyable experience from start to finish. However, there were moments when I thought the band didn’t harmonize particularly well which might be unfair to mention since on For Emma, Bon Iver harmonizes with himself. Also, the For Emma closer, “re: Stacks,” was not played which is, by far, one of the album’s best offerings. With my trivial objections aside, I’ve seen some pretty remarkable shows at Schubas throughout the years and hadn’t remembered an audience that enthralled since Sufjan Stevens last played solo in support of Seven Swans.

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