Just came back from Tilburg, after a long day of being jumpy (couldn’t really handle myself somehow) and andskotinn, what a difference with Paradiso!

Not that the Paradiso gig was bad, this was different! For one, 013 The Choice is much bigger. For Sigur Rós this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. They should play intimate, yet they need the space for the things Orri does to his drums ;-) Paradiso is perfectly suitable for an intimate performance, which it was, but the sound just didn’t have that oomph thing (although I think the bass drum was set too loud now).

Okay, over to 013 then, after all I was there and not in Amsterdam today! 013 The Choice is a big hall (actually a very big staircase) with one large balcony and that’s where I went to view the whole thing. Since most things that happen on stage are small, the balcony is the perfect spot to get a good view on things. You also are quite certain that noone is standing in front of you :-)

The start was the same, first came Amina, played their set - with a new piece inserted between Hemipode and Seoul, I think - and at the start of Ammælis (the yet unreleased poppy electronic Kraftwerk-like piece) got people chuckling and cheering, exactly the same reaction as in Paradiso, which I found funny – and then there was the white curtain again. The lights and shadows give a very nice effect on the curtain, which I missed in Paradiso, I had a better spot this time.

Curtains open, and then… no Ný Batterí! Haha! Surprise! So Sæglópur is the new “second opening” now…

New songs in the set include Svo Hljótt and Heysátan, more to come when I get my hands on a complete setlist… The songs just get bombarded over one, you simply cannot handle that much information!

  • Takk…
  • Glósóli
  • Sæglópur
  • Njósnavelin
  • Gong
  • Andvari
  • Hoppípolla
  • Með Blóðnasir
  • Olsen Olsen
  • Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása
  • Svo Hljótt
  • Heysátan
  • Hafssól
  • Smáskifa
  • Popplagið

That’s quite some change from the Paradiso set! It’s sad to see classics like Ný Batterí and Sfevn-g-Englar go, but when there is a time of coming, there must be a time of going… They cannot keep on playing the old stuff over and over again, they would become like Boney M and noone wishes that for them!

Hoppipolla and Með Blóðnasir belong together and are played together with only a tiny little pause in between, just enough for some in the audience to start clapping and almost immediately shut up… However, during Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása, just after the ‘við áttum okkur draum, áttum allt’ line, the band just stopped for what was it… 30 seconds? Some started clapping, others shhhh’d them immediately and for about 20 seconds, 013 was completely silent… 2000 people and noone making any noise, just complete silence. I think that’s far more powerful than a stadium doing eeeeeeyooooo’s with the performer.

As was to be expected, the concert was concluded by an extremely powerful Popplagið (track number 8 on ( )), the curtain was closed during this song and the play of lights and shadow gave it that magical extra touch.

The audience was different. In Amsterdam it was like everyone there was an artist or in some other way connected to a creative profession. In Tilburg, it looked more like the concert for the rest of us or something. Among them was also Tiësto by the way.

I got myself a t-shirt with free stenciling of date and venue (great idea!) from the “toothfairies” of Sigur Rós… They surely know how to sell things :-)

After this, we set out for home… And now I’m typing this, which costed me about… one hour to get it out of my head and hands. Still somewhat stunned.