Tonight was one of the more difficult concert selections in recent memory. This is mostly because it’s pretty rare that there are 2 shows here in Detroit that I really want to see on the same night. Tonight’s choice was between Matthew Dear at the Blind Pig and Ólafur Arnalds at St. Andrew’s Hall. As I’m pretty unfamiliar with Arnalds’ music, the clear choice for me was Matthew Dear. However, the Blind Pig is about an hour from my house and I knew the show wouldn’t be ending until probably around 1am, and I also know that Dear’s show would be much more likely to involve some sort of debauchery that shouldn’t be taking place on a Wednesday night. So with all that, I decided I’d check out what Arnalds had to offer. Besides, there was a much better chance of Matthew Dear coming back around before Arnalds.

After trying to convince a few friends to join me, I decided to just go at it alone. This was only the second show I’ve attended alone, the first of which was Spiritualized a few years back (thanks Mike, I haven’t forgotten). Coincidentally, both shows were at St. Andrew’s Hall, and both shows also had a certain remarkable element about them that will be pretty memorable for me. The Spiritualized show felt like somewhat of a musical revival, whatever that means, but was pretty epic for the small venue that housed it. And tonight’s show also had that certain quality that I haven’t seen at that venue before, aside from the seated audience, which I didn’t even know was a possibility. Arnalds, along with his DJ and lovely 4-woman string section, played for just over an hour, taking the crowd through a series of neo-classical (for lack of a better word, as this seems to be the only word anyone ever uses to describe him) songs that all started out slowly and often with just the piano, but typically grew into painfully beautiful peaks before descending back into the valley from whence they came.

But besides it being what you always wanted a classical concert to be, there were a few elements that made it more than you ever imagined it could be. For starters, the dramatic lighting that always built in perfect unison with the music, often leaving the musicians backlit or with lighting at their feet, casting shadows over their faces. Perhaps the most interesting piece of this puzzle was the DJ. Yes, the DJ, who often only added the most subtle of undertones, more like ambiance behind the strings than anything else. This was not always the case though. For example, in the second or third song of the set, behind the strings there was a loud “boom”, and then another, each time the lights illuminating the musicians and the crowd. And as the beat began to fill in, the flashing lights flickered faster and faster along with it. It’s really difficult to accurately describe how important of a part the lighting played on this show, but I can assure you the man on the light board was just as much a piece of this band as the musicians. All of this together was unlike anything I had ever seen, and it gave some more evidence to my theory that the Icelandic people are some of the more creative people out there, at least musically.

Much of the crowd hung back after the show to share their delight in the show, as the girls lined up to have their boyfriends photograph them with Arnalds. I spoke with him briefly after the show and suggested the band visit Hitsville USA, as he had previously asked the crowd what else there was to do in Detroit, and he seemed disappointed that he didn’t know about it earlier as they were leaving in the morning. They are off to Kentucky next but will be back in the state soon with a stop in Grand Rapids. Regarding the pictures below, they do none of it any justice, for real. While I pained over my Wednesday night concert options all day (and while I don’t think there really would have been a bad outcome regardless of which show I chose to see), I can say that I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out.

Ólafur Arnalds – Fok