With the wild wolves around you...

Bon Iver.
((c) Martin Rosenauer - rosenauer.dk)

Justin Vernon has come a long way since back then, in ye olde hunting cabin, of which the indiesphere has now spun many a tale of a love lost. Even so, 'The Wolves', in all its simple majesty, was the highlight of a generally spotless Bon Iver concert in Copenhagen yesterday.


Vernon, now the leader of a nine-man army of multi-instrumentalists, now has to exist somewhat on a middle ground. He has rapidly outgrown the intimate surroundings, in which For Emma, Forever Ago fit so perfectly, and so has his music outgrown the man-with-guitar simplicity, in stead becoming an ornately orchestrated affair of man and machine.


I read a critical review today, which seemed to revolve around the melodies drowning in the arrangement and heavy instrumentalisation at the concert yesterday. I do not agree. If you had heard For Emma, Forever Ago and nothing else, yes, you would have been shocked and disappointed, but you've got to allow a talented musician to evolve. Right from the get-go, 'Perth' opened the set ever so powerfully, and all through the concert, on tunes like 'Blood Bank', 'Minnesota, WI', 'Holocene' and 'For Emma', the brass and percussion really got aired out. 


I am a big admirer of, when very many people on a stage each play very little, making every little timbre of every little instrument important, and Bon Iver had a massive tour de force of just exactly that yesterday. From 'Beach Baby', which was a surprising, but very welcome, addition to the set, through 'Hinnom, TX' to 'Wash.', where the band seemed to be balancing almost soundlessly on the knife's edge, before tripping slowly into the next tune. 'Wash.' especially stands out on Bon Iver as the simplest, but one of the prettiest tunes.


Speaking of the two albums opposed to each other, I could have wished for more of For Emma, Forever Ago, and I've been thinking all day that yesterday really confirmed the notion that Bon Iver just isn't quite as good. It's more flourishing musically, but For Emma, Forever Ago is just pure magic, and as such, even though Vernon let himself take center stage on 're: Stacks' and the aforementioned 'The Wolves', I missed tunes like 'Flume' (WTF?!), 'Lump Sum' and 'Blindsided'.


Even so, this was really a concert of the ages, one that left me empty, speechless and slightly dumbfounded.