on sufjan

he IS, without a doubt, this year's darling, this year's Bright Eyes, a bundle of youth and talent and hope that he'll become something a lot more than say, Ryan Adams has yet to ever really amount to. his handle on composition is really impressive, and with his fit band they manage quite well live, that's for sure.

yet I kind of found myself practically dozing off throughout the show-and not just in Laura Veirs' lights-out session-I think, mostly due to the rather intense heat and still air up on the sidestage balcony where we were. perhaps that's a tax on our lazyness, but we also basically were only getting stage sound, and couldn't hear Sufjan's quiet banter at all, mic or not. that said, the sightlines were very good, and the intimate sit-down feel of the venue was far and above a wiser choice than say, the similar capacity'd mod club or something.

highlights included Chicago (of course) and the incredible vocal moment at the end of Casimir Pulaski Day, which was sort of surreal and almost difficult to believe that they were physically emitting it (to put it scientifically). the crowd was totally madly in love with him as well, but everyone immediately leaving after the encore negated what could havbe been a longer set to the 11 o'clock curfew-oh, toronto.

neither Ryan nor Conor managed to take over the world, and I sort of doubt Surjan will either, but in the meantime, you're getting some very fine music to deal with.