Tonight, Sufjan and his Illinoise-makers are performing in support of his latest album, Illinois. He started off the set going solo with an acoustic guitar performing "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois." I've never seen Sufjan Stevens before, and I was amazed by his vocal capabilities. While some artist whose album voices tend to fall apart live, Sufjan's voice remained amazingly flawless. Every low note, high note and everything in between was done extremely well. Unlike some soft voices, which Sufjan has, his dominates the room. It grabs the listener and makes you focus on every minute detail of his singing.
Afterwards, he was joined by the Illinoise-makers (or the Michigan Militia if he were touring Michigan). They were all in their cheerleading outfits, convincingly looking like a squad from the University of Illinois. Sufjan foreshadowed his set by telling the crowd about the random cheers that they were going to do in between songs and inviting the audience for any constructive criticism afterwards.
The first cheer they did was about Peoria, Illinois. It was a cute cheer, and it was very charming to see him and the others make such a bad cheer seem good. In fact, Sufjan noted that he hoped to make the district finals with his cheers.
More songs from Illinois were played, including "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" Definitely one of the highlights of this gig, it was just really good to see Sufjan perform with such a full sound and with a full band.
Much of the songs played by Sufjan seemed a lot longer than the album version. Although there are 22 tracks in Illinois, it seemed like Sufjan played only a small handful of songs. This is because the length of each one of these songs were long. Despite this extended play, the show was still enjoyable.
Two more cheers were done. One of which had a reference to Balki Bartocamus which just had me rolling. Both were equally good as the first, and it was just so cute!
They ended their main set with "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts." An obvious ode to Superman (which ironically sued Sufjan's record company about Superman's likeness in the Illinois album). It was probably the most lively song done of the entire set. Which is fitting since this would ideally leave the crowd wanting more for the encore.
Overall, a great show. If you were a Sufjan novice or maybe have never heard of him, then you may have found it boring. Since I knew full well what I was getting myself into, I enjoyed it a lot.
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