Reviewed onFriday May 27 (photo by Ashley Mar)
Author of two of the most sparkling records of the past decade, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon has been in deep hibernation of late, lending this Friday night show a real sense of occasion. Playing in the round, with the band members assembled in a rough circle and a spectacular art installation hanging above them, it begins with Vernon alone in a beam of light, harmonising with his own looped vocals on ‘Woods’ and creating layers of echo with Auto-Tune.
In honour of the special occasion and iconic venue, it’s an extended set, including a rarely played pair of songs from the Blood Bank EP. ‘Beach Baby’ is a gem of lugubrious minimalism, with swirling vocals and a rumbling double bassline, while the EP’s title track is reworked as a sludgy groove before transitioning into something almost aggressive.
It’s not the only song given a radical reworking. On ‘Calgary’ the tempo is dropped and Vernon’s soaring vocals are reined in to a more throaty register. ‘Hinnom, TX’ similarly changes shape from the record, becoming a fluid creation with burbling beats and backing vocals moved to the foreground.
There are also a couple of covers, with ‘Steady’, a song by tonight’s backing singers The Staves, featuring interlocking vocal lines and swelling harmonies. On Bonnie Raitt tearjerker ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’, Vernon trades verses with organist/singer Sean Carey to great effect.
While Vernon’s lyrics often tend to the oblique and poetic, his incredibly emotive voice keeps things engaging, and on ‘Holocene’, a gorgeous reflection on insignificance, the effect is almost overwhelming. Even better is a magnificently raw-throated version of ‘Skinny Love’, which leaves the crowd in awed silence.
‘Heavenly Father’ arrives during the encore, before everyone onstage is huddled around a single microphone to deliver ‘For Emma’. It’s a fittingly emotive end to a wondrous show, in which Vernon has recreated some of the jaw-dropping beauty of his records as well as being audacious enough to recast some of the most perfectionist music of a generation into bold new shapes.
