W W W . E X O D U S T E R . C O M

Sufjan Stevens
@ Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO
7/29/05

I was surprised how much I liked this show. I was in a crabby mood starting out the evening, feeling ill (probably from all the raw cookie dough consumed the prior night in development of the oatmeal chocolate raisin cookies). The unhappy digestive track was aggravated by the not enjoyable opening act, Liz
Janes, so during the break between sets I considered leaving for home. But I ended up staying to enjoy some great sounding (but poorly named) Illinoise.

My latest criterion for evaluating shows is Level of Earnestness. For some reason, I have started to really dislike earnest performances where the artists are so serious about their craft they refuse to see the show as something that should be entertaining to an audience. And given what I have heard about the band, I worried that Sufjan might be an earnest kind of guy. (Amazon’s review mentions “earnest” in the second sentence of the description.) But when the band ran out in their coordinated orange and blue Illinois cheerleading outfits, I began to worry less. My sister, who finds the latest Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel The Illinoise! album to be a bit redundant with previous state efforts, was a bit appalled when I described the show to her. But to me, the cheerleading theme was a brilliant move. The outfits, the
cheers between songs, and the perfect imitation of cheerleading moves like standing with arms behind the back during inactive periods and the finger waves with arms raised… well-executed and a pleasant dose of kitsch.

The band sounded good – one of the rare occasions where the quality of the live performance is significantly better than the album sounds. I am terrible about keeping track of song titles, but fellow music blogger Jason who was at the show indicated that they had played nearly everything off the new album. The encore
set was the only time the band approached Earnestness, but again it had a light-hearted element as they changed into a new set of coordinated outfits featuring the green tour shirt. In all, a well-planned and well-executed show.