Memory Bank

In a new feature called “Memory Bank,” every week the editors at JamsBio Magazine will highlight some of their favorite posts from JamsBio.com.

For the inaugural column, I thought I’d start things off with one of my own memories. Hope you enjoy!

Everyone talks about a how a specific record changed their life. I can’t really say that about any one album, but there have been records that touched my core. One of them is Agaetis Byrjun by Sigur Ros. To be honest, it wasn’t so much the record (which is brilliant) but the live experiences that came soon after its release.

I had just started dating my wife around the time the record was released in the US. On one of our early dates we decided to check out their hotly anticipated U.S. live debut. The concert was supposed to take place at The Angel Orensanz Center, a former synagogue (circa 1849) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Due to overwhelming demand, the show was moved to the much larger Irving Plaza.

The place was packed and hot. When the band took the stage it was like being transported to another planet. The crowd was mesmerized. The band was mysterious, the sound was other worldly, the lighting was magnificent, and people literally started to faint. Now, I’m sure most of them succumbed to the heat, but it was surreal to watch 5 or 6 people drop to the floor while the Icelanders ethereal music swelled. It was all very Pentecostal.

My next Sigur Ros experience came 2 weeks after 9/11 when my wife and I saw the band perform at the Beacon Theater (a much more appropriate venue). Again, the lighting was stunning, minimal but powerful. And again, the music transported the crowd of 2,800 grieving New Yorkers to a better place (at least for a few hours). Sigur Ros provided some much needed peace, a respite from the anthrax scares and terror warnings. Jonsi, the band’s lead singer, often sings in a made up language he calls Hopelandic.

Here’s hoping I get to visit Hopeland again soon!

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