Live Review: Sufjan Stevens at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 6/8

Clad in dark colors, Sufjan Stevens and band looked ready for a funeral, and the first half of Monday's sold-out show at the Arlene Schnitzer proved to be a quiet reception. Stevens performed without addressing the crowd once. It was only after a solemn and near-complete recital of material from his album/obituary, Carrie & Lowell, that Stevens donned his crumpled, yellow trucker hat and stepped to the microphone: "It's great to be back in Oregon. It's such a deep and mystical place."

Perhaps it is wrong to call a Portland concert from the Detroit-born Stevens a homecoming, but it's the closest he's performed to the physical and emotional core of his new record—an album about the death of his estranged mother, who lived in Eugene—and frankly, you could feel it. A simple glance to either side affirmed the extent of the audience's attention: seated, not singing and hardly blinking. Stevens even bumbled a couple lyrics, and his usually facile falsetto often seemed strained, emphasizing the vulnerability of it all.

Stevens brought with him a four-piece band of multi-instrumentalists. They roamed the stage, demonstrating impressive faculty with vocal harmony, piano, percussion, trombone, synthesizer and all flavors of stringed instrument. The addition of the lush band to the staid simplicity of Carrie & Lowell added welcomed flesh (the gauzy EDM-remix of “All of Me Wants All of You”) and occasional muscle (Stevens’ fierce, virtuosic synth solos and the near cataclysmic endings of “Fourth of July” and “Blue Bucket of Gold”) to the usually bare-boned sound of the grief-stricken record. 

Homecoming or not, Stevens clearly shares a deep connection with the state of Oregon, whose landmarks pock the surface of the new album—via references to Spencer Butte, The Dalles, Sea Lion Caves, the Painted Hills, etc.—and were displayed, in video form, on the wall of diamond-shaped screens behind the band. When not displaying shots of pristine landscape, the screens' use of color and old home videos proved an effective, stimulating backdrop. 

At one point in his mid-set monologue, Stevens reminisced: “There were a few years when my mom and my stepdad lived here, in Eugene, and we would come out and visit them in the summers...and it was magic.” Perhaps returning to Oregon on Monday was like a return to the “season of hope,” he sings about in the title track, “Carrie & Lowell.” Perhaps it brought him—brought us all—that much closer to healing. “Thanks for being with me through the thick of it,” said Stevens to the crowd before closing with fan-favorite, “Chicago,” and exiting to a standing ovation. TED JAMISON. 

All photos by Thomas Teal.

WWeek 2015