Sufjan Stevens at the Royal Festival Hall

Photo from Gigwise

Sufjan Stevens

DM Stith

Royal Festival Hall, 13 May 2011

Astonishing. Breathtaking. Exhilarating. Is there a word to sum up Sufjan Stevens' show? All I know is that my jaw dropped somewhere in the first few seconds and remained that way for a few songs until the amazement couldn't suppress the grin any longer. Visually exciting, amazing fun and riveting throughout, for the most part I thought it was the most unique show I had every been to but the end, while great fun for the audience, owed much to The Flaming Lips with confetti and balloons and dancing in the aisles coming straight out of the Wayne Coyne party handbook. Not that it mattered because after the first two-thirds where else did it have to go? It just had to turn into a party or a light show and it kind of did both.

The stage itself was something to behold, with two screens, one as backdrop and the other a transparent gauze in front which raised and lowered as needed and gave a 3D effect to all the lights and images projected. While the ten-piece band were decked out in glow-in-the-dark outfits that gleamed whenever the houselights went down, looking like something from Tron, Sufjan himself had an outfit that made me think of a professional cyclist at an 80s day-glo disco. The whole thing started very theatrically, like a moment in an ultra-modern interpretation of Phantom Of The Opera, with the Royal Festival Hall's organ very dramatically being put to good use amidt a barrage of lights and projected images before all the electronics, trumpets and backing singers joined together for the first song Seven Swans, from his Christian album of the same name. It was one of the few old songs in the set and ended with him donning a rather large set of angel wings (one of which amusingly failed to stay up).

The show mainly concentrated on his new album The Age Of Adz, which sees him turning his back on his more folky past and embracing beats and keyboards and thanks to his backing singers, and even Sufjan himself sometimes, there was definitely a lot of more dancing than you would imagine at a Sufjan Stevens show back when he was playing banjo and singing odes to American states. It also helps give new appreciation to the new sound on the album, which is given extra depth hearing it played by this incredible live band. Sufjan even goes so far to explain part of the inspiration for the songs: a Louisiana artist and paranoid schizophrenic named Royal Robertson, whose sci-fi and comic book themed artwork has been incorporated into much of the visuals for tonight's show. Stevens also talks a little about his hippie upbringing, talking about his parents' favourite book Are You Star People?, which goes some way to explaining his eccentric, new age meets sci-fi show.

Sufjan himself plays banjo, guitar, piano and various keyboards, and bounces around, yet his voice still manages to sound pure and clear. The whole thing builds to the incredible and lengthy Impossible Soul (although not quite as long as the 29 minute album version) with the seated audience members breaking free and converging in front of the stage as the whole stage erupts into a huge party with confetti, streamers and a mass of balloons falling over the audience. This was spectacle at its best because the music was every bit as good as visuals: it was a beautiful marriage of the two.

When Sufjan returned on stage for the encore it seemed like it couldn't get any better but he managed to end things sweetly with a trio of songs from the Illinois album (including one of my favourites, the heartbreaking Casimir Pulaski Day) ending on, perhaps his most famous song, the uplifting Chicago, which once again kept unfolding into a huge party. Joyous, fun and easily the gig of the year. I'm thankful I was there to witness it.

Just a note on the support act. DM Stith seemed a pretty good fit for opening a Sufjan Stevens show because he does a similar folky thing. Hidden away amid the elaborate stage equipment for Sufjan's show, he looked pretty small but smiling as he picked his way through some lovely sounding acoustic songs. Turns out DM (or David) is actually part of Sufjan's band but then Stevens always has the best musicians backing him, look at Annie Clark aka St Vincent or Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond. While Stith's acoustic songs are pleasant enough it's when he brings out a few other members from Stevens' band that the songs really come alive and there's no doubt that Stith is a talent worth watching.