Bon Iver (with Sally Seltmann), The Tivoli, Friday 16th of March

Riding well off the back of his recent grammy win, in which even One Direction fans want to know who Bonny Bear is, Bon Iver came to Brisbane for a rare three (3) shows, to appease all the new and old fans that have multiplied tenfold in the last year. The shows were announced way back in December last year, at which time I was pretty excited, until Justin Vernon and co.'s 'flavour of the month' status overshadowed everything else.
It was easy to get back into excitement mode when a Thursday night concert goer friend raved about how great he was, and also went and met him not a kilometer from where I was doing nothing in my house. DAMMIT!

Old Sal

My gig buddy tonight was my dear brother who had joined in on the Bonny bandwagon around the same time I had. We rocked up in time to see New Buff... I mean Sally Seltmann. I could be biased, but Sally didn't have quite the same stage presence that she did a fair few years ago under the moniker of New Buffalo. Now that she is riding off the back of female supergroup Seeker Lover Keeper, I guess the audience wasn't as excited as they would have been had SLK been onstage, and hence she played a lot of their songs. She also gave us a few new songs from her self-titled solo album, as well as a couple I recognized from her later New Buffalo repertoire. Despite the disconnect, she sounded lovely and I very much enjoyed it- her angelic voice still comes across well onstage. Sally's also definitely migrated from her days of pressing play on a backing track while singing into a microphone, as she did the first time i saw her in 2005 supporting Bright Eyes. Somehow I just remember more people being a little more transfixed by her back then.

The stage for Bon Iver was made up quite ruggedly with hessian draped around as if we were in a cabin in the woods. He's come a long way since those 'For Emma, Forever Ago' days, as he came on amid huge cheers. Everyone wants a piece of Bon Iver now, and I guess three sold out shows are testimony to that. As predicted by my brother (with a very accurate imitation of the opening chords), Justin and the band started off with the first song, "Perth" from the latest album 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver'. Live, it was a spot on, moving interpretation of the record, which is what I imagined it to be. From the quiet, building opening notes, to it's crashing crescendo, every sound filled the theatre, leading into the second song "Minnesota, WI". It was quite magnificent, and when Justin started to sing, I didn't expect it to sound quite so hauntingly beautiful. He sounded so true to recording, strong and echoey, I wondered if there were any effects going on. And even if there was it was still impressive.
The excellence went on from there and he played a wonderful selection of all the fan favourites, including "Blood Bank" off his title EP, and even "Brackett, WI" which he did for the brilliantly compiled 'Dark is the Night' compilation. 

The musicians were fantastic, and you really couldn't fault them for a second. As they left and Justin took the stage solo for "Re: Stacks", it was a delicate, gorgeous and sniffle-inducing moment. The only thing you could fault was that I realized just how similar their songs sounded and how much of a style Bon Iver have created. It is a style that is is not to everyone's taste, and can at times be in danger of getting old. In fact, there were a couple of moments where i did find my mind wandering... but to be honest that does happen at gigs, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes I can think through an entire problem situation at a gig; it can be a nice place to reflect. (Unfortunately I cannot count gigs toward psychological professional development).

Old mate

Coupled with the brilliant music was the band's, and particularly Justin's, laid back manner. Despite the opportunity to be high and mighty, there is no pretension with this man, and he engaged the crowd as a genuine, down to earth fellow who could be your mate, just doing what he loves and having a good time. 


I have to mention the worst part of the show however. I became so mad about a group of metrosexual-appearing guys behind me that I wonder if i am actually getting quite senile, bitter and twisted. In addition to one of them doing the '*tap shoulder*, *look the other way*' routine to me before the performance, these guys nattered and laughed through the whole performance (because obviously Bon Iver is also a comedy group???). It reached breaking annoyance point when one of them said 'Where are we going afterwards?' and another asked 'Who is this guy again? He's good.' This happened while "Skinny Love" was being played. I was looking forward to hearing the ultimate sad times/break up/depression song transcending onstage and letting it wash over me, but I COULDN'T thanks to their giggling and chatting. I detest that feeling of someone laughing behind you; you wonder if they are laughing at you, know it's probably ridiculous, but continue to be unsettled anyway, and want to punch them all in their collective face. Instead of doing this however, I looked around and glared at them evilly. It did nothing, but I felt slightly more satisfied than if I had just stewed in my spot.


I just DON'T UNDERSTAND, if you don't know who a band is and you'd rather go pick up chixx at the Met, then why are you paying $65 to see a musician at a venue full of his fans? If you're not a fan, and are going to talk the entire time, then go away. I know this may sound hypocritical, because I did do this at Gareth Liddiard's show a year ago, but I was at the window rather than in the crowd, and he was a complete dickhead and sounded like shit. Sorry Drones fans, but not really. Bon Iver on the other hand were amazing, and I felt they were disrespecting the band by doing this. Support acts can suffer from the audience talking through their set, but that is kind of expected since people aren't there to see them, but during the main act... there is an exit. 
Now that rant is over, I feel dirty and like I should be writing to mX or A Current Affair. I just think there should be some mosh pit etiquette to follow. Why don't we list some etiquette rules now since we're in this mind funk?? No? Too bad. 


1. Don't fart. Hold it in. Go to the toilet. Don't fart. For the love of god. 
2. Keep your laughter and loud chats and stupid opinions to yourself. If you want to say a lot of things, use the text on your phone.
3. Don't lean on me, I'm not a pole, or a chair.
4. Do be expected to have your personal space ratio go out the window, and expect it to be somewhat smaller. Don't get too bothered when people accidentally touch you. Having said that, you are entitled to a bit of breathing space..
5. If you want to jump/dance/go mad, please be respectful of people who don't want elbows in their chins and their face on the floor.
5. If you want to drink, buy a couple beforehand. Don't try to go to the bar and get back to the exact same spot you were before, unless you're happy to be cursed by a lot of people. 
6. Putting your arm up in the air and pointing throughout the entire song is not only bad for your arm health but I don't want to watch/ take a photo of your arm. Feel free to point it up and down though, I can kind of work with that.
7. If you have diabetes, take your insulin. If you don't have your insulin shot, and you're about to faint, get the fuck out of the mosh pit. Don't eat my lollies out of my hand with your slimy tongue. I don't care how big of a Björk fan you are. 


I'm sure there are many rules that you, reader, could come up with and share with me. So maybe you should!!


Bonny Bear gets 8.5 "wanna be combovers and Minanite beards" out of 10.