[ATTENDED: March 9, 2019] Aurora
I enjoyed the Aurora show in New York so much that I knew I’d want to see her again. I also knew that I could bring my wife and daughter to the show and they would be equally enthralled even if they didn’t know her music very well.
This was my daughter’s first club show and I thought she’d be pretty excited at the prospect. But we do go to a lot of different live entertainment, so she wasn’t any more excited than usual. Although I think she enjoyed the fact that we weren’t in seats, because she liked walking from where we were to up close by the stage.
Aurora’s stage design was minimal but cool–five or six large jellyfish hung from the ceiling. The lights were a dark blue–feeling very underwater as she sang the beautiful and haunting “Churchyard.” Her voice is powerful and amazing (even if she was a little under the weather–she told us an amazing story about the color of her snot). And it’s very funny when she speaks between songs because she is quiet and soft-spoken. She tells adorable, weird stories (which has garnered her an overly dedicated, slightly annoying, eye-rolling fan base). The kind of fan base who shouts, “no thank YOU!” every time Aurora says thanks. On the plus side, this fan base is absolutely respectful while she sings which is wonderful because you can hear everything.
The setlist was very similar to the show in NYC, although I actually didn’t realize it until i looked at them right now. In NYC, the new songs hadn’t been released yet so they were new and ephemeral. By now they were well established.
She continued to sound amazing through the uptempo “Warrior” and “Gentle Earthquakes.”
I tend to not like dance music or aggressively pop music and Aurora certainly falls within the confines of that style, especially a song like “All is Soft Inside.” But she has this wonderful off-kilter presentation. It certainly has something to do with her being from Norway and living what appears to a be a fairly isolated existence. She just sings differently. It’s not weird or radically different, it’s just not the same as what everyone else does. And her sense of melody is also slightly different. It’s really wonderful.
She slowed things down with the disturbing ballad “Murder Song (5,4,3,2,1)” followed by the other sad song (she apologized for these songs being so sad), “Runaway,” a soaring beautifully sad song.
The stage production was mostly understated. Some lights, changing occasionally and appropriately. Mostly it was an opportunity of Aurora to dance and dance–an infectious dance. But “The Seed” was just utterly intense with the flashing strobe lights in the more intense moments. And when the strobe ended and the stage when briefly black it was an incredibly moment.
Things really quieted down for “It Happened Quiet” where it was just her and her amazing keyboardist/backing vocalist Silja Sol. Then she came back with the new single “Animal” which brought everyone back up with some great dance.
The rest of her band is really stellar. Most of them are from Bergen Norway. Magnus Åserud Skylstad plays drums and while I’m sure there are a lot of electronics in the kit, the sound was powerful and amazing. Odd Martin Skålnes is the bassist in her band. His backing vocals–largely singing low but occasionally going high–are fantastic. Although nobody’s backing vocals were as amazing as Silja Sol. She may actually get higher than Aurora. Throughout the show her voice was just wonderful–perfectly complementing Aurora in whatever was sounded best. Aurora’s voice is great, but with Silja Sol, she is unbelievable.
I love the new song “Forgotten Love” which she followed with the older song “I Went Too Far.”
The show was nearing its end and my daughter grabbed my hand because she wanted me to come up really close to the stage. To the left of the stage is an artist’s entrance. And not many people were there. So this afforded us an amazing view of her from very close up. I wouldn’t have wanted to stay there for the whole show as you miss everything else going on stage (the sound was also a little different there but still sounded great). But it was really cool being a few yards away from Aurora with my daughter while she sang the stunning “Running with the Wolves” one of my favorite of her songs.
Aurora left for an encore break and when she came back it was just her and keyboardist Sean McVerry (the only American playing that night, he also had a solo set earlier in the evening). They played the lovely “Infections of a Different Kind.” When the show started people were passing out small paper hearts with instructions to shine out phone light behind them during this song. Many people did and it looked very cool–she even commented on how lovely it was.
During the encore break, people brought her all manner of creative things including a rather large painting which was, frankly, creepy as all hell. Aurora was so kind and said she would put it over her bed, but damn, it would give me nightmares.
She ended the show was the wonderful “Queendom.” It was catchy and dancy and the whole room vibrated with fun. I especially liked that she said there would be no presidents in her queendom. She also brought out a rainbow flag to wave around. And then the spell was over and we were back out in the cold night.
I don’t know if it was the life-enhancing moment that I wanted it to be for my daughter, but my wife has certainly become a fan. Maybe when my daughter goes to her first concert on her own she’ll remember being that close to someone who is inexplicably not huge.
| Union Transfer 2019 |
Bowery Ballroom 2018 |
| Chrurchyard ⊗ |
Nature Boy |
| Warrior ∀ |
Warrior ∀ |
| Gentle Earthquakes ⊗ |
Gentle Earthquakes ⊗ |
| All Is Soft Inside ⊗ |
Under Stars * |
| Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) ∀ |
Forgotten Love ⊗ |
| Runaway ∀ |
Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) ∀ |
| The Seed ℵ |
Runaway ∀ |
| It Happened Quiet ⊗ |
Soft Universe ⊗ |
| Animal ℵ |
Queendom ⊗ |
| Forgotten Love ⊗ |
All is Soft Inside ⊗ |
| I Went Too Far ∀ |
Animal ℵ |
| Running with the Wolves ∀ |
I Went Too Far ∀ |
| encore |
The Seed ℵ |
| Infections of a Different Kind ⊗ |
Running with the Wolves ∀ |
| Queendom ⊗ |
encore |
|
Through the Eyes of a Child ∀ |
* early single
∀ All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend
⊗ Infections of a Different Kind Step 1
ℵ new unreleased
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I saw Mal Blum and the Blums back in March of last year. They were great and so much fun. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a band laugh so much, both with each other and with the audience.
I Just Read About That... 