Beautiful Madness

Last night I had the pleasure and privilege to witness a performance beyond belief with my friend Bari, the Sufjan Stevens show in Dallas at the lovely Majestic Theater. If you are devoted enough to this blog to remember this past post, you will know that my heart is atwitter for brunette boys. Yes, of course, the sexification of the brunette, thin, awkwardly-dancing, passionate, brilliant nerd was not lost on me last night but I was also treated to what I (and Sufjan himself) described as "a beautiful madness."

The first time I heard Sufjan was when I lived in New Mexico. I knew I was in for something different, a sweet surprise around every note, every other second. That is how I felt during the performance last night. The word "concert" doesn't begin to cover it. I haven’t had a cacophony of visuals and music come alive in front of me like that since I saw De La Guarda in 2002. He had this video behind him that totally added to the experience. He combined art from a folk artist (the name escapes me), with his new weird but genius music and some monologues all about the heart and love and heartbreak and the cosmos and space and the end of the universe. He had an 11-piece band and these two hipster girls who sang and dance and actually gave half a reason why anyone would ever need to purchase a leotard and pink “blacklight” shorts at American Apparel. They were awesome. Nothing made sense yet it did, perfectly.

It was also a fantastically respectful crowd in a beautifully perfect venue. Very silent at the right times, standing ovation when required.

For a big fan of "weird with thought and passion behind it," and a sucker for a nerdy brunette skinny dude singing and dancing and unabashedly pouring his heart out about being troubled (see: Seth Cohen and Zach Braff in Garden State, DreamMen), I was all in. Check please. My type to a fitted graphic tee.

Or, to answer the question, as my friend AAAD Reader Brad put it this morning who was also there, “Did you have fun at Sufjan’s ‘Existential, Psychosomatic Internalization of the Divine Within Our Own Universe of Heartsickness of Tragedy and Frenetic, Kinetic Energies’ Tour?” Yes, yes I did.

Oh, and at one point Sufjan described the performance as “Cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber meets Grease meets Tron meets Sesame Street--fun for the whole family."

And then my head exploded.

allow me, Sir.


Marry Me, SS.
Pia The Pig