On Monday, April 16 my brother and I made our way over to the Fox theater in Pomona to see Bon Iver. The Fox is a great little theater, but I really hate how it’s all General Admission, even if you have a balcony ticket (where there are seats). We ended up getting great seats on the balcony though, so I guess I didn’t mind it too much.
On the way to the show, as is my custom, I was listening to Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago” and their self-titled “Bon Iver.” I started to get a little sleepy, to be honest! I was worried the show would be boring but it was anything but. I couldn’t tell you the complete set list but it was an amazing show.
All Tiny Creatures opened the show and did a great job of making me want to pick up their album. Then Bon Iver came out and opened the show with “Perth.” It seemed like all 9 members of the band that night (save the two drummers) played at least two instruments. With so much talent, you know it’s going to be a good show and it was. The music was so full bodied; there was so much layering and harmonizing going on.
I really enjoyed lighting effects they had going on, too. They had these racks with lights at the end of poles set up in two rows on the stage. At times the stage would go dark and these lights would look like fireflies or stars, it was really cool. You can kind of see them in the picture above, but they’re not lit up.
One special moment was when all the musicians except Justin Vernon left the stage and he played an acoustic version of “re: Stacks.” You could hear the entire audience singing along. For the encore the band came back out and Justin had everyone sing along with him. A great show, definitely see them if you get a chance!
