Bon Iver & Other Lives
9.26.11 Paramount Theater | Seattle WA

Other Lives’ performance was like a wall of sound that threw itself against me way up in the mezzanine of Seattle’s Paramount Theater. What an incredible place to see a show. It takes a special kind of band to fill the volume and fit in with the elaborate ambiance of that national historic landmark theater. Other Lives, the 6 piece band from Stillwater, Oklahoma fit the bill. Their orchestral string arrangements, layered vocals and driving percussion (including a powerful kettle drum) easily filled the Paramount.

Between songs, frontman and vocalist Jesse Tabish made several references to their home state of Oklahoma, which drew cheers from the crowd. I’m not sure whether there were lots of displaced Okies at the show or like me, many damp Seattleites have an affinity for music from dustier climes.

In any case, Other Lives put on an incredible show, and having seen them at the Paramount, I can’t imagine seeing them in any other venue.

Bon Iver has come a long way since the days of a sad guy alone in a snowy cabin in Wisconson with a guitar. At their show at the Paramount in Seattle, they appeared as a nine-piece ensemble with two full drum sets, a horns, auxiliary percussion, you name it. With this full band they’re able to give a new life to Justin Vernon’s passionate songs that we all come to know and weep along with in our bedrooms. They deftly steer their songs from soft lows to frenzied climaxes to face-melting guitar solos to eighties-inspired synthesizers. The size and strength of the full band also serves as a welcome contrast to the one-guy-with-a-guitar show. But it is the moments when it is just Vernon onstage with a guitar and his heavenly falsetto, which came in the form of “RE; Stacks” at Monday’s show when the music really hits moves the audience.

Bon Iver treated the audience to most of both of their full length albums as well as a few extras including a cover of Bob Dylan’s “With God On Our Side.” The whole show was… an experience.