Skinny LOVED.

Bon Iver
Guests: Other Lives
The Orpheum Theatre
September 25th, 2011

I attended the Bon Iver show with a friend of mine, she has this incredible blog and I think you should have a look and follow her!

Other Lives open the show with their experimental folk-rock blend. It's hard to describe their music because it sounds so grand. I thoroughly enjoyed their set.

Justin Vernon, the singer-songwriter and musical mind behind Bon Iver stood centre stage with eight accompanying musicians. Two drum-sets, various percussive instruments, several guitars, a bass guitar, and a baritone saxophone were among the various instruments being played. In the middle of Bon Iver's set, they began to play 'Bloodline,' the title track from their 2009 EP, and the song that drew me into Justin Vernon's ability to draw such emotion and nerve from such a simple song. I was hooked.

The last song they played before the encore was 'Skinny Love,' this was a crowd pleaser, for sure. Justin sat with a guitar surrounded by his band-mates who offered acapella vocals to the chorus. I sat up a little straighter in my seat, on edge. My ears were eager to hear the infamous chorus that I had hummed and mouthed along to earnestly so many months before. "I told you to be patient, I told you to be fine, I told you to be balanced, I told you to be kind..." As the song begins and the audience begins to be swayed, out of the corner of my eye I see a small flash of light. The man seated in front of me is proposing to his girlfriend during 'Skinny Love.' Cute. She said yes.

For the encore they played 'Wolves' from their 2007 release For Emma, Forever Ago. Its' infectious repetitive one line chorus, "What might have been lost" sung by the audience and Justin Vernon was left ringing in our ears.
We all sang along to a heart-wrenching yet beautiful song, my favourite moment of the night.