Björk @ Hammersmith Apollo, 14/04/08

So the sunny turned to cloudy, and the dry turned to wet and the wet turned to icey but not enough to deter us. I did have to jump out of the line to find a toilet (the cider we were drinking went straight through).

Doors opened reasonably on time and we scooted in to find ourselves just left-of-centre and one-off the barrier. This was what we'd spent the last 2.5 hrs trying to achieve and it was probably worth it. I shortly after came to the realisation that the wait was not yet over and there'd be at least anohter two hours.

Just before 8 the support act (I don't know who) interrupted the fantastic music to play some avant-garde DJ-mixing stuff that, while I appreciated it, I was totally not in the mood for. After about 45mins she finished and I was left to wait in relative silence.

Then she came on wearing this:



Björk doesn't like photos being taken at her shows, thus I have only press photos to show.

The show was similar, but sufficiently different, from when I saw her at Big Day Out. As previously, she opened with Earth Intruders this time with giant fire blasts from the back which I was sure were going to burn the flammable-looking set. The heat from them was intense. The crowd were much more subdued here also. We were treated to guests Toumani Diabaté and Antony Hegarty (a really nice psuedo-surprise). It doesn't come across in the video so much but Antony has the most amazingly awkward strage presence. A weirdly captivating beast.

For me, the star of the show, second only to Björk, was the reacTable. And 3 large TVs were on stage to showcase her.

As expected the finale was Declare Independence, which was essentially all that I was present to see. It's one of my favourites, if not favourite, songs to hear live. Just fucking amazing.

01. Intro - Brennið Þið Vitar
02. Earth Intruders
03. Hunter
04. Unravel
05. Hope
06. The Pleasure Is All Mine
07. Dull Flame Of Desire
08. Jóga
09. Vertebrae By Vertebrae
10. Desired Constellation
11. Army Of Me
12. Innocence
13. Who Is It
14. Vökuró
15. Wanderlust
16. Hyperballad
17. Plutoencore
18. Anchor Song
19. Declare Independence

Jóga - http://youtube.com/watch?v=wg0FI7eWMl8

Hyperballad - http://youtube.com/watch?v=UKqkYZjm9ko

Pluto - http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZGz9gS0JCW8

(I'm seeing her again on Sunday)