It has been an unbelievably exciting time to be a Sigur Rós fan. It was just about 24 hours ago when the band released ÁTTA, their first full-length album in 10 years. Now, the band is continuing its takeover of 2023 with a tour of both Europe and the Stares, with some dates getting an added treat to bring the music of Sigur Rós to life. The band will be bringing with them full orchestras, a 41-piece orchestra to be exact will be joining the Icelandic three-piece. Last night (June 16), only hours removed from the release of ÁTTA, Sigur Rós took the stage at London’s Meltdown Festival for their first performance with the London Contemporary Orchestra and first live show of 2023, and just like that the 10 years of silence from the Sigur Rós camp is officially broken.
For their first show of the year, the band pieced together a setlist that balances their legacy with the exciting new music they just released. They kicked things off with “Blóðberg”, a track taken from the freshly released LP that was also the lead single for the album. They also performed “Skel”, “8”, and “Ylur” from ÁTTA. The band also dove deep to pull out some B-sides like “Von”, the title track from their 1997 debut which hadn’t made its way onto a setlist since 2007. The band also performed “All Alright” for the first time since 2008, “Avalon” for the first time since ‘03, and “Untitled 5 – Álafoss” for the first time in over two decades. The band performed a total of 19 songs that explored every corner of their expansive discography, you can check out the full setlist below.
With a new album and their first show of the year under their belt, Sigur Rós is just getting started. They head over to Amsterdam tonight (June 17) with the same orchestra they used on their June 16 show. The band will go all over Europe with the full arrangement until August 14 when they head over to North America where they’ll be joined by the Wordless Music Orchestra for performances in Toronto, New York, Boston, and more. The band also has some solo dates around Europe as well, you can check out the full list of dates and footage from last night’s performance below;
6/16 London, UK — Royal Festival Hall
6/17 Amsterdam, Netherlands — Concertgebouw
6/18 Hamburg, Germany — Elbphilharmonie
7/3 Paris, France — Philharmonie Main Hall
8/14 Toronto, ON — Roy Thomson Hall
8/16 New York City, NY — Beacon Theatre
8/18 Brooklyn, NY — Kings Theatre
8/19 Boston, MA — Wang Theatre
8/21 Minneapolis, MN — State Theatre
8/24 Seattle, WA — The Paramount Theatre
8/26 Berkeley, CA — The Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley
8/27 Los Angeles, CA — The Greek Theatre
