02, Dublin ***
The 02 is a strange environment to experience Justin Vernon’s often delicate and nuanced compositions in, but Bon Iver has always been about less-obvious departures. Last year’s record was far away from 2008’s wistful, devastating For Emma, Forever Ago, and the bigger space seems to proffer a gauntlet, which Vernon meets, along with eight other musicians, including brilliant saxophonist Colin Stetson, violinist Rob Moose, and Sean Carey, one of two astonishing drummers.
Vernon changed his role on last year’s Bon Iver, Bon Iver, perhaps influenced by Gayngs, another of his expansive musical projects, and tonight he is as much in thrall to the other musicians as he is to the work. Live, this works beautifully, because there is a focused muscularity to the sound, and songs such as Minnesota, WI, and Towers sound unbreakably rich and soaring, crashing through expectations. As does Vernon’s voice, which tentatively walks out on amid the military beats of Perth, but ripens to peachy falsetto on the endlessly unfurling Wash., with its sloping violin, a horn section that drives it into funk, and a clatter of voices that start to resemble a children’s choir.
Beth/Rest seems incongruous, a moment that threatens to knock everything off-balance. Using auto-tune, and filtering soft-rock, it is a strange anomaly, especially within an atmosphere of such musicianship. But this is a show that mainly retains a sense of grace; support band The Staves re-emerge for sighing harmonies on Stacks, the synth-heavy Skinny Love is triumphant, and Holocene delicately transports. By the time the band come out for their encores, moving into For Emma, and The Wolves (Act I and II), there is real stridency in the sadness, and as Vernon sings “what might have been lost”, it becomes obvious what he has gained.
