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Sometimes you are reminded why you keep on going to concerts; that it is not just seeing these people, who made those records you have, in the flesh. It of course makes perfect sense when you go to a concert of improvisational nature, but what about a rock concert, where they are merely playing the tunes?

This was the fourth time I saw Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and it was the fourth experience – if anything links the performances – it must be the desire to open up the music, to show how the songwriting and the songs are not static, but something that you can bend and shape, to fit the tour or even then mood of the night. Thus I think I heard the fourth live version (excluding recorded versions) of my all time favourite Bonnie song, Nomadic Revery from the 99 album I See A Darkness.

To me the concert started out rather peculiar with a song(?) that I have never heard before. The notable thing was that a simple sentence was divided between four voices forcing the listener to pay attention to get any meaning out of it. Naturally this reminded me of the approach by me and my friends in koordinat for our multiple voice poetry readings. The show continued with a gem from the Palace songbook; The Brute Choir, in a version not unlike the one found on “Greatest Palace Music” and I was already happy and texting Filip: “…and I never held someone so sweet”.

Next high was when Will Oldham (dare I write this?) put away his guitar and did a duet with the female singer and violinist for “what are you?”. Other highs of the concert was classics “Gulf Shores”, “Ease Down The Road” and “A Minor Place”, and newer songs “The Seedling”, “Cursed Sleep” and “Beware Your Only Friend”. But the most uninterrupted joy was the three songs of the first encore: “In Spite of Ourselves” as a duet with Susanna, already mentioned Nomadic Revery, and finally the devotional I’ll be Glad. The crowd wouldn’t settle for this and the show ended with another encore and the cover of R Kelly’s “Worlds Greatest, hmmm…..