Jeff McClusky & Associates

Last night, I had the privilege of being amongst the sold out crowd of 3,600 Bon Iver fans at the Chicago Theater. However, before Justin Vernon took the stage, his opening band, The Rosebuds, performed. The band hailed from Raleigh, North Carolina, and had previous experience playing with Bon Iver, GAYNGS, and DeYarmond Edison, all bands that Justin Vernon has been involved with. The folk duo shined with songs “Woods” and “Come Visit Me,” and prepared the audience for what was to come.

Next up, Bon Iver took the stage with a nine-piece superstar band. With musicians that have played with artists including Andrew Bird, The National, Arcade Fire, and Sufjan Stevens, the show was already destined for a massive success. However, nobody could quite have expected the thrilling beauty of the music that was created on the stage in front of us. The massive success of Bon Iver’s self-titled sophomore album has gained the band many new fans, therefore, the first six songs of his set were from his newest album. In fact, he didn’t play his two arguably biggest hits off of his first album, For Emma, Forever Ago, “Skinny Love” and “For Emma” until the encore. 

Highlights from the show included Justin Vernon’s call-and-response sing along with the audience during “Re:Stacks” and his hauntingly beautiful rendition of “Blood Bank”. In addition, “Beth/Rest,” the most discussed song off of his sophomore release, was chosen as the closing song at the end of the encore. Pitchfork claimed that the song was about dissing preconceptions and finding comfort within music, however, many have complained that the song veers too far off from what made Bon Iver so popular and successful previously. Either way, it was a brave move to close out his show with this song, and I personally was very pleased with the set list and overall performance.