Sufjan Stevens at the Chicago Theatre: The Midwestern singer/songwriter comes home October 15th
With his captivating 50 States Project, singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens used his multi-instrumental gifts to create a voice for a young generation. On Friday, October 15th, Stevens will perform his transcendent songs at the ornate and roomy Chicago Theatre for the largest Chicago crowd of his career.
Stevens grew up in Detroit but now lives in Brooklyn. In 2003, he released the concept album Michigan, a lamenting tale about the state that included songs about Flint and the unemployed. In 2005, he returned to his States project with his breakout record, Illinois, which crossed over to the mainstream and garnered Stevens a huge fan base.
A combination of folk, religious themes, jazz, symphonies and indie rock, Illinois covered everything about the state from a heart aching song about serial killer John Wayne Gacy (who lived in Chicago) to the song Chicago, a sweeping homage to the great city. The ambitious project saw Stevens trying to write an album about each state in the Union, but he stalled with Illinois.
Until this week, Stevens hadn't released a record of new material since 2005, but last fall he embarked on a brief small clubs tour and played workshop versions of several new songs that just got released as the All Delighted People EP. Feeling more confident, a year later Stevens will headline bigger venues performing fully realized versions of his new songs and his beloved classics.
In concert, Stevens plays everything from the banjo to the piano with help from an ensemble orchestral backing band and other singers. The closest Stevens has come to playing Chicago in the past few years was last September when he stopped two hours away at a bar in Champaign, Illinois and performed a very intimate set. This time around, the impresario’s gig at the gilded Chicago Theatre will give him a chance to enthrall thousands of his fans all over again.
Posted by Garin Pirnia
