2011 was a weird year.
I spent the first third of it at Aspen Grove: running in the woods, playing house with a fake husband, and thoroughly confused about school. I spent the summer just outside DC: running on the Washington Old Dominion Trail, making no friends, and reading lots of books. I spent the last third of the year back in Provo: not running at all, watching too much Gossip Girl, and slogging through 19 credit hours in my final semester.
It was my most varied, puzzling year, a great time for a thorough introduction to Owen Pallett. His songs were as unsettled as I felt. I remember listening to Heartland while driving up Spanish Fork canyon after a Relief Society retreat. It was just like girls camp. Except I was 24, and feeling totally out of place. We had a devotional by Hillary Weeks where she talked about struggling to stand up for the important things that you believe in. Like modesty. And then they had these pedicure station set-up for "glitter toes". And duh, I got them done, but I was conflicted about it ok? I was one of the oldest ones there, and was feeling pretty odd.
I woke up early the next morning and snuck away. It was beautiful and the air was crisp. And I listened to Tryst with Mephistopheles over and over, and tying not to pay too much mind to the lyrics. Mephistopheles is the devil from Faust, the collector of damned souls. My dad always claimed he got my named me after the Gretchen character in the story who meets a tragic end. Too eerie.
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| Faust and Mephistopheles Waiting for Gretchen at the Cathedral Door - Wilhelm Koller |
Ever since then, Owen Pallett has maintained a special place in my heart. Each of his songs is about THE STRUGGLE and I love it, His last album is just one big tribute to existential crisis, so you know that's a good time.
I was thrilled when I found out he would be playing the new Ogden Twilight concert series. I even opted to take an early hour-and-a-half long bus ride to make sure I didn't miss any of his set. It was worth it. The sound wasn't that great, but being reminded of all those songs was sweet enough.
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| Image from here |
Check out In Conflict from his latest album here. Warning, it's a bit much:
And one of my fave songs from went he was known as Final Fantasy:
The headliner was Blonde Redhead. Their music is beautiful, but listening to one of their songs is the same as listening to 10 of their songs.
This one stood out to me though. So pretty:
We hung around, hoping they would play Misery is a Butterfly, but no dice. Listen to it:
Ogden was good to us. Long live Ogden.
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