So what time should we line up for Sufjan Tickets?

[jbcapati]

I forgot to add the setlist:
 
 Concerning the UFO
 Detroit
 Casimir Pulaski Day
 Supercomputer
 Predatory Wasp
 Seven Swans
 Chicago
 Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie
 Majesty Snowbird

[kookiemnstr8]

I got a ticket last minute yesterday, and while it was a great show, I'm glad I didn't wait in line for it overnight, he only played an hourish.  Some of the arrangements were really great, I too loved the contrast between just Sufjan and then his playing with the orchestra.  I was particularly looking forward to hearing Chicago with the orchestra, but was a little disappointed with the way that one sounded.  There were times when you could hear a pin drop in the Opera House.  At the end of many songs no one clapped until after we heard him breathe.  You could hear the whole audience collectively exhale and then clap.  It was a pretty cool experience.
 
 Did anyone check out the "target lounge"??  White and milk chocolate fountains with cookies, fruit, cake, marshmallows, pretzels, etc to dip in them, a candy bar, free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc.  Complete with flashing target signs and target couches everywhere.  It was interesting.

[K8teebug]

All that fuss for a few songs?  I'll sit by the fire and listen to the cd.
 
 Yes, I am old.

[eltee]

I camp out at the Kennedy Center for the chocolate fountains at the Target lounge.

[HoyaSaxa03]

wait, isn't your cousin the drummer in a popular rock band?!

[chokeychicken]

i can't believe he played such a short set.  if i had camped out, i would be pissed.

[K8teebug]

Yes, but I don't have to camp out in the cold overnight to hear them play live.

[jbcapati]

The Kennedy Center made it clear on their website that Sufjan's performance would last from 9-10PM and no longer.  From what I hear, he wanted to come out for an encore, but the KC is very rigid regarding performance times.

[bellenseb]

I gotta say, of all the acts I figured people would line up overnight in the cold for, I'd never think it'd be Sufjan Stevens. So much passion for music that strikes me as so dispassionate.
 
 Or maybe people would line up in the cold for lots of people if that was still the only way to get seats.

[Jesse]

I was lucky enough to get a last minute ticket too from a friend of mine. her uncle works at the Kennedy Center and was able to get us tickets
 
 we were also lucky enough to get to watch the soundcheck which was very cool. He played Concerning the UFO... during soundcheck, and it was really something to hear just him and his band (orchestra wasn't there) playing a song in that big opera house with only maybe 10 or so other people in there.
 
 I thought the show was very good. I wouldn't of camped out for it though, but still good.

[kookiemnstr8]

So much passion for music that strikes me as so dispassionate.
 
 
 Dispassionate?  Are you kidding me?  I understand not being a fan of his, but dispassionate is not a word I would even think to associate with him.

[bellenseb]

Yup. Rob Harvilla of the Voice may have put it better..."tea that isn't brewed too strong".
 
  http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0635,harvilla,74320,22.html
 
 This tone works as literature and humor but can be toxic when it fuels already overly mannered and delicate and clever indie rock. Ask our first musical attraction, Long Winters frontman John Roderick. "Indie-rock culture is the real ghetto of people who have convinced themselves that they're too sensitive to be yelled at or to yell, and they cry real tears when they see a flower lose its petals," he told Eggers-offshoot literary mag The Believer last year. "Those people belong in institutions. They should be in a really soft antiallergenic bed, and have people bring them tea that isn't brewed too strong. Life is better with a little conflict."
 
 So there's John onstage, playing to several more thousand people than he is perhaps accustomed, singing gorgeous grad-school folk ballads in a high, keening voice, but also looking a bit menacing at six-foot-plus, lumbering around like he'd wandered in between bar fights. He noted that he'd bumped into Sufjan and his crowd of prim and proper accompanists backstageâ??"They seem happy and full of life, and their clothes fit so well." The crowd was clearly unnerved. Was this a compliment? Is this guy gonna beat someone up?
 
 He played three songs. Should've played 30.
 
 Sufjan and his daisy Mafia played five. Should've played . . . well, actually, five's about right. You gotta admire the intricacy and anthemic power of his best tunesâ??"Chicago" especially. And he doesn't force his backing crew of horns and violins and tambourines to dress like cheerleaders anymore, thank God. But there's still no threat of his beating anyone up. Too bad. His tunes are little dollhouses of orchestral splendor, ingeniously complex but emotionally distant. Model railroad vistas with no actual locomotion. Tea that isn't brewed too strong. His last tune was entitled "That Dress Looks Nice on You." Right.