MUSIC . Music Picks

Bon Iver

Thu., July 31, 8:30 p.m., sold out, all ages, with Bowerbirds, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.


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Published: Jul 29, 2008

Rock/Pop

Bon Iver was born of frustration. In the winter of 2006, disgruntled following the breakup of his indie rock band, Justin Vernon relocated from Raleigh, N.C., to the wilds of Wisconsin. While sequestered in his father's isolated cabin — and in between shoveling snow and skinning dead animals — he found time to record a bunch of songs that featured sparse acoustics and multitracked choirboy vocals — hymn-like and haunting in equal measure. Released under the moniker Bon Iver, the subsequent album For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar) is the sound of a solitary man plumbing the depths of his own psyche with only the changing seasons as company. For Emma, Forever Ago, like the winter that produced it, is a chillingly ethereal record, mixing the fragility of Iron & Wine with the lyrical ambiguity of Will Oldham. Live, Vernon is backed by a full band. He fleshes out these skeletal songs, even asking audience members to act as backing singers on the "What might have been lost" refrain from "The Wolves (Act I and II)." Unlike the frustration that birthed it, Bon Iver is the sound of a reconcilable resurrection.

Thu., July 31, 8:30 p.m., sold out, all ages, with Bowerbirds, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.