‘It is with regret that we announce the immediate cancellation of Jónsi’s series of acoustic performances at indie record stores under the banner ‘Go Closer’, scheduled to take place during his current US tour. We, the management, are going to take the blame here, since it was us who thought this was a great opportunity to counterpoint the weight and scale of production at his theatrical shows with something super low-key and intimate. We talked him into it. And we stand by the fact that it is a great idea… on paper. Jónsi himself, however, was always skeptical about how in would pan out in reality. And standing there nose-to-nose with fans in the cold light of day the other day in Origami Records, Los Angeles, he had the sudden and undeniable realization that this is not the environment in which he flourishes. Arguably it was the most uncomfortable experience of his ten years in the public eye, and as a result we are unwilling to put him in the line of fire again. To those of you who saw it in Echo Park, cherish it, because it ain’t going to happen again. To those people who were looking forward to *going closer* in Salt Lake City, Austin, Asheville, Atlanta and Chicago we can only say we are sorry, and ask for your understanding and forgiveness. And remember it’s not Jónsi’s fault. – John Best & Dean O’Connor’.
Ah yes, the it’s-not-Jonsi-it’s-us excuse. Am I the only one to find this story a little odd? What did the LA fans at Origami do to him to trigger such a reaction? It is not as if it were the first time he was performing in front of a small audience, in an intimate place, he played at Amoeba in San Francisco last April.
So is the no-more-go-closer thing a diva-like reaction or something else? Does Jonsi have such a high consideration for his art he thinks intimate shows are inappropriate for it? May be he was not satisfied about the way his eerie and celestial songs sounded in a small place, but so what? Live performances are not supposed to be similar to the recording.
This is a recording of his performance at Origami:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXe_QlfcJ30It is truly a small store, and people were really close to him (I wonder why he was not playing upstairs as other performers do), but beside this, I still don’t get the strong reaction.