Sigur Rós is streaming an old show today to celebrate the 16th anniversary of Agætis Byrjun
In celebration of the 16th birthday of its second studio album, Agætis Byrjun, Sigur Rós has announced that it’ll be streaming the album’s 1999 release date concert, recorded at the Icelandic Opera House, today for free on its web site. The livestream will kick off at 9 p.m., Icelandic. (That’s 5 p.m., Eastern for any non-Rós-heads out there who don’t keep their clocks set to Reykjavik time.)
Besides acting as an inspiration for many turn-of-the-century music journalists to finally learn how to make the æ character with their keyboards, Agætis Byrjun was a major turning point in the band’s fortunes, eventually bringing its members international acclaim. Songs from the album have appeared in numerous TV shows and feature films, including Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky and Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. And now, the album is officially old enough to drive a car, if it was legal for abstract post-rock compositions, heavily reliant on ambient sounds and Icelandic vocals, to do that.
The release day concert, which was performed on June 12, 1999, is an 11-song set, pulling from both Agætis and the band’s first album, Von. Recently given a new mix by band member Kjartan Sveinsson, the concert should act as a snapshot into what the band was like in the moments before it broke big on the international scene. Listeners can register for the stream here.