Skip to content
Reviews

Fans Worship Sun Kil Moon’s Sonic Scripture

080417_sunkilmoon_1.jpg

In the Cathedral-like auditorium of Seattle’s Town Hall venue last night (April 16), a thrift store-clad crowd waited in hushed anticipation while Sun Kil Moon’s Mark Kozelek tuned the strings of his black acoustic guitar and timidly requested for the lights to be dimmed. With guitarist Phil Carney seated at his side, Kozelek then gently tore the curtain of silence with the opening chords of “Heron Blue” off Sun Kil Moon’s latest release, April.

Like tea-light candles, the dimmed bulbs overhead allowed the audience to lose themselves in the delicate, trickling echoes of guitar strings and Kozelek’s soft yet rugged chants. Sitting in cushioned pews as if attending a church service, fans watched on as the indie statesman preached songs of painful honesty and elegant despair; the twinkling, downtrot plucks of new song “Moorestown,” and the acoustics of “Gentle Moon,” off 2003’s Ghosts of the Great Highway, permeated from wall to wall.

At the conclusion of his set, the entire congregation gave a standing ovation before Kozelek returned once more with a two-song encore as several members of the audience dried their eyes, weeping against the set’s remarkable beauty. Indie rock’s Pope had officially bestowed his blessing. Amen.

We asked: Mark Kozelek’s band Sun Kil Moon released an album called Tiny Cities, which was a collection of entirely composed of Modest Mouse covers. If you could pick any band for Sun Kil Moon to cover on a future release, which would you choose?

Sun Kil Moon / Photo by Zofia Gil

Sun Kil Moon / Photo by Zofia Gil