Overall Rating
4.6
By goodwinterlover
Absolutely amazing.
Fox Theater - Oakland - Oakland
Incredible show. Justin and his crew were unforgettable. I was moved to tears twice.
By Chuckb77
Great Show
Fox Theater - Oakland - Oakland
First off, the Fox theatre is amazing if you haven't been there yet. I highly reccomend checking out a show there. Bon Iver sounded great, got the crowd involved, and played almost all of their songs. All in all, it was a really fun show.
By wenttothefoxandsawboniver
short, but good
Fox Theater - Oakland - Oakland
loved the sound, but surely one could expect a band to play more than 9 songs on a gig. the venue was amazing.
By AverageKenny
Bon Iver makes it work
Fox Theater - Oakland - Oakland
Its not easy to get a group of hipsterish folks out on a Thurs (okay, maybe it is, but that's not the point), but Bon Iver did it. Running off the power of just one album, this group made it work. Not over-theatrical, Not spectacularly sparkling-but powerful. The Fox Theater is an amazing place too, so that combined with a show of down-hearted emotion that gets in your guts, is exactly what I think live shows should be about.
By Eisme
Holy crap amazing: Bon Iver
Fox Theater - Oakland - Oakland
Justin Vernon and his band of Wisconsonites put on a remarkable show at the historic Fox theater in Oakland. Staying true to their midwestern roots, the show was efficiently and beautifully understated, as the crew sang soulfully harmonized lyrics which were expertly layered to the front of the mix. Warm lighting filled the room as the members changed instruments and positions on the stage, sometimes as a rock quartet and then in the round doing bluegrass. Musicianship was incredible and was led by Vernon's voice, as he ranged from a Nick Drake folk whisper to a D'Angelo neo-soul vibe. All in all, one of the best shows in Oakland this year.
Bon Iver in Concert
With his 2007 debut album, Justin Vernon demonstrated the therapeutic, soul-cleansing properties of isolating yourself from the world in a wooden shed.
Distraught over breakups with both his girlfriend and his band (DeYarmond Edison) while recovering from a bout of mononucleosis, Vernon disappeared into the woods of his native Wisconsin in the dead of winter. He emerged with For Emma, Forever Ago, a disarming set of raw folk-rock confessionals fueled by tense acoustic strums and Vernon's pained, preternaturally soulful croon. (In keeping with the album's frigid recording environment, Vernon adopted the alias Bon Iver — a variation on the French term "bon hiver," or "good winter," which he heard used as a salutation on the 1990s TV show Northern Exposure.)
The album's unvarnished approach made Vernon an anomaly in a North American indie-rock scene otherwise dominated by the maximalist likes of Arcade Fire and Animal Collective, but its intense emotional wallop reverberated far beyond the underground. After his songs permeated the mainstream through placements on shows like Grey's Anatomy and House, Vernon found himself both getting sampled on and providing backing vocals to Kanye West's 2010 magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
That guest appearance transformed Vernon into an unlikely hot property in the hip-hop world, with the singer later turning up on tracks by Travis Scott, Vince Staples, and Lizzo, among others. Between his myriad collaborations and side groups (which include his partnership with The National's Aaron Dessner as Big Red Machine), Bon Iver albums tend to appear only every five years or so. But each one is a major event, signaling a radical change in approach. On 2011's Grammy Award–winning self-titled effort, Vernon's wounded balladry acquired a dreamy, soft-focus splendor, and 2016's 22, A Million recast that velvet-smooth voice against a mutating backdrop of burbling electronics and fractured beats.