Bjork @ United Palace Theater: A Whisper In The Water

Wow. As you may have imagined, last night's Bjork show was totally surreal, incredible, and mindblowing. The 75-minute set seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye. Touching upon tracks from all of her albums to date (minus Debut), Bjork performed a 16-song set that ran the emotional spectrum, from whimsical to beautiful to sheerly intensifying, over the course of the enchanting evening. Absolutely magnificent!

With a show-opening closed curtain rendition of Post's 'Cover Me', the anticipation in the air was nothing less than contagious for Bjork to make her grand entrance. When the song reached its completion, the curtains opened while Bjork and her merry posse began the opening notes of Volta's 'Earth Intruders'. Immediately from that moment, it became painfully obvious that all in attendance were in for a special treat.

Not only did Antony come out to join Bjork on a stellar rendition of 'Dull Flame Of Desire' (as he did at Radio City on Wednesday, and I assume he'll do again at The Apollo this Tuesday), but even Min Xiao-Fen took to the stage to accompany Bjork for Volta's centrepiece 'I See Who You Are'. Both collaborations were lovely (albeit slightly expected).

Setlist surprises included Homogenic's 'Immature' and 'Bachelorette' as well as perhaps the biggest shock, one of her most recognizable songs to date, Post's 'Hyper-Ballad'. Probably the most well-received tunes of the evening would have to be 'Army Of Me' and the double-closing dagger-like punch of 'Pluto' and 'Declare Independence'. A truly remarkable gig that will surely go down amongst my favorites of all time.

Setlist: Cover Me/Earth Intruders/Hunter/Immature/Dull Flame Of Desire/Oceania/I See Who You Are/Pleasure Is All Mine/Pagan Poetry/Bachelorette/Army Of Me/Innocence/Wanderlust/Hyperballad/Pluto//Declare Independence

MP3: Bjork (feat. Antony) - Dull Flame Of Desire

**photos courtesy of Stephanie Berger (Allsongs)