Bjork’s final Biophilia show at Alexandra Palace last week celebrated life and the possibility of technology.
Wearing a grey, glossy dress that looked like an open oyster, a wig like mouldering candyfloss and a painted-on blue beard, Bjork performed the twenty-three song show in the round with two musicians and a choir of Icelandic girls. The stage set up and art matched the song perfectly, from the terrifying looking singing Tesla Coil to the moon that waxed and waned in time to the beat.
Ally Pally was packed full of fans. One older man in the front row was so determined to see the show that he kept having the bouncers escort him back to his spot every time he fainted. Eventually they got tired of this and took him away.
The show, which was being filmed for DVD, was hyper and faltering at the same time. Bjork was a ball of nervous perfectionist energy, repeating songs, apologising, being accidently shoved by her choir/girl gang and grooving to the percussion in her songs. When she came up to the front of the stage to sing to the crowd, you could see her twitching and biting her lips with convulsive effort. During one quiet song, the bars outside started recycling millions of glass bottles. I really hope she gave the management a good telling-off.
The sadness at the end of the Biophilia was palpable from all the performers but the rest of us have the DVD to look forward to and the knowledge that this spectacle was recorded for posterity. As the voiceover explained, Biophilia is a love of living things.
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