Sufjan Stevens, the Athiest who loves Christmas

"Sufjan who?" you ask?

And I'll tell you that Sufjan Stevens is the very unique name of a very unique singer and songwriter.  I've decided I like him, even though I can't figure him out at all.

Later he dressed up as a neon unicorn with balloon wings.  I wish I'd gotten a good shot of that.

I went to his concert last night at a club called Emo's, which sounded like it wouldn't be my crowd at all, but it was different than the name made it out to be.  Maybe all the Emos hang out there on weeknights, but on this Saturday, it was Sufjan fans, and I didn't find an Emo among them.

"What's an Emo?" you ask?  Like all things, Wikipedia has the answer.  It's also a genre of music I'm sure I'd hate, but that's not was Sufjan's about.

In fact, this concert was billed as, "The Sufjan Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant On Ice ft. SUFJAN STEVENS."  I confess that I was skeptical.  The title sounded a little too tongue-in-cheek to be taken seriously, even though he has made two epic Christmas albums of 5 CDs each.

Happy to be wrong was I, as most of the concert was indeed Christmas music, with about half of it being of the sing-a-long variety.  If you've never sung "O Holy Night" in a room full of drunks, you're really missing a once-in-a-lifetime experience that can create good fodder for your blog the next day.

Sufjan is an enigma. He has great arrangements of Christmas songs, especially "Holly Jolly Christmas" and doesn't shy away from the sacred (see "O Holy Night" reference above.)  In fact, for Christmas he also sings non-Christmas hymns, and last night he did his glorious rendition of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

This was the Wheel of Christmas.

But as far as I can tell he's an Atheist. The logo for his Christmas concert was a pink unicorn. "What's a pink unicorn got to do with it?" you ask?  Check Wikipedia.  His closing number before the encore was "I'm the Christmas Unicorn."

I'm sure he likes his aura of unpredictability and cultivates it as part of his artistic image.  The concert was a great time, with even most of the drinkers behaving very well.  I'll be buying "Holly Jolly Christmas" for sure.