The final Friday before two weeks of holidays saw one of the biggest concerts of the year in town when review and accompanying photo gallery of the concert. "I over heard them talking of the only other time they had seen him perform -- in their living room over Christmas. A sold performance at the Barrymore was quite a change from the "family living room". He dedicated the song "For Emma" to them and said how he wrote it at the cabin upon their leaving."
Bon Iver's music and image both draw significantly from his northwoods background, the album famously recorded last winter at his father's cabin in rural Dunn County. "Vernon hasn't distanced himself from Eau Claire, despite the national prominence he's achieved," wrote Isthmus contributor Rich Albertoni proclaiming him music artist of the year in Wisconsin. "He spent Thanksgiving weekend hunting in the Wisconsin woods. Two weeks later on the set of Letterman, he looked the part of a Northwoods lumberjack."
This image was the focus of a concert review by Andy Moore for No Depression. "'Skinny Love' is a gothic campfire lament that features Vernon's wood chop-strength steel guitar strumming," he writes about the first Bon Iver single. "The song's intensity is fueled by Vernon's bandmates, all three of whom played drums on this selection: one with sticks over his snare, the other two pounding mallets prehistorically on individual floor toms, using both the head and rims of their drums to cast emotions into the thrall of Vernon's vocal pleas."
A live concert video of Bon Iver performing this song at the Barrymore show follows.
Other songs performed by Bon Iver at the show and captured on video included "Flume" (here), its cover of The Outfield's "Your Love" (here), and a truncated version of "For Emma" (here.
"The guys left Madison en route back to their hometown of Eau Claire in a bus, not a van," noted Ryan Matteson in a If you have a video about Madison or by Madisonians, please consider adding it to the Isthmus YouTube group or send a message.
