True headliners of Saturday night.
Up against the stadium-filling but overly bland Red Hot Chilli Peppers or the arena filling but overly dad-rock Paul Weller, Sigur Ros found themselves offering up a different fare to what else was being provided for Saturday night headliners at T in the Park.
Obviously there has been a greater interest in Sigur Ros in recent months due to the inclusion of 'Hoppipolla' on BBC's Planet Earth show but the size of the crowd that had squeezed into the Pet Sounds Arena indicated a willingness to find out more, if they had not already done so.
Sigur Ros were also not deviating from their game plan, with their stage show kicking off from behind a curtain which they had done all throughout their world tour, which kicked off just over a year ago this very weekend. This playing behind a curtain may seem to add a dimension of us and them between band and crowd, and there was certainly a few mutterings of pretension from those in the crowd but the music played by the act overshadows that feeling.
The sound of Sigur Ros is so welcoming and large that any hint of the band being false and pretentious melts away. No matter how many of the band are on stage, or if they choose to play their guitars with violin bows and drumsticks, the beauty of Sigur Ros lies in their anthemic sound and the way it crescendos.
No doubt a section of the crowd would have been disappointed with a lot of the quieter moments of the show but these serve a purpose in bringing drama and tension to the set, and allowing the louder moments to have a stronger impact when they crash in.
The most notable element of Sigur Ros' sound would be the vocals of Jon Birgisson and the way they create complex sounds and noises. Not singing in English would immediately give a different twist to the vocal delivery for most fans but the range and pace that Birgisson delivers is highly remarkable. Seeing him perform these vocals duties live on stage is a treat and fits in tremendously with the grandiose nature of the act.
'Hoppipolla' did appear in the latter half of the set but by that time, the crowd was no longer here for just that one track and welcomed the songs that followed. Bookending the show by drawing the curtain and performing behind it again, Sigur Ros closed on a dramatic note with the stage lighting flaming and flickering the silhouettes of the band onto the screen in front.
Returning with the house lights up for a well deserved bow, Sigur Ros served up a sound and show that fans of Weller or The Chilli's probably wouldn't have liked anyway.