So, we know that I couldn't go to the Sigur Ros London gig (AGAIN) but luckily I know a man, a reasonably eloquent one too, who could. So here's a very special guest appearance by Mr Icemate,

Sigur Ros at Alexandra Palace. Really? I feared the worst. It's a pain to get to and from, the sound is terrible and the place is just too damn big and empty.  Still, bought me and Iceblah and our respective Icepartner's tickets.  I've seen the greatest live band in the world at some great venues like Somerset House and Westminster Central Hall and been 100% blown away by what I had not just seen and heard but experienced. The great thing about Sigur Ros live is how they capture you and your imagination.  They hook you in, swallow you whole and spit you out leaving you to go home questioning what exactly just happened to you. In many ways, It's not a concert you are attending, but feels more like a religious experience. But that has not only been in intimate venues but also in Brixton and Hammersmith, the effects have been the same. But in Ally Pally, Home of World Championship Darts and International Woodworking Exhibition? I feared the worst…

The venue was like a festival with a roof and it just didn't feel right.  Had to buy tokens to get your beers and it just didn't feel right…They had black curtains sectioning off a large space behind it and it just didn't feel right.  The whole thing just didn't feel right (Have I made that point yet?). A very strange place for a concert of this nature indeed. So I ventured back to the quiet bit, got myself a latte and bottle of water and settled down for the night towards the back of the venue. 

So…on to the music For A Minor Reflection (FAMR) – Maybe a little too similar to the headliners – even ended their set with a popplagid style epic – but lets just say they were SR without the frills, but very good all the same.  To quote a chilly friend of mine 'They made a nice noise'. (Amusing anecdote to FAMR – Very very funny watching people who only came to see Sigur Ros because of 'that song on Planet Earth' having to double take thinking they came halfway through the Sigur Ros set and worried they may have missed 'Hoppipolla'. Genius!)

So on to the main event.  Sigur Ros solidly yet unspectacularly started with 'Svefn N Englar' followed by a superbly menacing Ny Batteri, and then on to Fljotavik. The crowd, particularly where I was stood, seemed to be those who were there because of Hoppipolla.  It was a rather strange atmosphere – the band seemingly a little lost by the cavernous venue, failing to engage with the muted crowd. I was not used to seeing this. Sigur Ros can impose themselves on any venue, surely they could this time. I still feared the worst.  It was a large space to fill sonically and it just wasn't happening. People were lost in their own conversations, rather than the music…

Then they started to pick up the tempo – going down the poppy route. Vid Spilum Endalaust (Feet started to tap) followed by Hoppipolla/Med Blodnasir (Heads started to nod but not many people clapping as Jonsi has asked during med – had they shot their bolt too soon?) and then Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur (Smiles appearing on faces) – Four songs of uplifting quality. You felt that the crowd and the band were really starting to get warmed up.

A cracking E-bow followed and then the band really started to hit their stride – with Saeglopur they brought the rain with them!  Streams of water falling in front of a band who were staring to enjoy themselves and it was infectious. Even the 'Planet Earthers' stopped their incessant talking and watched, listened and enjoyed. My first tingly shivers of the night…rapidly followed by the second, then come the first tears of the night…rapidly followed by snow!!!!  They made it snow!!!  Festival – 9 minutes and 23 seconds of assault and batteri on your emotions – Epic Epic Festival.  God, I was wrought. I was starting to feel punch-drunk with every song hitting you harder and harder. Then came another – a fantastic Hafsol.  This was the first time I looked at the side of the venue to see the huge silhouettes of the band looming ominously large. They were starting to do what I thought was going to be impossible and storm the Palace. A joyous Gobbledigook, with FAMR on additional drums and proper audience participation, tripped along to a flurry of confetti. As the song came to an abrupt halt, the band took their leave.  No-one was leaving until they got their encore. 

…and that is what they got.  The band came back and calmed things down several notches with a beautiful and fragile All Alright. All the chattering from earlier in the evening had stopped. You could have heard a pin drop (and in my case, a tear drop). Proof in itself that the band had overcome a difficult venue and audience – but why had they brought the euphoria they built up over the last 40 minutes or so? As Popplagid started, I realised it was a genius move. Lull them into a false sense of security and smack them right between the eyes. Never have I seen a live song as powerful and affecting as Popplagid, never have I seen a live song as graceful and as violent as Popplagid and Sigur Ros delivered one of the finest displays of power and intensity I have seen to date. Never have I seen a song and band dominate a venue in this way like Popplagid did at the Ally Pally, filling every last square inch of the structure to bursting point, grabbing every member of the audience by the lapels and shaking us violently.  Building and building with menace, dark and brooding, through to the terrifying explosion (now with added confetti) which I thought was going to take the roof off.  All the time, those godlike shadows surveying the audience from start to finish, as their subjects before them stood transfixed watching the band push their instruments to breaking point through the swirling maelstrom of confetti, lights and sound.   I just didn't want this to end, but end it did, leaving us emotionally charged as they always do. No mean feat in a place this size. They reached out and touched every one of us – even at the back by the black curtains. Icepartner and I made our way out with a buzz in our ears, seeing stars and with huge grins on faces. We weren't the only ones.

So the final result? After a slow start, Sigur Ros dominated the second half of the contest beating Alexandra Palace and its apathetic audience by way of Knock Out in the last round.