Arstidir at Warsaw Klub Progresja, 4th April 2013: Encountering The Sublime

I go to quite a lot of concerts, and every so often I'm fortunate enough to encounter the sublime, when the music is that good and moving that I feel myself being fully immersed in a much better time and place.  Such was the case watching the Icelandic band Arstidir support Pain Of Salvation at Warsaw Klub Progresja on Thursday evening:

From the moment Arstidir stepped on stage doing the Anathema/Anneke van Giersenberg song 'Everawake' with Anneke herself, who was on stage before them, I just felt captivated and spellbound, being subtly taken to a much better place:

A massive well done to the person who filmed the above from Wednesday, of course.

For me, the two highlights of the Arstidir set were 'Lost In You' and the a capella song they did (I'm no expert on Arstidir, as I only discovered them properly a couple of months ago, but what a discovery!).  After the band played 'Lost In You' on Thursday, a female voice quite rightly shouted out 'Beautiful!', and I'd go a bit further:  'Sublime!'. 

'Lost in You' below is taken from an Arstidir concert from Reykjavik in 2012, but it obviously conveys just how poignant and uplifting this song is:

Love the part when the violins and cello/double bass build up the momentum in the song, when I can sense the catharsis and transcendence of being taken to a much better place.

Of course, I also really enjoyed Anneke van Giersbergen and Pain Of Salvation on Thursday night:

Full credit to Pain Of Salvation frontman Daniel Gildenlów for having the vision to organise such a great event.