Sufjan Stevens and friends explore the solar system, and a galaxy of emotions, at Hollywood Forever

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Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner & James McAlister at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (photo by David Brendan Hall)

Review and photographs by David Brendan Hall

There’s no way to know how deeply Chester Bennington’s death impacted the musicians performing Planetarium (Sufjan Stevens as frontman/keyboardist, the National’s Bryce Dessner on guitar, contemporary classical composer/arranger Nico Muhly on various keys and drummer James McAllister). Still, there was no denying that the album’s concept — a musical exploration of our solar system incorporating astrology, science and attempts to pinpoint our significance within it, which was conceived live four years ago and finally released as a recording in June — was somehow precisely what anyone mourning among those watching Thursday night from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery lawn needed to experience. Particularly within the coincidental context of the 53rd birthday of Chris Cornell, whose gravesite, adorned with notes and flowers for both the late Soundgarden singer and his friend Bennington, was located within a stone’s throw of the stage.

“Even though we’re surrounded by death in this environment, let’s proceed with life and vitality and explore space together,” Stevens said at the show’s start. After openers “Neptune,” “Jupiter” and “Halley’s Comet,” he added to that sentiment with a quote from “king of space” Neil DeGrasse Tyson: “‘…you are beautifully and wonderfully made,’ so just carry that around with you for the rest of your night.”

Imbuing the show with such statements proved paramount. That’s not to say the music didn’t hold up – there were plenty of moments where Dessner’s delicately plucked, echo-laden FX and Muhly’s dreamlike keys mesmerized by melding with two guest players’ heavy horns (“Jupiter,” “Pluto”), or when two string players’ parts conjured chills layered with Stevens’ contemplative lyrics and splashes of spellbinding Moog (“Uranus,” “Earth”).

Yet overall, though the lights were colorful and immersive (Technicolor washes ran across the adjacent white cemetery wall throughout), the visual aspects were somewhat stale compared to what Stevens in particular has pulled off during past tours, so a few words for cohesion here and there were enhancements. Even if it was just Stevens telling silly stories about his family (as usual) – something about a new age self-help book that inspired his parents to do “rituals to conjure the ancient fungal consciousness” — his lightheartedness was wholly needed on this dark day.

Some of the talk came off a little preachy, but it ultimately illuminated this epic medley’s deeper ideal, something far more thoughtful than just whimsically celebrating the magic of space. Humanity and its consciousness, Stevens theorized, might be the glue that holds everything together: “Science teaches us that the natural world is chaos … everything moves toward competition, antagonism,” he said before launching into “Earth.” “This is the exterior world, but I think that we humans have a full and complete design that pulls us toward peace, the antithesis to chaos. Earth is my favorite planet — I’m not going anywhere.”

However, no sides-speeches were needed to hammer home the impact of the two-song encore, which comprised respective covers of “Over the Rainbow” (paired with video feed of Judy Garland singing in The Wizard of Oz) and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” When Stevens ended the stripped-down version of the former (which exhibited how auto-tune can actually sound resplendent when applied to an already skilled singer’s voice) with the question “Birds fly over the rainbow / why then, oh why can’t I?”, Bowie’s somber ballad seemed to provide an answer-solution: head to space! Though, as Stevens’ suggested, Earth may be the best vantage point from which to observe it all instead of some disconnected “tin can.” Though the reasons were (mostly) sad, we could see very clearly from here that the stars looked very different today.