Kevin Bronson on September 28th, 2009

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I pulled an all-nighter at Hollywood Forever Cemetery over the weekend to review Bon Iver. It was a one-of-a-kind morning. Only the sun copped a bad attitude, staying shrouded behind the marine layer until after the concert was over. Here’s the beginning of the story:

What if they held a sunrise concert and everybody showed up except the sun?

“Metaphorically and un-metaphorically,” frontman Justin Vernon of Bon Iver told a crowd of more than 2,500 beneath a damp, ashen Los Angeles sky, “this is one of the foggiest mornings I’ve ever experienced.”

Read the rest of the story at SPIN.com

It was a shame the weather changed. Promoters had planned the set to the minute, even hitting the cemetery at the crack of dawn the morning prior to take photographs of the sun rising between the palm trees behind the northwest-facing stage. Alas, you can’t choreograph the weather.

Not that Bon Iver’s fans minded. I talked to several who’d been at Friday night’s sold out Wiltern show, and others who’d paid scalper prices for tickets.

“He’s been my favorite artist of the past year,” said fan Tricia Gerbic, a Nashville native who moved to L.A. only a week ago and attended via a $50 scalped ticket. “The music is especially meaningful to me because I was mourning the loss of my father ”¦ incredibly cathartic.”

“Every single time I hear his music I get goosebumps,” said Wisconsin native Sara Dunham, who bought six tickets as soon as the otherwise-unadvertised show was announced via Twitter.

For them, Justin Vernon had won the day by the time he stepped onstage and said, “Good morning, y’all.”

||| Also: LA Weekly’s account of the event.