October 2, 2006 10:50

Sufjan Stevens previews new material in New York

One new song is ten minutes long

Sufjan Stevens played a ten-minute long new song for an ecstatic audience at New York’s Town Hall last night (October 1).

In the final show of a sold-out three-night run at the venue, Stevens made his way through a near two-hour set, including crowd favourites ‘Jacksonville’, ‘Casimir Pulaski Day’ and ‘The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us’.

Crediting lengthy new song, ‘Majesty Snowbird’, as the theme song for his current tour, he wore brightly-coloured eagle wings for the entirety of the set, surrounded by a 14-piece band, all wearing butterfly wings.

During ‘The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts’, large inflatable Superman toys were thrown into the audience from the balcony and during ‘That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!’, inflatable Santas were tossed about.

Stevens is set to release a five-disc Christmas box set on November 12.

The tour continues with the following dates:

Berkeley Zellerbach Hall (9,11)
Portland Crystal Ballroom (13)
Vancouver St Andrew’s Cathedral (14)
Seattle Paramount (15)
Dublin Olympia (November 1)
Manchester Academy (2)
London Barbican (3)
Ghent Voorhuit (5)
Barcelona Casino L’Allanca (7)
Paris Le Bataclan (9)
Cologne Gloria (11)
Amsterdam Paradiso (11)
Copenhagen Vega (12)
Oslo Sentrum Scene (14)
Stockholm Berns (15)
Reykjavik Frikirkjan Church (17,18)

For ticket availability go to NME.COM/Gigs.