Scenes From Sufjan Stevens'"Christmas Sing-A-Long Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant On Ice"

Sufjan Stevens wrapped up a month-long Christmas tour billed "The Surfjohn Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant On Ice," last night at Bowery Ballroom. Stevens opened the show by welcoming the audience "to the Christmas insanity," and, well, that's exactly what followed. Like his recent 59-track Christmas music box set Silver and Gold, Stevens' two-hour show was all over the place: The evening featured a mix of seasonal hits determined by a giant spinning game show-style wheel to the side of the stage, odd re-vampings of classics (including an awesome vocoder-assisted deconstruction of "Do You See What I See?"), confetti, and general Sufjanian whimsy and silliness. Stevens closed the set with his 13-minute "I'm the Christmas Unicorn," an ode to the "mythical mess" that is The Holidays, wearing a balloon costume and dancing on his piano while inflatable unicorns and Santa Clauses rained down from the balconies. At one point Stevens told a story about dreaming of "normal" Christmases when he was young, but instead his hippie parents gave him and his siblings satchels of healing crystals. But despite our best efforts, Christmas is rarely a normal experience for anyone and few seem to embrace that more than Stevens. Check out our photos below.


Rosie Thomas, who performed in Stevens' Christmas band, opened the show with a stand-up set as her spazzy alter-ego Sheila Caputo.