Sufjan Stevens and the Rialto Theater

It sounds like the beginning of a good children's book. Sufjan (SOOF-yan) is a whimsical name, and the Rialto Theater is the place of dreams.

This past Monday was the first time I ventured down to Tucson for a concert, and I can honestly say there is nobody else I would have rather gone with.
Daniel, our friend Harley, and I piled into the Subaru at 5:30 on Monday night, half an hour behind schedule. We really didn't make it outside Phoenix until 6, but we made it to the theater by 8, when the show supposedly "started."
Harley kept mentioning that this was a miniature road trip, but I have to disagree. A road trip occurs when you stop, smell the flowers, and take photographs either on the way to your destination, or as your destination. We certainly didn't do that.
However, we did listen to some great music, yelled at other cars who sped past us, and talked about how school was going.

By the time we found parking and navigated our way to the Rialto Theater, it was 8. We hurriedly got in line to pick up our tickets from will call, and entered the theater.
The lights were very festive, red, and Christmas-y, and a large spinwheel was set up at the back of the stage.
The opening act, one of Sufjan's backup singers, was standing on stage doing a comedy routine related to Christmas. We stood and listened for five minutes, when she left the stage. I suppose we were later than we expected.
Half an hour later, fashionably late, Sufjan Stevens and his band appeared on stage. It was time to get the party started!
Now, we should have known from the title of the concert (The Sirfjam Stephanapolous Christmas Sing-A-Long Seasonal Affective Disorder Spectacular Music Pageant Variety Show Distaster) that it would consist entirely of Christmas music, but we were optimistic that other music would be included as well.
I suppose it's a good thing that not one of the three of us are Grinches, because it was entirely Christmas music. It was honestly like going Christmas caroling inside a theater, and Sufjan was the choir director. He would pick an audience or band member to spin the Wheel of Christmas, and then play the "chance-chosen" Christmas carol, and encourage the audience to sing along. It was certainly unlike any concert I had ever been to before, but it was fun.

The Christmas music ended nearly 2 hours later, at 10:30, with a paper snowfall and his song "Christmas Unicorn." It would be an understatement to say that some of his songs are downright strange, but it was fun to dance to at least.
After a few minutes of the audience yelling "Encore!" and "Get back here and play some normal music," he returned alone, with his guitar, and without his unicorn horn on his head, and began to play a few songs from his most popular album, Come On and Feel the Illinoise.
I'm pretty sure I was jumping with joy by that point. Not only is that the only album of his that I own, but he began the 4 song encore with one of my favorite songs of the album, and then continued the encore with 3 of my other favorite songs. Hearing him play Chicago, Casmir Pulaski Day, and John Gacy Wayne, Jr. made the concert 110% worth the drive to Tucson.
Before long, he gracefully took a bow and left the stage. I took my phone out, saw it was nearly 11:30, and encouraged Daniel and Harley to jet out of the venue. I had 9 am classes the next morning. We left the venue, perused the merchandise table (it was all cd's and LP's, and I have no more room for either of those in my collection at the moment), and headed to the car. We ran into my friend Ben, and reluctantly turned down an invitation for coffee with him. I needed sleep.
I crawled into the back seat of the Subaru and fell asleep the entire ride home, while Harley and Daniel bantered about school, music, and the next concerts they want to go to. All in all, I certainly would not be opposed to going to another concert in Tucson, but it would be great if I could do it when I didn't have class the next morning.

I didn't realize how close we were to Hotel Congress until I looked up as we exited the parking garage.