Sufjan Stevens to Wow Cleveland

Tickets for Sufjan Stevens’ Beachland Ballroom show went on sale about a month ago. Three days and hundreds of fans later, a banner appeared on the venue’s website. SOLD OUT! Who are we to be surprised? Possibly the most interesting and musically talented man in the acoustic indie genre today, Stevens is known for putting on an amazing show. Strapped into butterfly wings and letterman sweaters, the handsome, light-eyed multi-instrumentalist reinterprets orchestrated masterpieces from a string of albums that range from his electronica debut, Enjoy Your Rabbit, to the banjo twang of songs on Illinois. Some of his more legendary gigs have paired the Michigan native with legends (the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra) and large ensembles (his recent multimedia BQE project included a small band, a wind and brass ensemble, strings, horns, and hula hoopers – 36 performers in all). This year, the dude’s cooling off a little on a tour through smaller clubs through the East Coast and Midwest. Fans will relish the twisted beauty of “John Wayne Gacy, Jr,” a soft piano/guitar ballad about the serial killer, and sing along with the joyous horn-laden “Chicago.”