Memory is a funny thing. It wants to repeat patterns, so it can conserve energy. Which is to say, I've seen Jófríður (JFDR) perform many times, but never outside of Reykjavik. And also, in other bands... Pascal Pinon and Gangly. So, seeing her in SF made me feel slightly out of sorts like I was seeing her in a dreamscape—instead of in SoMa.

Her voice embodies the perfect ethereal tone of the Icelandic chanteuse, (don't you hate that word)? She sings exactly how you think she should, which is to say with an air of lovely otherworldliness. Navigating between keys and guitar, she accompanied herself onstage and the audience, though not there to see her (except me, I was there to see her), was rapt. The performance had that elusive thing I look for when I see live music, a slight pulsing fear that my heart will break with each subsequent note.

(At any rate, I was glad to have caught her performance, even if it was 420 and San Francisco was a little bit of a mess.)