Bon Iver Concerts Setlist

Bon Iver is an American indie folk band. They were formed in 2006 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The sole founding member was vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Justin Vernon (born in 1981 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin).

The band “Bon Iver” was born under quite tragic circumstances. Vernon was living in Raleigh, North Carolina, playing for the folk band “DeYarmond Edison”. However, in 2006, the band broke up due to tensions between the members. Shortly after, Venom had to go through a romantic break-up as well, losing his girlfriend. He also caught a bad case of mononucleosis which made him travel back to his family home in Wisconsin, laying there bedridden.

In those dire times, Vernon never intended to start a new band. However, he did work on the production of some of the songs by the North Carolina-based indie rock band “The Rosebuds”. As a result, he had some recording gear laying around in his cabin where he moved to isolate himself. So, he spent some time playing around with them. He recorded a few songs where he sang all the vocals and played all the instruments. After some encouragement from his musician friends, Vernon decided to release those songs by himself. While only 500 CD’s were pressed, those few copies managed to garner quite the attention from the industry. Pitchfork.com gave it a positive review. Vernon was invited to perform a Bon Iver concert at the CMJ Music Marathon. This all led to him being signed by the indie label Jagjaguwar in 2007.

He gave his one-man band the name “Bon Iver”, based on the French phrase “bon hiver” (meaning “good winter”), which he misheard on the TV show “Northern Exposure” while recovering from his illness. The Bon Iver debut album was released in July 2007, with the title “For Emma, Forever Ago”. It became quite a hit, topping the new artist-specific Heatseekers chart by Billboard, while also peaking at #64 on the famous overall Billboard 200 chart. It also received great reviews from the critics.

In order to be able to perform at Bon Iver concert shows, Vernon decided to form a band around his one-man musical project. Drummer, keyboardist, and vocalist S. Carey joined in 2007. He was later joined by guitarist Andrew Fitzpatrick, bassist Matthew McCaughan, and baritone guitarist, violinist, and saxophone player Mike Lewis to make up the band’s current line-up.

Overall, Bon Iver has released 4 full studio albums. The best selling one among them has remained their first one, “For Emma, Forever Ago” from 2007, which ended up selling around 1.5 million copies worldwide. Meanwhile, the latest new Bon Iver album came out in August 2019, with the title “I, I”. The biggest hits in the Bon Iver setlist to date are “Skinny Love” (2007), “Roslyn” (2009) featuring St. Vincent, “Calgary” (2011), and “Holocene” (also 2011). They were also featured on the 2020 song by pop star Taylor Swift, “Exile”.