This weekend, the Northwest Film Forum is previewing Bjork’s Voltaic: The Volta Tour Live in Paris as it circulates through theaters around the country before the CD/DVD combo is released for purchase next week. On either Friday or Saturday night at 11PM, you can watch the concert footage from her performance at l’Olympia, Paris, during her Volta tour nearly a year ago to the day (6/25/08).

The first question that probably comes to mind is why would you want to sit in a movie theater and watch what you could possibly see for yourself in concert? Why not go out to an actual show, or wait for Bjork to come back to Seattle? Simply put: you’ll never get this close to Bjork in your life! Anyone familiar with the Icelandic superstar knows that her live shows are a visual feast unlike any other performer out there, and the costumes, dancing, stage arrangements and orchestration of the two-year Volta tour far surpassed any of the highest production concerts short of Cirque de Soleil. Yet, her performances in any given town are already rare enough, and when she does make it through and you manage to buy a ticket, you’re amid tens of thousands of people, and all you can make out from your seat is a flittering colorful speck. For as flashy a spectacle as a Bjork show might be, there’s plenty of nuance you’re missing from the crowd, no matter where you sit.

But that begs the next question: just how good is Voltaic? Plenty of other concert videos abound, and the best of them — The Last Waltz, We Jam Econo, The Road to God Knows Where — combine live footage with on-the-road excerpts to build a story. Voltaic is one long concert — no b-roll, no tour documentary, just director Russell Thomas’ dazzling editing and videography. Throughout the film, every colorful detail and visual idiosyncrasy is brought to you by bird’s eye view, stage hand’s view, front row view, side stage view, and, well, you get the point. If there’s a possible angle to be had, it’s covered. In contrast, at a live show, no matter where you sat, you’d never get a chance to see Damian Taylor working the ReacTable or drummer Chris Corsano tapping shells spread out across a drumhead. You’d lose sight of the kabuki-meets-anime-meets Native American warpaint makeup and the rainbow lionfish costumes. You’d miss the tribal dancing of Wonder Brass, the all-female 10-piece brass ensemble, and the nimble fingers of keyboardist Jonas Sen would be completely lost to you. But even were you blind, you’d still thrill at Voltaic’s lushly mixed sound, far better than than it must have sounded to even the attending crowd. All this presented on a full movie theater screen? It’s hard to image ever wanting to go to a live show again!

The last question to ask yourself is this: when the confetti fireworks explode on “Army of Me,” will you be able to sit down again for the rest of the film? If the rest of the audience has any sense at all — and you’ll be lucky if yours don’t get completely overloaded — it will be a dance party in the auditorium!

If you’d like to see either the Friday, June 26, or Saturday, June 27, show (both at 11:00PM), email now for a chance to win free tickets! Two lucky winners, chosen at random from all emails sent before 5PM (PST) today, will get a pair of tickets for the show of their choice.

• The rumors of a Leslie Feist appearance on the upcoming Wilco album are true! The Chicago ruffians confirmed the Canadian belle duets with Tweedy on the track “You and I” from the as-yet-titled Wilco release slated for later this year. Now if only the album steers clear of the sleepiness of Sky Blue Sky, we’ll be truly ecstatic.

• It’s no secret New York City has all the musical luck and it’s no different come May 8th when Bjork and Dirty Projectors combine talents for Housing Works, an organization that deals with homelessness and the AIDS epidemic.

• Pioneer of off-the-cuff live music video sessions, La Blogoteque, continues to outdo itself, this time with an amazing performance from Sigur Ros:

• Use up your iTunes giftcards as quickly as you can. Come April 7th, prices for hit singles and in-demand tracks (A.K.A. the most downloaded) will raise from the standard 99 cents to new price point $1.29, reports The King of A&R. Enjoy buying 3 tracks for the price of 4!

• Though the RIAA had promised to back off of suing individuals who illegally download their most coveted (i.e. money making) releases, it seems old habits die hard. According to Ars Technica, the oh-so out of touch institution is still brings about lawsuits in the hopes of reaping settlements from the damned. The catch is these new cases are, in actuality, old lawsuits just being brought up thanks to a backlog of ISP addresses just now being matched to owners — in other words, the RIAA have abandoned new suits but still can’t wait to decipher all those old ISPs to collect your money just because you dig a little Poison.

• A slight name change and a lengthy North American tour have yet to slow down Santigold (née Santogold). The new lady on the block is a hot commodity, working on vocal tracks on upcoming releases from the Beastie Boys and David Byrne.

• Animated supergroup Gorillaz’s long-awaited Bananaz is set for a theatrical and DVD release in June. Babelgum (has anyone ever heard of this site?), however, scores the glory of premiering the 2007 documentary beginning April 20th. The website will stream the film for four weeks. Here’s the trailer:

• Here are the highlights of the talk shows this week. Be extra sure to set your DVR for Phoenix’s upcoming appearance on SNL — the new album is going to be hot!
  Monday, March 30

  Jimmy Fallon: Glasvegas

  Tuesday, March 31

  David Letterman: Marianne Faithfull
  Jimmy Fallon: Gomez

  Wednesday, April 1

  David Letterman: Ray LaMontagne
  Jimmy Fallon: Stevie Nicks

  Thursday, April 2

  Jimmy Fallon: Dr. Dog

  Friday, April 3

  Jimmy Fallon: Cold War Kids
  Jimmy Kimmel: Lily Allen

  Saturday, April 4

  Saturday Night Live: Phoenix