Justin Vernon was weeping onstage, his signature falsetto warbling just out of control, when he realized it was time to rethink Bon Iver. The song he was performing that day in Duluth, Minnesota, in 2023 — “715 - CRΣΣKS” from 2016’s 22, a Million — is an agonizing vocal-loop routine that asks a lot of the artist. “I have to go way outside my body in order to do the song justice,” he said on Reddit in an “Ask Me Anything” session, “so sometimes that sort of experience can be very enjoyable, and other times it can be somewhat painful!” The song is beloved enough in the fandom to have spawned a YouTube playlist populated exclusively with live renditions of it. The Duluth performance sticks out as a moment where attendees roared while the performer ached. But this is actually the heart of their relationship. One does not turn on Bon Iver to throw ass. To listen to Justin Vernon is to hurt and heal alongside him — an approach he has found taxing.
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