Thursday, October 27, 2005
Andrew Bird - October 23
So at the weekend there was a journey through intense rain to experience Andrew Bird at Patronaat in Haarlem. It's been almost 20 months since I first saw him live, performing with Clem Snide in Rotown. Although I was still relatively new to him then, that concert was beautiful, if ever so short, and it launched me properly into fandom. Since then I've been living with various bootlegs, learning a back catalogue, and quite happily announcing The Mysterious Production of Eggs as the album of the year way back in February. Nothing has changed to make me doubt that decision, as every month or so a new song or lyric jumps out to bring it back to life.
It should have all added up to be too much pressure with the concert falling flat in a disastrous heap, but no, Sunday night was magical. Seemingly in a weird mental place after struggling to arrive from Luxembourg, he distorted his songs more than I've heard in most bootlegs. Playing without a drummer, his only limitation was the memory in his digital loop pedal, but it made for a raw, humorous performance, sometimes even forgetting or tripping over lyrics in such a way that it can only improve the experience.
At times looping what felt like infinite violin parts, jamming with himself, before banging away at the xylophone - and perhaps the scariest part of his performance is how he whistles each note in perfect key and synchronicity while doing so - looking like he's channelling the music from somewhere else. Then of course, he'll switch from violin to guitar just as fast in the middle of a song, sometimes plucking away or occasionally thrashing away with a thumb while the looped violins swirl around the room. To me it's magical experience and no-one can do it like him.
Despite missing out on two of my favourites 'Fake Palindromes' and 'Masterfade', a lot of the set was obviously taken from the recent album, with a few oldies and a few new songs thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately he did cut off 'Tables and Chairs' right before my favourite part due to a technological crash, so he unplugged the violin, held it high on his chest under the microphone, converted it into a ukulele and performed the rather wonderful bluesy/gospel song 'Happy Day', with some unusual call and answer backing vocals from a random Englishman in the audience. 'Why' also got a particularly rapturous response from the audience. I listened to the original from The Swimming Hour yesterday just to remind myself how much that song has morphed over the past year. Brimming with such full-on expression, he reels the audience into the story and performance, and by the time it ended everyone went a bit mad. 'Weather Systems' was a quite an unexpected ending to the gig also. It's so emotional and drawn out, but its performance was particularly beautiful.
So 90 minutes of Andrew Bird, and I'm still left wanting more. It's a shame it was the only Dutch date this time, but hopefully he'll keep coming back. It's a rare thing for me to actually want to talk about a gig so much after it's finished, but I continue getting flashes of funny moments and segments of complete prettiness. And if all this talk can't convey how great a songwriter and performer he's actually grown to be, I'm not sure what will.
:: Posted at 12:33 pm by Steven McCarron ::
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Monday, October 10, 2005
WOT NXT
I was given a link to Wot Nxt last week, and to be honest, I didn't completely understand who, why or what it is. But I'm having another look at the site and it seems interesting. For one thing, when you look beyond the jumbled content, you have an interesting jukebox with a lovely collection of sounds. Stayfun friendly sounds at that, so give the music a chance.
:: Posted at 4:17 pm by Steven McCarron ::
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The One AM Radio
I was asked by Hrishikesh of The One AM Radio to mention a few tour dates happening right now. Well, they're in Germany unfortunately, but seeing as he's a lovely songwriter and needs people to get out and see him, here goes...
Oct 10 - Passau @ zeughaus
Oct 11 - Munich @ kafe kult
Oct 13 - Liepzig @ similde
Oct 14 - Brauschweig @ nexus
Oct 15 - Leverkusen @ hdj
We all ned a little help when we go to Germany.
:: Posted at 4:08 pm by Steven McCarron ::
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