Andrew Bird at Conversre Hall (Boston)
I’m at Converse Hall in downtown Boston listening to Marissa Nadler and waiting to hear Andrew. I’m relaxed and I owe it all to those on stage and the masons who dawned their bare hands upon this building so many years ago. It makes sense that Andrew calls these gigs “Gezelligheid”, which is a Dutch term that very loosely stands for cozy in English. The Acoustics in the Converse Hall ping my senses as if they were a toy in the middle if two newborns. I’m happy. I feel refreshed. This is was music is all about.
The stage was full of blooming flower amplifiers, a usual element to the Andrew Bird decor, but in this case the entire front of the stage was lined with little mini-amplifiers backed up by towering amps. New music was a plenty tonight. It was almost as if Andrew scheduled these gigs not so much for the instrumental appeal but more to get these new tunes out in the open. No complaints here. But first up was an oldie to get him relaxed- why?!!!
After running through an old Kenyan song and admitting to its difficulty before diving in, it was on to a new song! Right now the song is called “Autonomy”. It’s about being young and finished with all the false comforts — declaring his autonomy. Per usual Bird humor, he throws in some discussion about throwing away the pacifier and claiming your freedom. Natural Disaster followed and was almost completely restructured for this gig.
Being a perfectionist, Andrew corrected himself on a number of occasions and had a number of false starts. As long as he keeps doing what he’s doing, he can stop and start all he wants in my book.
Effigy!!
Breeding Desperation is another new tune played this night. Video for this song is in the works and sounds hilarious. There will be a field full of flower speakers and Zach Galifianakis dressed up as a bee on roller skates as well. Sounds too good to be true.
More new stuff! Lazy Projector. About selective memory. Followed by a sick instrumental that pulsated the room.
Another new song — I and I — was half played at TED conference last January.
The Barn Tapes off of Noble Beast was fun to hear in this venue. Andrew confessed it is the most non-melodic tune of the night. This song was based on some actual “barn tapes” that he recorded one summer with a friend where the goal was to loop every key and bend them all.
New one about a hole in the ocean. Didn’t catch the name.
Section 8 City was played for some fans in the crowd.
The encore included Going Home by Charley Patton. I find it funny to hear Andrew sing lyrics that are of the standard affair. It almost seems unnatural for him to not throw in strange words that often have no meaning but are instead added to fit into the rhythm of the song.
- Check out the complete setlist
- View pictures taken by Jean-Paul DiSciscio on Flickr
- A ton of pics and videos can also be seen at Boston through my eyes blog
- Watch more live video at my YouTube page
Fat Possum has released Useless Creatures, an instrumental album that was at first a companion piece to Noble Beast. Andrew is going on to play three more shows around this “cozy” format in Chicago at the Fourth Presbyterian Church on the 15th, 16th and 17th of December (all shows sold out). Then he heads to Los Angeles in mid January for a couple shows at Largo (15th and 16th) and then to Santa Cruz to play the Rio Theatre (16th). He’ll be down in Mexico City on March 17th to play Teatro de la Ciudad.
