It's a Beckstravaganza!

Okay, I've lost this entry twice... but third time's a charm, right?



So I went to the Theater at Madison Square Garden this past wednesday to see Beck. For those of you who haven't read my archives yet (you really have no excuse since there are only about ten entries), I'm a big Beck fan and he did not disappoint. Beck's music always shows a flair for the dramatic and unexpected; it's full of subtle (or not-so-subtle) absurdity and a wry sense of humor. I'm happy to say all of these qualities are only accentuated in his live show.

It all began with puppets. Yes, puppets. The center of the stage behind Beck's microphone was dominated by a minature recreation of the stage in its entirety, including a minature recreation of the miniature recreation of the stage. Reason number 285 to love Beck: his live shows feature recursion. In any case, the show began with a puppet version of the band rocking out to Loser. A couple of cameramen filmed the puppets, projecting closeups onto the sort of screen that usually shows closeups of, y'know, the actual band. As the first chorus kicked in, Beck and his band entered, dressed exactly like the puppets, and, without missing a beat, took the song over starting with the second verse. Needless to say, it was a really badass moment. The cameramen didn't start filming the band, though, and for the rest of the show (with one exception that I'll get to later), continued to show the puppets up on the screen. The puppeteers even switched the puppet band's instruments to reflect what the real band was playing as they played the set.

And man, what a killer set. Beck drew heavily from Odelay, Sea Change, Guero, and (GASP!) The Information. I would have liked a little bit more from Midnite Vultures, but I can't really complain. Specifically, the show gave me a new appreciation for a lot of the songs from Sea Change. They worked really well in conjunction with his new songs since The Information's mood is similar to Sea Change's in spite of the faster and rockier/hip-hoppier songs. There was one song I was surprised they didn't play, namely Cellphone's Dead. It's the new single, and the Michel Gondry-helmed video'd just come out that day. I thought it was a sure thing. Oh well. One nifty part of the set was when one of the puppets left the puppet-stage with a handheld camera (Yes, the puppet had a camera!) and filmed the actual band.


Towards the end of the show, after a very chill version of Tropicalia, the band exited the stage, leaving Beck alone with an acoustic guitar. He asked the audience for requests, but seemingly ignored their cries of "Nobody's Fault!" and "Nicotine and Gravy!" (though how he could have played that one acoustic is beyond me) and played a solo version of the Flaming Lips' Do you Realize. As he did so, the stage technicians rolled a dinner table onto the stage, complete with glasses, silverware, and a bowl of fruit. The band proceeded to sit down and eat while Beck played. (So did the puppet band, amusingly.) Beck then started playing The Golden Age, which was pretty cool acoustic, but infinitely cooler when the band began playing the chime and percussion parts with the glasses and silverware. A couple of the guys picked up pieces of fruit from the bowl and revealed that they were actually shakers. All of a sudden, Beck's acoustic show was accompanied by a full band playing with what amounted to found sounds. They played another song at the table, which I didn't know but is apparently called Clap Hands, and on that one even Beck got into it, playing the spoons a bit.

The whole band left the stage after dinner and we were treated to a goofy video of the puppet band visiting various places in New York and trashing their hotel room. It was a mildly entertaining diversion that was really only there to allow Beck time to get into costume for the encore, which was a recreation of the homemade video he made for 1000BPM. Beck came out dressed as a bear and did the raps, while the band danced around hilariously.


A couple other random things:
-Beck had a make-your-own shirt station, playing off the same idea as his make-your-own album cover concept. The shirts were pretty cheap for concert shirts and came out looking really cool. I'll post a picture of mine soon.
-The opening band was really awful, but also really amusing. I took some cool pictures of them, but those are also for a different post.
-If you wanna get a sense of what the stuff I talked about was actually like, here's a video of a different concert, but one where he did pretty much all the same awesome things.