How's My Living?

After Friday’s wildly successful show at the Pabst, Andrew Bird had little to prove to Saturday’s audience.  He admitted that he felt much less pressure, given how well things had gone the night before. For other artists, this might mean that the show gets sloppier, less tight, but not for Andrew Bird. On Saturday, he took a few more risks than usual, playing several new songs, bringing back old favorites, and engaging in a few beautiful collaborations.  Whether for continuity on film or out of superstition, Bird took the stage in the same outfit as he did the prior night, the most notable part of which was a pair of shoes that I described on Twitter as looking like a glitter factory exploded on them.  (Seeing as this outfit has made many appearances already throughout this tour, I’m thinking it’s probably just another delightful Bird superstition.  And given that I have a pair of shoes that have now become my Lucky Andrew Bird-Meeting Shoes, I can’t argue with that.) 

Starting out with the eerily compelling “Water Jet Cilice”, Bird brought a different mood to Saturday’s show, a more laid-back atmosphere as compared to Friday’s high-energy assault of sound. Creating every sound on his own with the help of his looping machines, songs stretched and formed right in front of you. It’s easy to forget just how much of what you hear is Andrew Bird and his cluster of instruments when watching the full band. As a solo act, however, you’re confronted with that fact early on, making it hard to deny the special kind of genius he exhibits in his work.

The explanation of “Sweetmatter” (it being inadvisable to release a song containing a reference to mad cow disease) and the lyrics (“that’s the taste of neurons blinking”) drew laughter from the audience. While I’ve heard it before, being with an audience where many seem to be hearing the song for the first time gave it a whole new freshness. Proceeding to launch into the moody instrumental opening of “Why?”, Bird continued to amaze with his perfect delivery of the lyrics, where deadpan humor, anger, and raw emotion all coexist in one song. Though he mixed up some of the lyrics at the end, this is one song where you half expect that to happen, given how the song consumes him. “I just get so angry,” he said with a smile, explaining away the bungled lyrics.

More behind the jump…

Continue reading Concert Review: Andrew Bird (Solo Show), Pabst Theatre, 10/17