Band of the Week + concert review: Andrew Bird

When I took a class on Social Factors in Design (with Professor Galen Cranz, the best thing ever to happen to Berkeley's College of Environmental Design), I learned that you can really tell a lot about a place by the people who occupy the space.

This was very pronounced Thursday night (19 February 2009) at the Fillmore, when Andrew Bird played the first of his two sold out shows in San Francisco.

Before the show started, I busted out The Guermantes Way, and got a good 40 pages read. When I sat down, I realized that the girl behind me was also reading. And the group to my right were having a conversation that included someone exclaiming "and I couldn't do that to the library's copy!"

Yeah, we're a literary group.

The show commenced with a set from Emil Svanängen, under the pseudonym Loney Dear (much in the vein of "Dashboard Confessional" as another name for Chris Carrabba, which later evolved into a band).



The band gained more of the audience's attention with each consecutive song. Emil got the audience to sing along with one of the songs, acting as the conductor with universal hand signals. I love that music can transcend all linguistic barriers (although he did sing in English). The Stockholm native sounded a bit like Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, although his music had a much wider range, including some electronica provided by a somewhat androgynous looking keyboardist whom I finally decided was a dude.



visit Loney Dear on MYSPACE, they're playing a handful of more shows with Mr. Bird, and then will proceed to continue the tour on their own.

AH, now I can move on to the main attraction. The ever effervescent Andrew Bird, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire.



Each description I've ever read about this guy is always fixated with his "shyness", but I didn't get that at all during the set. He was grinning and thoroughly enjoying himself throughout the set, which commenced with "Master Sigh" (off of the bonus disc of Noble Beast), and Andrew throwing his shoes off.



He quickly got comfortable and played a mix of songs primarily from his newest record but the encore gave fans a treat with "Why" (off of the live record Fingerlings) and "Don't Be Scared", off of his first solo record, Weather Systems.



Andrew enthusiastically fluctuated between his violin (which he played both with a bow and as percussion with his fingers), his guitar (often tweaked with the help of his loop pedals) and a glockenspiel (a percussion instrument similar to a xylophone, but with a different range). The sound was extraordinarily powerful, even for his music. The intricate complexity of his songwriting really shined in the live rendition of the songs. I never knew anyone could whistle so loud. It was incredible.

My only complaint was that the reverb kind of overpowered his voice for the songs not found on Noble Beast, as if he didn't bother focusing on elocution with the songs which he expects his fans to know by now. Nonetheless, each song was done beautifully and I was still dumbstruck the next day, especially by "Effigy", which was wonderfully reinvented during the set. He explained that the lyric "like the words of a man who's spent a little too much time alone" is about "that guy sits alone at the end of the bar whom we secretly fear that we'll become...you know, write one too many sci-fi novels...". Whew, that's a relief, I thought he was talking about himself when I first heard it.



Andrew Bird is known for his improvisation skills and his unique shows; each set is distinct, with slight tweaks in the songs and various substitutions with musical instruments. He also tours with a monkey and an elaborate gramophone, which spins during his higher energy songs.



If you have the chance to see this guy live, please do it. He's bridging the gap between classical and rock/pop music. He's been a classically trained violinist since he was four, he studied music at Northwestern's prestigious music program and and he only just learned how to play guitar a few years ago (he taught himself). I adore this man.

Andrew Bird - Effigy [mp3]
off of Noble Beast

Andrew Bird - Don't Be Scared [mp3]
off of Weather Systems

Andrew Bird - Opposite Day [mp3]
off of Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
(that album was my first taste of Andrew Bird. genius stuff)

Set List: