Andrew Bird returned to Chicago to perform a sold out series of shows (four in total) at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in downtown Chicago. The collection of performances, coined by Bird as the “Gezelligheid” shows in reference to a Dutch term meaning essentially “coziness”, were played without a traditional PA system. Instead the sound came from four “horn speakers” placed strategically on the stage. Needless to say, from the fifth row where I was seated the sound was fantastic.

Full view of the stage prior to performance

Bird played a fair number of material from the instrumental album Useless Creatures which he released in early 2009 in connection with Noble Beast, as well as some more familiar material spanning all the way back to his early stuff with Bowl of Fire. Included in the hour and a half set were “Master Sigh” (my favorite song from Useless Creatures), “You Woke Me Up!” & “The Barn Tapes” (both instrumentals from the aforementioned disc), “Scythian Empires”, “Natural Disaster”, “Fitz and the Dizzyspells”, “Headsoak”, the Handsome Family’s “Giant of Illinois, and Bob Dylan’s “Oh Sister”.

I wish I had better photos of the actual performance but photography was verboten, not to mention once he went on stage the lighting was quite dim and made sneaking a worthwhile photo nearly impossible without being obnoxious.

The best I could get. Blurry but you get the idea.

I really need to stop bringing CJ to shows with me. This show was all fine and good for the Andrew Bird portion of the performance. He appeared solo which was really cool to see. I’d seen him perform with two fellow bandmates twice before at a couple of different venues, but to see him at the Chicago Theatre – a more intimate venue than the previous two – was a real treat. Even CJ was impressed.

Andrew Bird played a slew of great stuff including a number of songs off the new album Armchair Apocrypha. He employed his stage technique of looping instruments for the layers of each song and it was cool to see him do so solo because it afforded a better opportunity to gather exactly how he approaches the process.

Unfortunately, CJ was not as keen on Bright Eyes, and by the time this portion of show began he had consumed a handful of vodka cokes. I enjoyed most of the Bright Eyes material although he did carry on with a number meandering stories about his day-to-day existence that even I found a bit tiresome.

One of these stories involved how he (Conor Oberst) “woke up today and felt really cold for some reason” and so he had layered up with a sweater and coat for his performance. CJ had had enough and decided to yell out: “It’s called fucking fall”. Oh shit, here we go. Conor continued his story, saying how he didn’t want anyone to make fun of the shirt he was wearing underneath his sweater since he’d had it for years and it was pretty ragged. CJ yells: “Write about it on your blog”. At this point, laughing due to a combination of humor and embarrassment, I look for the exit. People are looking over and giving us the evil eye. The story continues and CJ decides to start making really loud snoring noises. This really incites a girl in front of us who turns around and to inform us that, “That’s a good story“.

At this point I get up from my seat and head to the back in an attempt to distance myself from CJ. I remember a few numbers with Conor on keys that were okay but by that point I myself was starting to get tired of the show. We split before the encore.

Bright Eyes

Damn… between this new job and the night class I don’t find much time to keep up on this journal. I hit the Hideout Block Party last weekend to see both Bloc Party (the band) on Friday and Andrew Bird and The Frames on Saturday.

All in all the festival was a good time and a great price ($35 for a 2-day ticket). The Hideout showcased a slew of great bands including some I really dug that I had never heard of before. But on the downside they had two beer tents for the entire event and at best four food vendors. Needless to say the lines were fucking atrocious. Plenty of shitters though, they lined them up all the way to the stage.

Bill Callahan at the Lakeshore Theatre tomorrow night…

Bloc Party

Andrew Bird

PS. Got a new camera from my ‘rents for my otherwise forgettable birthday. I took these with it but I gotta admit I didn’t put forth much of an effort. Better ones to come.

Caught the Andrew Bird show at the Riviera Theatre this weekend here in Chicago. I was surprised to find that it had sold out – a big step up from playing the Logan Square Auditorium about 18 months back… I guess that’s what happens when you play Lollapalooza (and it doesn’t hurt to make an appearance on Letterman as well).

Seeing as the show was sold out, the place was packed – making it difficult to get any worthwhile photos (as you’ll notice). He played a ton of stuff from his stellar new album Armchair Apocrypha including ‘Heretics’, ‘Simple X’, ‘Imitosis’ and ‘Fiery Crash’. The one song from the album that he unfortunately did not play was ‘Darkmatter’ – my personal fav. Oh well, he sounded great and the crowd loved him.

This was my first time seeing Andrew Bird and I was surprised to find that he loops quite a bit of his material when performing live. I guess I’m okay with his approach since he basically plays an instrument (say the violin) to open the song and then somehow has that opening riff loop throughout the rest of the song when he picks up another instrument (say the guitar) to play another layer of song. I remember seeing The Flaming Lips years ago and they were looping stuff and I was a bit disappointed (they claimed ironically enough that it had to do with maintaining the integrity of the band) but I guess I’m a bit more lenient these days. All in all, a great show – I would’ve loved to have seen Andrew Bird back in the day when he played The Hideout.