Where to Start?

     I'm not sure where to start. Things didn't go so well for Andrew Bird at Saturday night's show, but it wasn't all his fault. In fact, it was mostly not his fault.

     There were numerous technical difficulties, which is a nice way of putting it. The Electric Factory has shitty sound to start with, but throughout his entire performance things kept coming apart. His main mic kept cutting in and out. Cables got unhooked and came loose as he did his best to get the looping and pedals going. At one point he got a shot of feedback in his ear so sharp that he had to stop the song and start over. He even forgot the words during "Fiery Crash." It just wasn't his night.

     He did his best to carry on and about six songs in, things sort of jelled and from thereon out it was smooth and as it should be, but it was a stressful evening. He played two new songs, "Master Thorn" and "Oh No," both of which sound intriguing. The rest of the set were oldies but goodies from Armchair Apocrypha, The Mysterious Production of Eggs and even earlier stuff, including "Dr. Stringz." For me the highlight of the evening was "Armchairs," followed by "Fake Palindromes."

     Aside from the glitches, it was a good show, although not quite as energetic and moving as the one he played last May at the TLA. Nonetheless, I think what really sets him apart from a lot of other musicians is that he takes pains not to play his songs exactly like they sound on the album. They're recognizable, of course, but he bends and wraps them and then unwraps them in new arrangements such that they are never as you expect them to be. It's a testament to his musicianship and dedication to performing, I think. You'll never be bored at an Andrew Bird show, that's for certain.

     I wish I could say the same for The New Pornographers. Now, maybe it was me--I was tired, it was hot, my feet hurt from standing, but I simply could not get into their music. I think I had a bad attitude going in, in that I didn't expect them to be very good and when they weren't, I gave up on them. Yep, we left before the show was over. I've only ever done that once before, and that was when Frog Eyes was going on after Sunset Rubdown and it was a weeknight. (Listen to some Frog Eyes and you might understand why.)

     Anyway, I just couldn't summon any enthusiasm for what the NPs were playing. It's hard to explain. Like I said before, the sound is sooooooooo bad at the venue that when the band itself isn't sounding all that great, it's really bad. The first song they did, "My Rights Versus Yours," I swear A.C. Newman's vocals were out of key. Maybe he couldn't hear himself, but they were not quite on pitch. The second song, "Use It," is one of my favorites, but something else was out of whack and it sounded awful as well. Things shored up a bit by the third song, plus we had moved to a different spot in hopes of getting better sound, but by then I was pretty much done. We stayed until about two-thirds of the set was over and then I just couldn't be bothered to stick around any longer.

     Perhaps it would have been better if they'd varied their set a little more, thrown in a downtempo tune here and there and tried to shake up the songs by not playing them exactly as they sound on the record. Even if they'd had a little more interplay with the audience it might have improved things, but they just forged ahead from one song to the next with little or no break in between and it all ended up sounding like one long song. Sigh.

     You know, I hate to write a negative review, I really do. Maybe I'm being too hard on them, but what can I say, I was disappointed with their show.

The Beta Band--"Troubles" mp3 off Best of The Beta Band (buy)

Handsome Furs--"Cannot Get, Started" mp3 off Plague Park (buy)

     One thing's for certain, I don't think I'll be going back to the Electric Factory again any time soon. It's just not worth paying all that money and then having the sound be so awful. I think I'll stick to smaller stages from now on.

tags: andrew bird  the new pornographers  

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