Andrew Bird, Jan. 25, TLA

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Andrew Bird, Jan. 25, TLA

POSTED: Monday, January 26, 2009, 2:49 PM

Filed Under: Music Show

Monsters? Monsters!

Andrew Bird was sick, admitting to a low-grade fever at the beginning of his hour and change set. His hair was matted down and he looked pale under the lights. While people with normal jobs, jobs that don't require entertaining packed concert venues, can take off work and hibernate at home, Bird had a tour to open. Silly sickness wasn't going to get in his way.

Drawing mostly from the new record, Bird sounded strong despite his illness, sounding a little operatic even and giving his own small voice a dramatic flair. He was backlit throughout the show so the silhouette — of the skinny, gyrating man and his violin — against the red velvet wall and chandelier shadow of the TLA, made him look like a mad scientist concocting something evil. On the road in support of the recently released Noble Beast (Fat Possum), Bird was candid about his mistakes. After he fumbled a violin-to-guitar transition, he said in the microphone, “Well, that didn’t go so well.”

Bird stuck mostly to new material, adding extra live oomph to songs like the swelling “Masterswarm” and the twitchy, weird “Not a Robot, But a Ghost.” But, come on, dude, the record’s been out less then a week. I haven’t gotten used to this natural, new direction yet. I’m still all about the looped fiddled-with sound that characterized records like personal fave The Mysterious Production of Eggs. But he pulled out some classics, like “Tables and Chairs” (There will be snacks?! Yes!) from Eggs and “Imitosis” from 2007’s Armchair Apocrypha.

Bird was good, but it wasn’t as flat-on-my-ass impressive as the fist time I caught him at the World Café Live, shortly before the release of Apocrypha. At that point, it was only Bird and the drummer on stage but they still sounded like a full orchestra. How were those two guys making that much sound? With a band, Bird had power and numbers behind him but no, holy-crap-how-is-he-doing that moment.

But when he came out for his one encore song, “Why?” from 2001’s The Swimming Hour, he took the stage alone. Alone, Bird was able to fill the stage better than as a member of band. Sing-speaking verses, he made the venue feel intimate and small. Like he was just playing around and we were his buddies, all ready to play along. It wasn’t until he coughed a bit during a break in the song that you even remembered that this guy shouldn’t be home in bed.

Mike Smith

Posted 2009-01-26 12:40:36

I agree, Mr. Bird is best when he flies solo.



I learned that WHYY TV12 will air an Andrew Bird performance on their On Canvas show this Wednesday at 8P.  I hope you see it. I attended the concert when they shot it at Lehigh U., and he was amazing, solo and awesome!!

Mike Smith

Posted 2009-01-26 12:42:50

Here's more info on Bird's awesome flight on TV12:

http://www.whyy.org/artsandculture/oncanvas.html

Mary Gildea

Posted 2009-01-27 16:00:13

I agree - I saw Bird at Lehigh U. as a solo act and he was flat-out amazing. The TLA show was cool - good to here Martin Dosh live - but Bird's feverish illness seemed to zap some of his musical energy. Good show, though - no complaints! P.S. I'm pretty sure I was one of the oldest people at the TLA show - I guess that speaks to Bird's broad appeal. Be sure to check him out tonight on the Letterman show (Dave is a big Bird fan).

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