Posts Tagged “the independent”

For me, Beck is a sort of nostalgia I think. Lots of his songs were big with me at pretty good times in my life. When I got the email last week at 3PM saying there was going to be a Beck show at a really tiny venue that went on sale in less than 2 hours, I kinda freaked out. It’s not often you get that sort of opportunity. I was lucky enough to get tickets, judging by the angry people on craigslist, sonicliving and other websites tons of good fans were shut out cause TicketWeb was not prepared to handle the onslaught. (not surprising).

And unfortunately, I have to tell all of you that didn’t get to see the show that you really missed out on something pretty awesome. For me, Beck represents another bit of nostalgia in a sense, in that it was the first time I’d ever been to a show with a taper, my friend Rich, who I’m not even sure knows that I know about his blog. Regardless, his taping of the show kinda prompted me to think that taping things was a good idea so I bought some mics the next year and now I’ve got a ton of shows under my belt I guess you could say. I won’t put it all entirely on the Beck show as I’d been to a handful of other shows that were and weren’t recorded and I really wanted the stuff that hadn’t been recorded… and ultimately that Beck show in 2000 that I saw was what prompted me to say “why wait for someone else to do it?”. I thought it was all sorts of complicated or dangerous or whatever, but I was enlightened after that and it’s all been history since.

The show itself was more than I had imagined it’d be. I was figuring a low key sort of show, maybe mostly acoustic “small venue” songs. Nope! They tore right out of the gate with Devil’s Haircut and I knew at that point it was going to be a great show. And it totally was. The coolest thing to me was probably the “live remix” they did with Hell Yes and Black Tambourine. The band all put their instruments down and picked up drum machines (or something) and Beck had an ipod with a track you could scratch and they re-created the remixes from the Hell Yes EP live. It was a pretty awesome thing to see. They even played a pretty long set for what i was expecting. I’d figured an hour-ish would be plenty but they went the distance for a full 1.5hrs. They touched on all Beck’s albums, and even threw in a Dylan cover. There’s really nothing bad at all I can say about the show. However, the crowd was a bit rowdy (expected) and the drink girl was a little loud and obnoxious, but whatever. You get that at some shows and I’d rather have been in the middle of the room than off in the back somewhere when it’s someone that I know I’ll never see from that close up again.

I fear I’m ruined for Beck shows in the future. It’ll never be this good again.

Setlist:

1. Devil’s Haircut
2. Nausea
3. Profanity Prayers
4. Girl
5. Minus
6. Nicotine & Gravy
7. Mixed Bizness
8. Gamma Ray
9. Leopard Skin Pill-box Hat
10. Soul of a Man
11. Think I’m In Love
12. Replica
13. Modern Guilt
14. Youthless
15. Ghettochip Malfunction (Hell Yes)
16. Shake Shake Tambourine (Black Tambourine)
17. Walls
18. Orphans
19. Volcano
20. Chemtrails
21. encore break
22. Loser
23. Where It’s At
24. E-Pro

download the whole show as a .zip file
download the show in lossless 16-bit FLAC via Dimeadozen (registration required)
download the show in lossless 24-bit FLAC via The Trader’s Den (registration required)
Links:

• Official Site
• MySpace:
• SF Chronicle Review

I’ll be honest, I’ve adored Esthero ever since I saw a track on a CMJ New Music Monthly CD in 1998. The description mentioned she was inspired by Bjork and Tori Amos, and that sort of a combination in my mind would have quite possibly been the best ever! I loved the track (Breath from Another), I got the album as quickly as possible and I’ve been in love with it ever since. Unfortunately, seeing Esthero live was a little difficult as I was living in the middle of nowhere for so long, and then she went on a hiatus of a sort and wasn’t touring. Fast-forward to 2005, and I was broke when she toured for her latest album Wikked Lil’ Grrrls. Damn. Luckily for me, I managed to see the listing for this show and I was FINALLY going to be able to see Esthero, plus it was going to be some sort of special intimate acoustic show to boot. Score!

What, I got was a very interesting performance. I’m not making any judgements, since obviously this wasn’t a typical show, but it was definitely not what I was expecting. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the atmosphere was somewhat more informal and spontaneous, rather than a “show”. Kinda like you were hanging out with Esthero in a large house with a large bar and she was just gonna hang out and play some songs and talk some shit. And that’s exactly what she did over the next couple of hours.

She said she only really had a couple of songs “prepared” and the rest would just be made up from whatever people shouted in the crowd. Clearly, the crowd was entirely Esthero fans (something I absolutely love to see at a show, no scenesters, no hipsters, just people who enjoy great music) and they shouted quite a few “interesting” things… and to her credit, Esthero played almost everything people screamed for. In between filling requests she told plenty of stories and bantered with the audience and took shots of Jägermeister (pirate, yarrrr!) and introduced us to her dog. Definitely a lot less like a concert, and a lot more cabaret I suppose. By the end of the show, things were an absolute trainwreck, with at least half of the audience ending up on stage singing and dancing with Esthero. Very crazy.
I’m very intersted in seeing her again with a full band, and I hope she puts a new album/EP/anything out sometime soon so I can hit up another show. Meanwhile, this was defintiely worth the wait, and the acapella Swallow Me was absolutely astounding. I don’t think many people in music today have the combination of a great voice, great music, and great lyrics that Esthero has, and it’s a great thing that she’s releasing music again.

Music goes here:

1. Intro
2. If Tha Mood
3. banter
4. Amelia
5. mypsace banter
6. Gone
7. more banter
8. Balmes (A Better Life) (Ian Pooley)
9. that girl
10. oboe the wonder dog
11. Country Livin’ (The World I Know)
12. Heartbreak (Toya Alexis)
13. limewire banter
14. Superheroes
15. banter about black eyed peas, james blunt, prince
16. Patiently
17. OG Bitch
18. Joey (Concrete Blonde)
19. My Drug Buddy (Lemonheads)
20. Swallow Me (acapella)
21. Army of Me/Possibly Maybe (Bjork)
22. Breath from Another
23. banter about left eye
24. How Do I Get You Alone?
25. Heaven Sent
26. encore break
27. ikked Lil’ Grrrls
28. We R In Need of a Musical Revolution
29. banter
30. Magic > Xanadu (Olivia Newton John)
31. Everyday is a Holiday (With You)

Links:

• Esthero: MySpace
• Official Page: NearlyCivilized.com