Andrew Bird last night - St Giles Church
I know a couple of others from here went and I'm wondering what they thought?
I was initially wary of it being in a church as the last time I went to a gig in one, Arcade Fire at St Johns in Westminster, the surroundings were beautiful and a pleasant change but the sound wasn't great. Maybe because of the size of the church and the nature of the Arcade Fires music. This was not the case last night. Bird performed on his own with mainly his violin for company and I was pretty in awe of his talent. Not only can he play violin beautifully, his singing was fantastic and his whistling was pretty good too. His set mainly consisted of new material from his forthcoming album, Noble Beasts, with Natural Disaster, which he said was his favourite, being the highlight. A couple of tracks of Armchair were played with Scythian Empires being the stand out for me. Genius is a word being banded around too often these days, Germaine Greer called Jordan a genius for christs sake, but with him I think it's a well fitting label.
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i kinda wish i'd gone to this
re: churches, st giles has shows semi-regularly, the one in Westminster doesn't - it was a real shame!
come tonight!
aces
how was woodpigeon?
Not bad
it was indeed fantastic
the new stuff sounded fantastic and he rounded it off with a cover of Oh sister which was beautiful.
i watched from upstairs which was a strange but exhilarating. the sound was fantastic. i thought his guitar playing was a bit off sometimes but then it must be hard to keep time on so many loops, across two vocals, violins and a guitar. scythian empire was great - especially with the audience participating whistling.
he's also a very handsome man.
shame he didn't play dr. stringz..
incredible scenes
possibly my gig of the year. I was completely thrown by the early stage times and turned up just after he started - about 8.15! But it was absolutely magical, building up these wonderful layers of sound mostly just with his violin and a spot of whistling.
I suppose my only quibble would be that it would have been nice to hear a few more familiar choons, mainly because the solo arrangements of Scythian Empires and Placticities were really interesting, I'd like to hear what he does with other stuff from Armchair live.
But the new stuff was wonderful - yup, Natural Diaster was certainly the hightlight.
Trying to decide whether to go again tonight...
some stuff from Eggs would have been great
but it was always advertised as a gig where he's trying out his new stuff. There was a danger of things seeming a bit samey due to having to build up all the layers and normally starting with some violin plucking etc but he managed to avoid this. Sounded fantastic when his loops would come back in after verses of him just playing the guitar. In regards to the comment above I'm not sure if it's his guitar tone but sometimes his guitar playing seems a little weak but when you can play violin like that, sing like that and whilstle like that it doesn't mattter too much.
Arcade Fire at St John's
I enjoyed that gig a lot, and didn't notice any sounds problems at all. Relentless new material for the time though, I seem to recall.
Definitely a good show
He mentioned that he was really tired from travelling much of the day. He seemed a bit out of it at times. I loved hearing the new stuff - there are definitely some kinks that need to be worked out of the performances of the new songs before he goes on a proper tour. Scythian Empires was indeed fantastic, but I wanted to hear some older songs from "The Mysterious Production..." or even older. I got my dose of Armchair the last few times he was in town. I thought 'Oh Sister' was absolutely beautiful - my evening highlight.
At one point he unplugged the violin from the amp and played an old folk tune (title anyone?). That was a good moment.
I'll be back tonight. The staff said he try out the new songs again but the rest of the show would be different. Tickets were still available last night on seetickets.
thanks for the seetickets tip off
reluctant as I am to give that website money, it seems to be the only option for tonight. I just can't resist going back...
that unplugged one was very good
I liked the bit with the very short bit of whistling in one of the loops, was that just so he could keep time?
fantastic night
he's pretty much a talented one-man band who could do everything. it was fun watching him do the rhythm/cymbal sounds on the other microphone. also, st. giles is probably my second favourite church venue - nae, venue - in london. however i thought the sound mix was perhaps a little too loud in the beginning, as the violin seemed a bit distorted (i was downstairs around the middle pews) anyone else thought that?
also, what was that cover he did in the middle of the set, with the unplugged violin?
i'm too slow
should've read the thread first before asking the same question... :(
The unplugged song was...
Some Of These Days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_of_These_Days
Other songs
Other songs included (in random order):
Why?
Plasticities
Scythian Empire
Oh Sister
Water Jet Cilice
Some of These Days
From Noble Beast:
Oh No
Natural Disaster
Anonanimal
Nomenclature
Effigy
Also forgot to mention that the pews became so uncomfortable after a while
it was torture.
I was sitting on the floor
in the aisle in the middle. Very numb bum by the end. Worth it though :)
ah I saw some people arrive later, one girl and a man
and just sit in the aisle. I then saw people having to step carefully over them everytime they went out. Good work.
well firstly,
there wasn't anywhere else to go (and plenty of other people were sitting in the aisle). And secondly, why did people try and get out why he was playing?! More fool them.