The question came from my friend, Brian, a few months ago - "Hey, have you ever heard Andrew Bird?" Well, I never have actually heard him before, I replied truthfully, though I've heard of him from anoth
er friend of mine, Jeff.
Brian can barely hold it in - "Dude, you HAVE to listen to him! I'll lend you a CD." So he did. And I intended to listen to it - I really did. But I never did listen...
Several months pass...
Brian calls - "hey, you want to go to an Andrew Bird concert?"
Me - "Sure, how much is it?"
Brian - "Don't worry about it. I'll take you for your birthday."
Me - "Heck yes!"
The night of the show...
I didn't really know what to expect. I knew he was good. I knew he played violin and whistled and sang and all. But what I heard and saw blew my mind.
He started out the show solo, but within two minutes I could have sworn he had a string quartet, guitar player, and 3 background vocalists standing there with him - such was his mastering of his instruments and multiple loop pedals.
After a couple numbers, he was joined by his multi talented drummer, bassist, and secondary guitarist - and they perfectly accented Birds abilities even through their own obvious mastery of their instruments. Everything from dress and stage presence to musical prowess seemed perfectly synchronized and well thought through. Everyone knew their roles and played them out to perfection.
But it was Andrew Bird's gypsy like music and Captain Jack Sparrow swaggering that drew me to an immediate conclusion - this was the best performer I have ever witnessed or heard of. Layer after layer of pizzicato gyspy scales and classical violin swoons were topped with smooth jazz vocals and accented with flawless whistling doubled by glockenspiel. And I don't even usually like whistling - at least, I didn't before.
People often ask me what concert is the best that I have ever seen. After partaking in Andrew Bird at Liberty Hall on March 16, 2009, I finally have an answer.
2 comments:
i found out about andrew bird's concert just about the day it happened. it made me sad, because i too experienced the brian (h.?) enthusiasm over the whistling genius. :) glad to hear it was a great show, though.
don't you hate it when that happens? Same thing happened with me the last time Andy McKee was in town.
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