Last night my wife surprised me with concert tickets for us to go see Beck and Phoenix on their Summer Odyssey Tour stop here in Austin. The show also included performances by Sir Chloe and Weyes Blood. Unfortunately it took us a bit to get to the venue, park, and then hoof it to the Moody Center, so we missed Sir Chloe, but we did manage to catch most of Weyes Blood's set. All-in-all it was a great show! Since I have to write a blog post for Blaugust today anyway, thought I'd just detail my thoughts and share a few pictures from the concert.
First off, let me just say that I don't get out to go to concerts quite as much as I would love to, especially here in Austin where a lot of talent rolls through and you can see them in more intimate venues like Antone's, which is where we last went when Joey Valence and Brae rolled through town. Before that we were able to hit up ACL Fest last year and really go crazy with three days of music outdoors in the sun. Before this, however, we really had a dry spell and didn't see any live music for a while -- not only because of Covid scares, but also because we're mostly homebodies.
We support our local public radio and Weyes Blood gets played there from time to time, so while I don't own any of their music, we are familiar. Every time I've heard the lead singer (Natalie Laura Mering), I'm instantly reminded of something that could be a cross between Karen Carpenter and Mazzie Star. She has an incredible voice and the music of Weyes Blood is enchanting and beautiful.
Natalie kept making jokes in between songs about the next one being a real rave party or a mosh pit song and then delivering something completely different. Most likely this was because she knew that the energy from Phoenix and Beck is something completely different. It might be part of the reason why the crowd was much thinner during her performance.
She had on a beautiful thick white gown that occasionally the lights would flood through and you'd get shadowed hints of her body underneath. Tucked into the gown's chest was a red lighted circle that was briefly used during one of the songs when it got dark, and then simultaneously two smaller laser spotlights hit the crowd in a couple of spots, and it made the singer/audience connection come alive. Great moment.
For me I couldn't help but think about how much I would love to be on stage playing somewhere myself. Being a performer I think is a lost calling on me, and playing to a crowd this size would be absolutely amazing. It's kind of weird how thoughts like that roll through my head while watching a live concert. I'm there in the moment, but also somewhere else at times. I've only had the chance to play a larger crowd a couple of times. I miss it but it is anxiety inducing as well.
Anyway, after the Weyes Blood set we had some time to get up and walk around, so we headed out to the one merchandise vendor booth and waited a long time in line to buy a couple of shirts. For a venue this size, you'd think they'd have a couple of booths at least, but with four lines, it went relatively quickly. Probably the best comment I heard while waiting in line was a guy who joked with a friend that he stopped buying music around 1994. There were in fact, a lot of older folks like myself and my wife there who mostly just knew Beck's music.
Next up was Phoenix. This is another band that I'm familiar with through radio, but haven't really owned any of their music. That should change. From what I'm now reading, we missed them at ACL last year (hangs head). There's just too many great acts at ACL and not enough time.
Probably the most notable songs from the set were Alpha Zulu, 1901, and I believe they played If I Ever Feel Better. You know, all the danceable, four on the floor hits. There were a lot of people there ONLY to see Phoenix and dance around outside of their assigned seating. They knew all the songs by heart and sang the words in perfect unison.
Amidst all those happy dance jams, there was a pretty intense experience where the guys in the band played an instrumental song known as Sunskrupt and the screens behind them showed a guy sunbathing with his hand on his heart, listening to music. Then the camera panned outward to a simulation of 1000 million light years away and then panned back in to the guy . . and then zoomed inward to a simulation of 1000 million microns into the sun bather's hand over his heart. That collective reminder of the infinite space around us when we're all crowded around with people at a public venue was kinda nice.
Possibly the most Rock Star moment of the whole night happened at the end of Phoenix's set when the lead singer (Thomas Mars), was handed a mic with a HUGE extension cord and he went into the audience making his way through all the way to the back and up into the stands to say thank you and hello to people, giving them fives along the way. In the end, he dumped the mic, and it all culminated into him being lifted up off the floor in the middle of GA with a little bit of crowd surfing while the band went nuts.
There was another break after Phoenix's set and we were able to get a bottle of overpriced water and chill before Beck took the stage. Uber Wife and I threw on our new Beck T-shirts that we purchased and waited for the Rock Star we were most familiar with.
It's funny because I clearly remember going to see Beck at a venue, and Uber Wife clearly remembers going to see PJ Harvey at the same venue. Did they play together? Is one of us wrong? We're talking like 1993-1996 range. Uber Wife tells me that I should just make up a story that Beck was the first concert we ever saw together after being married (it could be true!) and here we are now about to celebrate our 30th anniversary together and seeing Beck once again to celebrate. The concert was an early anniversary gift from my wife after all. I'll go with it!
I didn't really know what to expect when Beck's made, what, 35 albums or so? I remember in the late 90's being impressed with how prolific he was back then. There's whole swaths of Beck music that I'm unfamiliar with. On the way to the show I kept joking that really all I wanted to hear was Devil's Haircut sometime during the show and that would be enough. Guess what his opener was? I just looked over at my wife and laughed. There it was! The song I wanted! As the drunk guy a row away from us kept yelling, "When you're hot, you're hot!" (Seriously, he yelled it like six times throughout the night like it was his war cry.)
And really that set the vibe for the whole set list from Beck. He played the classics, the popular party music, and the familiar songs we aged to: The New Pollution, Wow, Nicotine & Gravy, Sexx Laws, Loser, Where It's At . . . all the jams. Mid set, Beck slowed it down and played a couple from arguably his most known slow heartbreak album (and my personal favorite) Sea Change. When he slowed it down, he played The Golden Age and Lost Cause -- both fantastic songs. The one I was hoping to hear was Lonesome Tears since I have a thing about that song, but alas, not played.
The band Beck was playing with last night is the same one he's been playing with since Odelay, and he explained this and made sure to call them out individually, which is nice. I imagine being a skilled musician backing a big front name like Beck, you tend to not get the spotlight. His praise for them didn't go unnoticed.
Near the end of the set, Beck was joined on Stage by Phoenix and they played the song they wrote together specifically for this tour: Odyssey. I was unfamiliar with it, but it was super danceable and was a great song I'd like to hear a few times again, felt like a very summer song.
At the very end of the show, all the bands got together on the stage while Beck sung about two turntables and a microphone and the audience was given a supply of giant balloons to toss around in one giant party moment. Spectacular to watch and provided my best photo moment of the night.
Happy we were able to go to this show. We spent too much money and had a lot of fun. Ultimately it was a great escape and a great celebration. You have to love how music can bring us all together as we feel the bass in our chest and the drums in our feet while beautiful chord progressions can take us out of ourselves 1000 million miles above the earth.
Happy Dueling!
2 comments:
I'd forgotten Devil's Haircut. Loser is the song I always associate with Beck. Gonna go listen to Devil's Haiorcut on YouTube right now...
Definitely an ear worm from the old days!
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