Andrew Bird – Logan Square Aud. 24 Nov 2006

Sorry for the delay hello.fan but better late than never I suppose.

So I had the pleasure to see Andrew Bird at the Logan Sq. Auditorium last Friday and I have to say it was probably the best show I have seen all year. But first things first.. openers.. We arrived at the west side Chicago antique ballroom a little early ready to stand in the line snakeing out the door and down the street (a little). Within 4 minutes we were inside and making our way up towards the stage. The Openers, The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International , were pretty good. A nice mix of 60’s esque african jazz with a little modern bass drum in the mix. They reminded me of a Marc Ribot cubanos postizos style band with a little more dance involved. Pretty good way to start out a show, they got the audience moving and ready for the next act.

The Bird set started out with Martin Dosh taking the stage by himself. He doodled a bit until Andrew showed up and added to the mix. They both looped things around swelling and building until everything stoped, and AB (Andrew Bird) started an intro to “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left” which both served as a beginning to the song and the chorus backup later(when he switched to a guitar for the different parts of the song). I LOVE the versions of the songs he played live, he changes the vocal rhythms and what not from the album versions. They translated very nicely to the live stage. I have heard that AB practices playing his stuff live a lot so the movement from the studio to the stage is seemless. Both AB and Dosh were really masters of looping. They used them as a way to accent the different sections of the song instead of using them as crutches (which annoys me greatly when bands use prerecorded or sampled loops to add structure to a song)

Anyway I thought Dosh was a really great backup player for AB, he has that laid back intense drumming that works well with AB’s song style. I do think that his solo stuff (Dosh’s) was a lot less interesting than when he played with AB. Great rhythms, just lacking in the melodic. Back to AB though, new songs sound fantastic ( album due in March ), older songs sounded great live, and the overall show I will rate on a scale of 4 lobster claws. ( 4 = best show of year )