Wendy and I went to see Andrew Bird at Webster Hall on Thursday. This was all part of my not terribly elaborate plan to turn Wendy into a fan. The plan basically consisted of having her come to the concert with me and hoping she liked him, while simultaneously refraining from making comments like, "his last name is Bird and you like birds so you should like him." This plan was nearly sidelined by the fact that Wendy is sick. I'm finally feeling pretty good after spending the last couple weeks feeling icky but whatever I had, I clearly passed it on. And on Thurday and Friday she was in that oh-my-god-I-want-to-die phase of this particular illness, telling people I'd given her the plague. But she came anyway and had a very nice time. We sat on the couches at the back and she was glad she hauled herself out of bed.
Anyway, Bird was great which was no surprise. He always comes off as just a genuinely nice person. And despite the fact that his music is riddled with postmodern anxiety and all that implies, with the looped sounds, the at times fraught lyrics, etc. I find his music strangely comforting. I think it's that he's using technology to create music in a way that's really very organic. The constant changing and evolution of the songs, the fact that he can do that when working with a band, the complexity of it all, makes me feel quite peaceful even when the subject matter isn't.
And I can't say enough about his cover of Oh, Sister so I just won't say much about it all except that it's painfully beautiful.
A couple dark, but good sounding videos that someone put up on YouTube from the show Thursday:
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