We went and saw Andrew Bird at the Carolina Theatre this week. Aside from having probably my favorite album cover of the year (see picture), I really like Andrew's music and lyrics, both of which I would describe primarily as "intelligent." His lyrics tend to darker subject matter and include lots of literary illusions that are beyond me. He told one story at the show about eating alone at a restaraunt in France and hearing a loop of the same 4 crappy pop songs over and over. "And that made me think of the plasticities of the human mind." Of course.
Musically he uses a lot of violin, even plucked like a guitar, and whistling. At the show he had a xylophone and could play each note while hitting it exactly with a whistle at the same time! The concert was basically a one-man show; he would play and record a melody line, loop that while recording the base, then add that to the loop and continue with different layers. It was a little tiresome to have to do this for every song, but it was interesting to see the songs constructed in layers like that.
I was tired when I arrived at the show and was honestly more in the mood for some grooves. But he brought me in over the course of the first three songs. Like so often happens when I would watch my friend Tyson play, I felt like I was in the presence of someone who saw and heard things in the world in a completely different way than I usually do, and I was glad to see and hear a glimpse of their worlds.
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