[ATTENDED: July 28, 2014] Beck
It was five years ago that S. and I saw Beck live.
For that show, I went in with lowered expectations. I thought the show was going to be a lot of Morning Phase, a mellow album he had just released, but it turned out to be a ton of fun. S. remembers it as one of her favorite concerts ever. So when I saw that he was touring and coming to Holmdel, I was excited to get tickets.
Then I saw how much they were. Tickets were over $100 for most normal seats and the front section was well over $100. So there was no way I was getting tickets for that. Then I remembered the awesome feature at PNC Bank Arts Center. If there are seats available before the show you can upgrade a lawn seat for $20. So we bought $30 lawn seats and then a few days before the show, we took advantage of the upgrade and for $20 more, we were moved to Row N!
And Row N is a great vantage point.
Needless to say, our expectations were pretty high for this. And Beck did not disappoint. Well, maybe a little.
Cage the Elephant were certainly a tough act to follow. I mean that literally. At the end of Cage the Elephant, with Matt Shultz standing in the back of the venue on the backs of chairs, arms raised in the air to the strains of “We Are the Champions”… I mean that’s a show stopper.
But Beck has his own kind of theatricality. And while there wasn’t fire or jumping into the crowd, there was a lot of visual and a lot of charisma.
The real disappointment was that since Cage went on about ten minutes late, it seemed to push back Beck’s start time back by almost 15 minutes. He was only scheduled to play for 75 minutes to start with. I don’t look at setlists before shows, but after the show I found out that he has been playing Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up” with Britt Daniel from Spoon during the encore. And we didn’t get that. Which sucks because I love the song and that would have been really fun to see. [I have since watched it online from a different night and I see that the whole song was about 90 seconds long. So I guess it’s okay that they didn’t do it, but at the same time, what’s 90 seconds?
But that was disappointment after the fact During the set it felt it was all energy and vitality.
The show opened with a guitar ripping through the quiet as Beck stood atop a mirrored box and played a noisy acoustic slide guitar. This led perfectly into the intro to Loser.
I had just said to S. that I didn’t really care if he played “Loser” and there he was opening with it. I loved that his rhythm guitarist Mark Walloch was playing a sitar (modified I guess) for the sitar sound in “Loser.” It sounded great–better than on record.
Indeed, the production of his live show is so great that every song he played sounded better than the live version–with one exception, later.
In continuing with the overdressed theme of the night Beck was also in a suit and hat. Nevertheless, he sang and danced around, just a ball of energy.
I wasn’t sure what songs this show would be bringing. Since he started with “Loser,” I wondered if it was going to be a kind of greatest hits show. But no indeed, for “Loser” segued into the rocking “Up All Night” from the not yet released new album.
There was an enormous projection screen at the back of the stage and Beck used it fully. There were mostly colors and shapes bouncing around, but sometimes there were song appropriate videos, too.
The highlight of the night for me was seeing just how excited S. was when “Up All Night” finished and Beck dedicated the next song to all of the summertime girls and played one her favorite songs ever, “Girl.” It was wonderful. The whole place sang along.
He finished the great quartet of opening songs with “Qué Onda Güero.” It is almost the 15 year anniversary of Guero and maybe that’s why he played four songs from it tonight.
When we saw him last time, he played 19 or so songs and this night he played about the same. I was really impressed about how many different songs there were for this tour. I know e has a lot of records out, but he really mixed up the setlist nicely.
In addition to the new songs (4 from Colors) he mixed up some of the older songs too. Last time he played “Debra” and “Sexxx Laws” from Midnight Vultures. This time it was “Debra” and “Mixed Bizness”–a really fun song. For “Debra” he stretched out the slow sexy section–he sang in his impressive falsetto, “step inside my Hyundai.” He encouraged everyone who was with someone to sing to their baby how much we loved them. Don’t be embarrassed.
The one song that I felt didn’t quite compare to the album was “Wow.” It felt a little slow and a little long. I do have to wonder if it was because I had earplugs in for these quieter songs too, but it didn’t feel as powerful as the others.
But that energy quickly changed when he played the new single “Saw Lightning.” That song has been on the radio a lot and I really like it. It sounded even more fun live. The next song, “Dreams” was also fantastic–a wonderful rocking guitar riff and hugely dancable song.
Beck has put out more than a dozen records so it’s anybody’s guess what songs he will play. But the trio of older songs “Devils Haircut,” “Go It Alone” and “The New Pollution” was outstanding. Everyone in the place was singing along to the nonsensical lyrics.
The whole band is really tight and solid through these songs. He introduced everyone, but I missed all of their names. I’ve looked online and think I got them right. There were two guys playing keys and percussion (and keytar) up on the left side of the stage. One of the was Cal Campbell. The other was Roger Manning–THE Roger Manning who I’ve known about since my days as a college DJ. Wow indeed.
There was a great bassist up on that higher level with them. He was Dwayne Moore and man he could do it all–every genre that Beck dabbles in, Moore was there to make it sound fantastic.
Off to the side was the amazing drummer Chris Coleman. Holy cow, he was beating the drums into submission–and most of the beasts to Beck’s songs are fast, He kept up an amazing rhythm all night.
The last time we saw him, he was touring for Morning Phase. For this show, he didn’t play anything from that album. In fact he didn’t play anything from the albums after Guero (Morning Phase, Modern Guilt or The Information) except the new songs of course.
He followed this trio of old songs with my favorite song from Colors, “Dear Life.” I think this song is just fantastic and it sounded great.
Up next was a song that I didn’t know. Was it new? Was it a song from an album I haven’t listened to? Neither, it turns out. This was a cover song by the Korgis (who I have also never heard of). The song is “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime.” It seemed off that he would play a rare cover mid set, but it turns out that he had released it in 2004 on the soundtrack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Talk about a deep cut. I wonder what made him dig up this slow rarity.
Mostly it served as an opportunity for lots of people to sit down.
When the song ended everybody left the stage and he played a lovely, brief version of “Lost Cause” on acoustic guitar. According to one (rather negative) review of the show, the critic said that Beck played shortened versions of “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime” and “Lost Cause.” Obviously I didn’t recognize it in the first one, but it did seem like “Lost Cause” was really short. Which is a shame because it sounded really nice.
Then everyone came out for the chaotic ending of “E-Pro.” I loved the way “E-Pro” ended last time with noise and chaos and everybody running around the stage. It wasn’t quite as crazy this time, but it was still a lot of fun.
Quite possibly my favorite person on stage was guitarist Jason Falkner. He’s a wild guitarist and he does some amazing solos. Plus he’s really fun to watch.
We had been hoping that he’d play “Black Tambourine” (which he played last time and it was an incredibly version). I actually couldn’t imagine what he’d play for an encore (how easy it is to forget people’s hits after hearing so many other songs). Because of course, the encore was “Where It’s At.”
It sounded great–everyone sang and clapped their hands.
There also appeared from nowhere gigantic balloons. Interestingly, there must have been a breeze in the seating area because all of the balloons seemed to float down to the left. But that’s okay, it gave Jason Falkner a chance to kick some out to us, and to grab a rest on one while Beck left to get his harmonica. He played a stomping harmonica and drum version of “One Foot in the Grave.”
Instead of “Pump It Up,” the show ended with Beck calling Matt Shultz back to the stage to duet on “Night Running” (hence the name of the Night Running tour, which I didn’t understand until now). Beck sings this song on the Cage the Elephant album.
After a fun duet with this song, the band segued back into “Where It’s At” as confetti cannons went off and more balloons came out. I saw someone walk out with one of those giant balloons–how do you fit that in the car? This confetti cannon would be the first of three confetti experiences I would have within a few days of each other.
As “Where It’s At” was jamming on all manner of people seemed to come out on stage and it was full on party. As the song drew to a close, Matt and Beck danced off the stage. I love that in the pictures below, they stayed in basically the same pose with the backing video changing so it almost looks Photoshopped.
And best of all (well, maybe), a ton of people had cleared out already so when we got to the parking lot, we were out in less than a minute and were home in about 40. Now THAT’s a night out!
I think the previous show was a little bit better overall, but this one was still pretty great.
And it was a fantastic (and long night overall) with four great bands on the bill.
| 2019 PNC | 2014 BB&T |
| Loser ¥ | Devil’s Haircut Ø |
| Up All Night ⊗ | Black Tambourine ¿ |
| Girl ¿ | The New Pollution Ø |
| Qué Onda Güero ¿ | Gamma Ray ℑ |
| Mixed Bizness ∇ | I Think I’m in Love Î / I Feel Love (Donna Summer) |
| Debra ∇ | Soul of a Man ℑ |
| Wow ⊗ | Loser ¥ |
| Saw Lightning | Beercan ¥ |
| Dreams ⊗ | Hell Yes ¿ |
| Devils Haircut Ø | Sissyneck Ø / Billie Jean |
| Go It Alone ¿ | Blue Moon § |
| The New Pollution Ø | Lost Cause ¢ |
| Dear Life ⊗ | Wave § |
| Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime (The Korgis cover) | Waking Light § |
| Lost Cause ¢ | Girl ¿ |
| E-Pro ¿ | E-Pro ¿ |
| encore | encore |
| Where It’s At Ø | Sexx Laws ∇ |
| One Foot in the Grave ξ | Debra ∇ |
| Night Running (Cage the Elephant cover) (with Matt Shultz) | Where It’s At > One Foot In The Grave ξ > Where It’s At Ø |
| Where It’s At Reprise Ø |
ξ Stereopathic Soulmanure (1994)
¥ Mellow Gold (1994)
Ø Odelay (1996)
∇ Midnight Vultures (1999)
¢ Sea Change (2002)
¿ Guero (2005)
Î The Information (2006)
ℑ Modern Guilt (2008)
§ Morning Phase (2014)
⊗ Colors (2017)
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