I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 8, 2023] Beck

My wife and I have seen Beck three times now and his shows are always fun.

It’s interesting that his shows tend to be pretty short–he does a lot of co-headlining tours.   He also doesn’t tour that often–3 tours in 9 years.

Beck has put out a couple of albums in the last decade or so, but he didn’t play anything from his most recent album (Hyperspace) or the mellow Morning Phase.  And only one song from Colors.

The show focuses a lot on Modern Guilt and Odelay–he told us that this was the first tour that the Odelay band had played together since that album: guitarist Jason Falkner (who played on the last tour andwas amazing), bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen and drummer Joey Waronker (were both new to me). On the top row was longtime keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and percussionist Ian Longwell (new to me and excellent).

The set was a mix of big hits and some weird older cuts.  This being the third time we’ve seen him, this show was almost like a mashup of the last two tours.

Like the first time we saw him, he opened with Devil’s Haircut followed soon after with The New Pollution.  Notable was that bassist Meldal-Johnsen was a maniac, adding in all the weird backing vocals and deep growls.  He also bounced around and was having a great old time.

On the way home I told my wife that I was so happy for her because he played just about everything she wanted to hear–not always the case with concerts.

He played “Qué Onda Güero” and “Girl” in a row which was fantastic.

Things mellowed out with the trippy “Wow,” which had a fun video.  Speaking of videos, like Phoenix, Beck used the same big screen framing device to show pictures and floating animations.

I felt that Phoenix’s images were better But beck’s were also cool.  They were a little more trippy and surreal than Phoenix’s more realistic look.  They still looked neat though, to see Beck and the band floating around or standing inside a house.

Then he asked if there were any Midnight Vultures out there.  This led to the funky “Nicotine & Gravy” which sounded great.  It segued into “Debra” a goofy song that is fun but tends to drag on (although apparently only to me since everyone around us loved it).  I was kind of hoping that he’d reference local Philly stores in his rambling story about picking up Debra in his Hyundai, but he only mentioned Olive Garden.

Phoenix had said earlier that they had a day off and got to hang out in Phil having a great time. They went to an art gallery and played soccer.  Beck said that he was in a mandatory meeting in NYC and didn’t get to hang out in Philly.  So maybe that’s why he didn’t have a local place to mention.

He played two songs that I sort of recognized–they were both from Modern Guilt.  I especially enjoyed the loud slide guitars in “Soul of a Man.”

Before the show, my wife joked  that she hoped he wouldn’t only play sings from the mellow Sea Change.  When things quieted down, and he came out with just an acoustic guitar, I nudged her because here was some Sea Change.  But it was a lovely version of “Golden Age” which we hadn’t heard him play live.

He continued playing his guitar and started “Lost Cause,” a sad but wonderful song.  And then Thomas Mars from Phoenix came out to sing with him.  Midway through the song Weyes Blood came out and her beautiful soaring voice was a nice change from the deeper voices the rest of the night had featured so far (we missed Weyes Blood and Sir Chloe).

Phoenix stayed out on stage to play “Odyssey”–the newish single that I really like–although I had no idea that that was the name of the song (or even that Beck was co-performer).  But it was fun and sounded great.  It also seemed like a set ender–with all of those people on stage.

But the stage darkened and then the horns from Beck’s “Sexx Laws” started and the funky dancing started all over again.

After the trippy “Dreams,” the end of the show took off with a rousing version of “Loser.”  I remember when this weirdo song came out almost thirty years ago and I’m thrilled that it’s still in his setlist.

It was followed by “E-Pro” another super catchy song that my wife and I love (she loves Guero).

Everyone left the stage and Beck returned with his harmonica and his acoustic guitar.  On the previous tour, he played “One Foot in the Grave” this way and it was great.  Honestly, I was pretty wiped out by this time so the bluesy harmonica stomp of “One Foot” was a little tedious.  But it did lead into a raging full on performance of “Where It’s At” and that was a fantastic way to end.  All of the opening bands came on stage (I wonder what Sir Chloe did from 6:30 to 11?).  They also send out giant balloons into the crowd (they never made it to us in the second section back, bummer).

It all felt like a wonderful summer party.

And, yes, in four years, we’ll definitely see him again.

2023 Mann Center	2019 PNC	2014 BB&T
Devils Haircut Ø	Loser ¥	Devil’s Haircut Ø
Gamma Ray ℑ	Up All Night ⊗	Black Tambourine ¿
The New Pollution Ø	Girl ¿	The New Pollution Ø
Qué Onda Güero ¿	Qué Onda Güero ¿	Gamma Ray ℑ
Girl ¿	Mixed Bizness ∇	I Think I’m in Love Î / I Feel Love (Donna Summer)
Wow ⊗	Debra ∇	Soul of a Man ℑ
Nicotine & Gravy ∇	Wow ⊗	Loser ¥
Debra ∇	Saw Lightning ⇔	Beercan ¥
Soul of a Man ℑ	Dreams ⊗	Hell Yes ¿
Golden Age ¢	Devils Haircut Ø	Sissyneck Ø / Billie Jean
Lost Cause ¢ (with Phoenix and Weyes Blood)	Go It Alone ¿	Blue Moon §
Odyssey (Beck & Phoenix)	The New Pollution Ø	Lost Cause ¢
Sexx Laws ∇	Dear Life ⊗	Wave §
Dreams ⊗	Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime (The Korgis cover)	Waking Light §
Loser ¥	Lost Cause ¢	Girl ¿
E-Pro ¿	E-Pro ¿	E-Pro ¿
encore	encore	encore
One Foot in the Grave ξ	Where It’s At Ø	Sexx Laws ∇
Where It’s At Ø	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)
⇔ Hyperspace (2019)