I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: August 1, 20262] The Beths

I’ve been lucky enough to see The Beths five times in just under five years.  They always put on a great show.  Indeed, my wife and I saw a fantastic show at Union Transfer just before I had surgery in December.

So it was kind of crazy to see them again so soon, but they said it would be their last show in the U.S. for a while and, more importantly, it would be an all request show.

I didn’t really have any requests, although I would have liked to hear I’m Not Getting Excited, so I guess I did have a request.  But i was happy to let those with real opinions submit their requests instead.  I assumed it was done online, but instead, The Beths had a really fun series of ways to get to the requests.

As we walked in there was a box and a pile of bottle caps.  We were to vote for the opening song–either Knees Deep or No Joy.  I happen to love No Joy (it’s the song with the flute cannons), but Knees Dee won (it looked like by a landslide).  There was also a pile of papers where people were encouraged to write their requests and either make an airplane or a crumpled up ball.

After that first song they quickly had someone pick the encore–they chose whoever looks the most excited to be here and a guy in the back jumped super high and he was picked.  Guitarist Jonathan Pearce stressed the flow of a show and how carefully curated an encore should be and when the guy shouted out Lying in the Sun, Jonathan had to think about it before saying he could make that work.

Then it was “paper dart” time.  That’s what bassist Benjamin Sinclair called them, which was amazing.  Drummer Tristan Deck called them paper airplanes, so I wonder what the discrepancy is.

Each member of the band picked a missile (after putting on safety goggles).  And when the names were announced, a woman with a rubber pineapple on her head came out and wrote the setlist in a blackboard at the back of the stage.  It was funny and adorable, just like everything The Beths do.

The first request was a deeper cut from Expert in a Dying Field, but the other three were popular songs (two of which I’ve seen at every one of their shows) and I thought that that was awesome.  Because while I love to hear a deep cut, I didn’t want it to be all deep cuts that I didn’t know.  The person who requested Jump Rope Gazers had a missile shaped like a fish and when Benjamin opened it, he read that the person who was requesting the song was having it played at their wedding.

I assumed that they would grab four more paper airplanes, but they had a lot of things planned.  They had a large stuff fish that ha a microphone in it (!).   Jonathan threw it deep into the crowd and the person who caught it requested a song and then threw the fish back (while the Pineapple person pretended to reel the fish in with the fishing pole on the stage.

They tossed the fish out to another part of the audience and the person request Idea/Intent a song I had never heard of.  It turns out that this and Lying in the Sun (and an early version of Whatever) are from a 2016 EP called Warm Blood.  One more request came in over the fish and then they moved onto the next stage of the requests.  The tombola.

A tombola is a like a large bingo ball hamper that you spin and then take out the ball. But their pin pong balls had things written on them.  There must have been 100 balls in there–surely there were duplicates?

The first ball pulled out was for anyone who played the oboe.  There were apparently two people who did and the woman who raised her hand first chose Expert in a Dying Field (hooray).  The next ping pong balled asked for anyone named Beth. A woman near us said that she was indeed Beth, not Elizabeth.  She requested Ark of the Covenant. Then came anyone with a Beths tattoo.  A fellow in the middle of the audience held up his arm with a tattoo based on Change in the Weather, so the band guessed that that’s what he’s want to hear (they were right).

When Elizabeth Stokes  took her ping pong ball, she read it and I had to wonder if she didn’t read what was on the ball because she told us all that it was the Pineapple’s birthday today.  They told us that the pineapple was played by Annabelle and that it referenced their video for Happy Unhappy.   We sang happy birthday and the band brought out a cake and a massive cardboard card that you could see from the back of the venue, I’m sure.  She chose You Are a Beam of Light one of the few mellow songs in the set.  Jonathan even acknowledged that this was a very heavy, rocking show.

Jonathan said that they normally have a game in place for this last song, but instead there was a fan in the front row who made a choose A B or C game (complete with fish on the selections).  They called her up on the stage, and she got to hug Elizabeth.  They had the pineapple pick and she picked A (I wondered what was on B and C) which was Less Than Thou.

They said their thanks and left the stage and moments later came back for Lying in the Sun.  But before playing it, Elizabeth said that she had seen a sign in the crowd.  A woman near us held up a sin many times throughout the show and when Elizabeth called her out, she made the woman show off the banner to everyone.  Her request was Whatever, which I love and which was a great way to end the show.

Sure they played for only 90 minutes but it was just as fun as every other show by The Beths and I got to hear some fun deep cuts.

They had an inflatable fish that advertised Benjamin’s blog breakfast and travel updates.com but sadly there’s no update for Sayreville.   I wonder if they ate at the IHOP.  And for just a but more fun, someone had drawn a stack of pancakes and written IHOP on their drum head.

What a fun bunch of folks and what a great show.

 

		2026 (all request; Starland Ballroom)	2026 (opening for Spoon)
		Vote on the Way In	Straight Line Was a Lie ⇒ [2]
		Knees Deep ⊗ [3] [not No Joy]	No Joy ⇒ [2]
		Paper Airplanes/Paper Darts	Knees Deep ⊗ [2]
		Watching the Credits ⊗	Happy Unhappy  ¶ [2]
		Little Death  ¶ [5]	Mother, Pray for Me ⇒ [2]
		Metal ⇒ [3]	Best Left ⊗ [2]
		Jump Rope Gazers Ω [5] (fish shaped plane–song being played at their upcoming wedding)	Jump Rope Gazers Ω [4]
		Fishing for votes/plush fish with microphone	Metal ⇒ [2]
		River Run: Lvl 1 ¶ [2]	Til My Heart Stops ⇒ [2]
		Idea/Intent ♥	Little Death  ¶ [4]
		Best Laid Plans ⇒ [2]	Expert in a Dying Field ⊗ [3]
		Tombola
		Expert in a Dying Field ⊗ [4] [looking for an oboe player]
		Ark of the Covenant ⇒[2] [someone named Beth]
		Change in the Weather [someone with a Beths tattoo]
		You Are a Beam of Light Ω [2] [pineapple’s birthday choice]
		Front row fan made a game: choose A|B|C
		Less Than Thou [pineapple made the choice]
		Encore [voted on by the most excited person after the first song]
		Lying in the Sun ♥
		Whatever ¶♥ [2] [person near us held up a sign for most of the show, Elizabeth said they would play it too]

	2025 (Union Transfer from the ADA section)	2023 (Union Transfer)	2022 (Underground Arts)
	Straight Line Was a Lie ⇒	Future Me Hates Me ¶ [2]	I’m Not Getting Excited Ω
	No Joy ⇒	Knees Deep ⊗	Not Running  ¶
	Silence is Golden ⊗ [2]	Out of Sight Ω [2]	Great No One  ¶
	Future Me Hates Me ¶ [3]	A Passing Rain ⊗	A Real Thing [new]
	Metal ⇒	Not Running ¶ [2]	Happy Unhappy  ¶
	Til My Heart Stops ⇒	Best Left ⊗	Out of Sight Ω
	Mother, Pray for Me ⇒	Dying to Believe Ω [2]	Acrid Ω
	Your Side ⊗	I Want to Listen ⊗	Jump Rope Gazers Ω
	Uptown Girl  ¶ [2]	Head in the Clouds ⊗	Uptown Girl  ¶
	Mosquitoes ⇒	Jump Rope Gazers Ω [2]	When You Know You Know ¢/⊗
	Ark of the Covenant ⇒	I Told You That I Was Afraid ⊗	Mars, the God of War Ω
	Jump Rope Gazers Ω [3]	When You Know You Know ⊗ [2]	Whatever  ¶
	Best Laid Plans ⇒	I’m Not Getting Excited Ω [2]	Little Death  ¶
	Little Death  ¶ [3]	You Wouldn’t Like Me ¶	Future Me Hates Me  ¶
	I’m Not Getting Excited Ω [3]	Silence is Golden ⊗	River Run: Lvl 1  ¶
	Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Hugh Martin cover)	Expert in a Dying Field ⊗	Dying to Believe Ω
	Expert in a Dying Field ⊗ [2]	encore
	encore	You Are a Beam of Light Ω
	Roundabout ⇒ [Roundabout replaced Take since roundabouts / traffic circles came up earlier in the show.  First time as closer.]	Little Death ¶ [2]