[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. (more…)
