I was kinda laid up this weekend, fighting off the dying remains of a head and chest cold that sidelined me earlier in the week. Whilst spending Saturday night on the couch in my pajamas, hot toddy and dog by my side, I happened to catch some of Andrew Bird performing on PBS’ Austin City Limits. In a word, whoa.
Now, I don’t know that I really buy into “the healing power of song” or other similarly new age-y remedies. Give me a bottle of NyQuil any day. That said, Bird’s TV performance got me really excited for his show at Higher Ground tonight — and in particular for opening act St. Vincent, who also appeared on the broadcast — and may just have served as the lift I needed to put that bit of nastiness behind me. I awoke Sunday feeling better than I had in days. Of course, that also may have had something to do with aforementioned hot toddies and NyQuil. Whatever.
Anyway, here’s a recent clip of Bird performing with St. Vincent. Hope it whets your, um, whistle.
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sounds like a good idea to me. Sometimes nightly national acts in such a tiny market make it hard for local bands. It’s amazing that higher ground can have as many shows as they do. I’ve lived in college towns that are much larger than Burlington that could never support a schedule like Higher Ground.
glad someone else enjoyed the Andrew Bird show. can’t imagine how difficult all of that looping/instrument juggling must be to pull off, and to do it with the style and artistry that he does…yeah, i’m impressed. great artist, that Andrew Bird.I was kinda surprised how many people were there, too. didn’t realize Mr. Bird had that much of a following in VT.
that’s exactly what I did last time I was at the Paradise and I dropped like another $15.
Good idea! Seems like it would work well for the venue and showgoers.An aside… I was in a tiny town in Missouri the other day and the local crazy guy was sitting in his lawn drinking out of those new MHL cans. I just thought he was drinking from a 30-year-old stockpile (he rambled about Vietnam and stuff, and tried to smoke us up…). Now I know.
Ahhh . . . the High Life!
It’s a great idea, if only they would consider it. I think its come up before and been rejected out of hand, but that’s all hear say. I do remember a particularly bad instance of it, though. My band was playing in the showcase lounge with a slew of other locals… there were maybe thirty people in the audience, real sparse. Next door in the big room there was a John Hiatt acoustic show (don’t get me started on that guy) that got out as we were starting. I guess whoever was working the doors said to the departing (mostly yuppy) crowd, “Hey, feel free to check out the show in the showcase lounge!” So about a couple dozen of them did in fact come over, right as our set started. As it was already 12:30 on a Wednesday night we were drunk, pissed off and trying to motivate our little crowd, so some very heavy shit followed. I remember looking up and seeing this gaggle of Aspen sweater wearing balding dudes standing in a horrified circle, trying to down their beers as fast as they could and escape the noise. I actually spied an old college professor in their group. We said the next song was a Jimmy Buffett cover to see if they would stick around, but alas, they fled. Our drummer contends to this day that one of them hung around and became a fan. I think he was high.
Sounds like a good idea to me.I wasn’t enamored with Bird though. The whole show felt flat to me. The guy’s music is beautiful but he seemed detached from the show. Plus, I was disappointed to see he had added another musician to the band. I was looking forward to the carnival aspect of watching two guys produce all of those sounds.Then again, any show would have felt flat following Monday’s Okkervil River show.