Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I actually broke my never-go-out streak and caught Andrew Bird last night at the Hi-Tone. He was just as wonderful as he was the first time I saw him, although he was a little less chatty. In fact, right after he finished, he wandered over and sat on the side of the stage. I touched him on the shoulder and said, "Thanks for coming. I really enjoyed it," and he looked panicked. I didn’t mean to scare the boy. Perhaps he was more comfortable the last time I saw him because he was doing a series of gigs with Kristin Hersh (or Throwing Muses fame) and Howe Gelb. They did some songs together and all spoke with each other on stage. Also, Bloomington has a smaller scene, and he’d been there a few times in his earlier career and really had a strong and loyal fan base built-up. Or maybe it’s the same here, and he was just having a quiet night.

He’s fascinating to watch on stage. He has five basic instruments to work with: his violin, his guitar, his voice, his whistle, and his glockenspiel. He records while he performs, so most songs begin with a basic violin phrase, which he records live the first time or two around. He then plays that recording (called looping) and adds another instrument. He creates a complex mesh of sound which builds as he adds and sometimes subtracts each voice (by "voice," I mean each instrument as it fits into the macro-mesh or sound he’s creating). His whistle is really something on its own. It’s a clear whistle with added vibrato (I’ve never worked out how to do that), and it is reminiscent of what one might hear when hanging around a ghost town in the old west. One with tumbleweeds rolling slowly pass. There may be a gunfight later. He often doubles his whistle with the glock, which somehow adds a childish humor to the whole thing.

His lyrics are more like word games than poetry. At first, they reminded me of Kristin Hersh’s lyrics, although hers really reflect her bipolar tendencies. His may seem that way at first, but when he was talking abount the origins of one song, he said that he’d been coming up with phrases that sounded like palindromes but that technically weren’t. He was doing this as a way to keep himself awake on a long drive during a tour. He noted the cadence of palindromes, whereas most word freaks would be more likely to note the strict rules involved. The other inspiration for this song was the watering down of another song about a dating service for people who were into trefination, but, as he said last night, a song just about that was a little too concept-heavy! Concept heavy indeed! He’s a word freak and a surrealist, and he gets the cadence of language.

The guy has a stellar sense of pitch. This matters to me because I also have this gift (if you don’t know this to be true, trust me on this one). His pitch is excellent on all instruments. When he’s even slightly sharp or flat (which is rare), he self-corrects instantly. I know this seems like a real basic thing to compliment, but I find that to be such a rarity, and I always prize those who respect the key, the pitch, and quality of tone.

He took the crowd on a real ride, and people were really listening. Andrew Bird does this to crowds. They can’t keep hitting on each other or discussing how drunk they got last night or anything else when this man is on stage. It just isn’t possible. He is just too damn captivating.