The first night of Beck's two night stand at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium was championed by the subdued, acoustic guitar based folk of his standout 2002 album Sea Change and his most recent work, Morning Phase, released in February. For night two, he had something altogether different in mind.
The bright flashing lights and buzzsaw guitar riffs of set opener "Devil's Haircut" loudly blared to any of last night's holdovers that they weren't in Kansas anymore. Beck's indelible swagger and sing along delivery instantly made a deep impact upon everyone in the room, as he sidled up beside bandmembers and cut a rug all over the stage.
Beck got the ball rolling right off the bat and didn't let up, pummeling the room with crowd pleasing cuts early and often. He broke out the delectable deep cut "The New Pollution" from his defining 1996 album Odelay, tantalizingly merged "I Think I'm In Love" into Donna Summer's disco banger "I Feel Love," and also spun out the smooth, seductive alt/hip hop of "Black Tambourine." It was more than enough to keep all of our tambourines shaking.
He did pepper in a mellower mood periodically throughout the set. The mournful, contemplative mood of "Lost Cause" proved to be the sole Sea Change cut of the evening, while eerie electronics and deep cello swirled through the rafters during "Wave." Beck explained that he had begun work on Morning Phase in Nashville with the idea that he wanted to make a country based record before ultimately finishing up elsewhere. But he played a string of songs that developed from those Nashville sessions, including "Heart is a Drum," "Say Goodbye," and "Waking Light," all of which provided vast aesthetic differences from his early set material but were every bit as sing alongable.
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| It wasn't just Beck lighting it up; even his band brought raw intensity. |
Yet in a testament to the eclecticism of Beck, it wasn't long before the swelling emotional ocean of "Waking Light" gave way to the Gameboy bleeps and bloops that heralded "Girl," one of the singer's most prominent chart smashes after from "Loser." And speaking of "Loser," he got it out of the way early but holy balls did it turn the building upside down. He complemented it with other fun, quirky hip hop cuts "Que Onda Guero" and "Hell Yes."
After closing the main set with the caffeine high of hard rocker E-Pro, Beck's bandmates began mock bumping into each other and eventually collapsed into a gigantic heap on the floor, prompting Beck to roll out yellow police crime scene tape across the front of the stage. Then he put all his chips down for the encore.
After exploring the underbelly of freak funk with the darkly futuristic "Get Real Paid," he broke out two other cuts from Midnite Vultures for his encore. The dramatic bang of "Sexx Laws" led into the inevitable and indomitable strains "Debra," a falsetto soul love song to a girl working at a department store. He illustrated some of the song's scenes in spoken word, sweet talking Debra and then inviting her to take a ride in his Hyundai.
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| Beck tries to hide all evidence of his crimes. |
He could have called it a night right there, but Beck would not be vanquished without a fight. After briefly vanishing, he returned and broke into "Where It's At," before transitioning into the old gospel country stomper "One Foot in the Grave," complete with Beck going nuts on harmonica. He then segued that into a rendition of The Rolling Stone's "Miss You" before finishing it out with the final chorus of "Where It's At."
Those bigger on Beck's mellow side no doubt would have enjoyed the first night more, but speaking as someone who doesn't consider Morning Phase to be the man's best work, the setlist couldn't have been better. Save for the off kilter mellowness of Mutations, virtually every conceivable side of Beck was on display. And personally speaking, three Midnite Vultures cuts was nothing short of astounding. Apologies to those who consider his many deviations mere distractions, but this set represents the Beck you have got to see.
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