Andrew Bird @ The Vanguard, Sydney
Last night Andrew Bird brought the Armchair Apocrypha campaign to an end in Sydney. His fifth show in the city in three weeks (and second night in a row at The Vanguard), Mr. Bird seemed very appreciative of his experiences in Australia. Unlike his shows at the Spiegeltent, Andrew was without his band (which disappointed me a touch) so it was just one man, one violin, one guitar, and some technology.
Saying early on that he felt “a little spontaneous” Andrew’s show would feature some pretty obscure songs that would please the hardcore, but, sadly, on the whole the show left me just a tad underwhelmed. While his performances were pretty much without fault, the show seemed to lack flow. But really, this is a minor quibble and, to be fair, I’d seen Arcade Fire (x2), Bjork and Joanna Newsom all in the previous few days so my “Entertain Me” levels were on Ridiculous Level.
The obscure songs included The Confession (which Andrew said he had not played in a decade), Sectionate City (off his new EP) and a new song Anonanimal. Andrew also found the time to cover a couple tunes including the old blues standard Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning and Tin Foil by the Handsome Family.
A beautiful rendition of Spare-Ohs featured Holly Throsby on backing vocals while Darren Hanlon popped out to play guitar on Tables and Chairs which was a perfect way to end the main set. A short encore was capped off by Weather Systems, which I thought was on odd way to end the set, but I really love that song so I definitely left happy, but not as happy as his show last year. But like I said, dude followed some pretty heavy company this week and I will never refute the claim that Andrew Bird is a genius.
Setlist
Intro
Action/Adventure
Why?
Measuring Cups
The Confession
Scythian Empires
A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left
Sectionate City
Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
Spare-Ohs*
Anonanimal
Plasticities
Tables and Chairs**
——
Tin Foil***
Weather Systems
* with Holly Throsby
** with Darren Hanlon
*** with Holly and Darren
Download (both from this show)
Andrew Bird – Spare-Ohs (live)
Andrew Bird – Tables and Chairs (live)
The major bonus of the night was my fellow countryman Joel Plaskett in support mode. It’s the second time I’ve seen him since moving to Sydney (never saw him before I left!) and his tunes evoke so much Canada that I was smiling through most of this set. The prairies! The CBC! New Brunswick! Like Andrew Bird, Joel was in solo mode and he pulled much of his set from La De Da which was welcome if slightly surprising as that record’s a bit old now. But opening up with I Love This Town was perfect…damn right Kelowna sucks! A very enjoyable set…but man he talked a lot!
Wayne was there too…and yet again, we did not meet. You are a phantom.
I’m going to vent a bit about the venue now. I know it’s a great little room, but if you’re not at a table, it kinda sucks. The sight lines from the balcony (unless you are in row 1 or 2) are the worst in any venue I’ve ever been to and I left the place with a sore neck. As Maria pointed out, it’s pretty hard to justify $50 to sit on a kitchen chair and stare at the back of the head in front of you.
Added bonus to the evening. I met Richie Cuthbert on the street after the gig. King Street. In Newtown! La la la la la la. They’ve got a Hoey residency on in February. Go check ‘em out.
Since all my photos would have had someone else’s head in them, I stole the one above from this place. Cheers.
January 29th, 2008 23:30
I met wayne at spoon, he is lovely. I was probably standing next to him for a while and while I had never seen a picture of him, on a whim I said are you Wanye aka oceans never listen? And lo and behold it was.
So there is the story of how cara met wanye.
I know that once you and Amanda finally meet him, he’ll be everywhere.
Andrew Bird sounded nice.
Although, I think gig wise we are all going to have to substantially lower our expectations, if we ever not want to be too disappointed or under whelmed for the rest of the year or the decade.
January 30th, 2008 08:53
Cara, you are making me blush. It was great to meet you at Spoon too.
Sean, trust me I do exist. Surely we can find a way to meet at the next mutual gig we go to. I do like wearing my blue Wolf Parade T-Shirt if that helps. And I might be wrong, but I am guessing Andrew Bird would have been a better experience with a table downstairs.
January 30th, 2008 10:00
oh i’m sure it would have been. i still really enjoyed the gig…it just wasn’t as amazing as i thought it would be, that’s all.
i will keep an eye out for wolf parade shirts.
January 30th, 2008 15:27
Yeah, I think I’m done with standing at the Vanguard. It just ruined the whole night for me.
The number of times I was almost pushed over by waiters trying to deliver massive cheese platters to the Gentlemen sitting at the table closest to me was ridiculous.
Highlight of my night was squeezing past Andrew Bird seductively on my way to the toilets, haha. Oh Andrew!
January 30th, 2008 16:39
haha Maria
My highlight was the realisation that Andrew Bird is older than me.
Rock stars just seem to be getting younger and younger, so that was a bonus
Wayne, are you going to Laneway?
January 30th, 2008 17:14
Definitely Amanda, Okkervil River, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Feist. I can’t wait. Going to all their sideshows too!
January 30th, 2008 17:25
i couldn’t agree more about the vanguard. i had so many friends rave about it as a venue but i found it seriously lackluster. perhaps too many standing tickets were sold, but at $50 a pop i was unimpressed to find my tall self bobbing and weaving to get a half-decent line of sight. that said, my real gripe was with the infuriating bar staff who utilised andrew’s last song and encore to very noisily clean the bar. perscussion of spray-and-wipe and clanging bottles didn’t really sit well with the gorgeous set andrew delivered. and with a cheeky 15% public holiday surcharge i would have thought the venue could have paid them 15 minutes overtime to clean after the headline act was complete.
anyway, enough venting of spleen – the music was brilliant. i was very impressed by joel plaskett, who my friend likened to a canadian darren hanlon right before darren himself walked through the door. and we have been spoilt for gigs in sydney recently… hopefully year continues as well as it has begun.