From the desk of:

Fribootdayleg. My Concert Forecast: Andrew Bird. Tonight. And from 1998.

Andrew Bird.  Like most mp3 bloggers, he is one of my favorite artists.  Unlike most mp3 bloggers he has been one of my favorite artists since late 1997.   If you don’t know who he is, then you probably couldn’t find your ass if you used both hands and had a map.  Get with the program, Jack.

The thing about Mr Bird is that every album he has released has been a stepping stone to his next sound.  They are all built on top of one another, but they are all so much different that you can’t really understand where he is going.  Comparing Thrills to Armchair Apocrypha is like looking at a fish and expecting it to turn into a human.   Nobody would expect it.

Andrew develops these sounds in his live shows.  His songs are usually wildly different live than they are on the album, pieces borrowed and traded between songs, melodies improved upon, and his vocals usually stretch much further than they did in the studio.   If his albums are stepping stones towards his ultimate destination — these live shows serve to connect the dots.

Tonight I get to see Andrew for the 15th (or so) time.  We’ll see if his transition to larger venues have changed the focus of his live shows.  Though I’m sure the all-ages crowd will be thrilled no matter what he does, hopefully he will continue forward with the evolution of his sound.

Here’s a show of his from Madison, WI — January 1998.

01: Andrew Bird – Glass Figurine
02: Andrew Bird – Candy Shop
03: Andrew Bird – Tea & Thorazine
04: Andrew Bird – Eugene
05: Andrew Bird – Cock o’ The Walk
06: Andrew Bird – Vidalia
07: Andrew Bird – Wishing for Contentment
08: Andrew Bird – Coney Island Shuffle
09: Andrew Bird – Honeysuckle Rose
10: Andrew Bird – Vidalia
11: Andrew Bird – Why?
12: Andrew Bird – After You’ve Gone
13: Andrew Bird – Wait
14: Andrew Bird – Depression-Pasillo

Note:  The sound quality certainly seems to change around tracks 8/9/10 — and you can see there is Vidalia on there two times.  I have no idea if this is actually two shows/two nights or if I just suck and posted a show that is in fact not really a show.  Deal with it.  Even though I’m as close to superhuman as you’ll find — I still make mistakes.  See you at the show.