Archive for the ‘live show’ Category

Beck Summer Tour 2012

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

Beck’s little batch of tour dates kicks off today!

In case you missed it, Beck is doing 4 shows this week up the west coast headed to Sasquatch Festival in Washington, 2 shows in NYC around the Governor’s Ball Festival, and then 2 shows in August including Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco.  I have no idea if other shows are in the cards or not (I’d hope so).  I also have no idea what to expect, but do know that Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Joey Waronker are in the band again.  One site claims Smokey Hormel is back also!  We’ll know in about six hours if that’s true.  :)

If anyone is going to any of these shows, please keep good track of the setlist for me and send it along.  If anyone wants to ustream it through their phone back to Beck fans worldwide, also let me know and we’ll host your stream link.

Also, similarly, I’ve been updating Hijacked Flavors with lots of information lately, mostly opening acts and band members and stuff.  But if anyone saw Beck, in the ’90s in particular, and remembers ANYTHING about the shows please pass it on.  Even if it’s a vague recollection or just one song you remember for sure I’d like to add it.  :)

Finally, join our Facebook group: more ‘news’-y things happen there than I care to post regularly here.  :)  Also if everything works out I’ll occasionally post in there live from the shows I’m going to (tonight and Thursday).

Tonight’s show, I won’t lie, is making me quite nostalgiac.  Not only with JMJ, RJMJ, Smokey and Joey… but the El Rey.  My first Beck concert was in 1997 on the Odelay tour, and it was awesome.  But it was the second one I saw at the El Rey shortly after the Odelay tour that really kicked off my Beck bootleg collecting.  That night, “Beck and Friends” played a whole bunch of acoustic/country vibe songs, as a sort of way to come down after the long Odelay tours.  Hearing Odelay live was amazing, but realizing Beck could also play other styles?  Since I couldn’t go to every concert, I took to listening to as many as possible.  And here we are.  Beck’s at the El Rey again.  14.5 years later.

I hope it’s not a pure nostalgiac show (except for “Where It’s At”), I’m not ready for Beck to go there.  So fingers crossed this summer leads to some news about more regular new music.  But regardless, there’s going to be some good concerts!

Beck news

Monday, August 29th, 2011

So as I like to do every so often, I’ll try to summarize what Beck’s been up to in case you missed anything. And, yes, despite the lack of official Beck material, he’s actually been pretty busy! (First, check beck.com for some current news, like Autumn DeWilde’s photo book.)

Foremost, Beck has continued with the producer chapter of his career. After the Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jamie Lidell albums last year, this year he has also done albums with Thurston Moore and Stephen Malkmus. Both of those kept Beck in the news, as much of the press around their release was focused somewhat on Beck’s production. (And even some joint interviews with Beck.) Coming up, there are some more Charlotte Gainsbourg tracks (an EP and a sort of compilation album but with new material) that Beck produced, including some songs like “Paradisco” that Beck played live a few years back. Also on the producer-front, Beck is apparently producing Dwight Yoakam’s upcoming album. (!) I’m actually really getting into the idea that Beck is a producer at the moment. It’s a great position for his talents.

Beyond the producer thing, most everything else is on hiatus: Record Clubs, new albums, everything. Beck in a recent interview with Pitchfork sounded like he’s pretty unsure how to proceed, so I guess we’ll have to be patient! (And if you haven’t read that interview, go do it, it’s fairly revelatory.)

However, Beck has started doing the occasional live thing, which after a few years away from the stage is nice to see. He did a charity concert in San Francisco in May. And last night, he was the headliner of a Serge Gainsbourg tribute concert. The show, which was apparently mostly Beck’s idea, featured many singers doing the songs of Serge Gainsbourg. The house band also included Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Joey Waronker, James Gadson, and Justin Meldal-Johnsen. Beck sang 4 songs: “Nefertiti,” “Teenie Weenie Boppie,” “Les Sucettes,” and “Ah! Melody.”

I was there and filmed the first 3 songs: sorry the video quality is poor, I wasn’t close, but it sounds ok:

My video got linked around the web on some of the bigger news sites and blogs, which is great. Hope you all enjoy it! It just goes to show though: Beck, we’re all still here. We’re all still hungry for anything you want to give us, even if it’s a shaky dark clip of you singing “Teenie Weenie Boppie.” Any bit of Beck news is pored over, from recent interviews to 10-seconds of a new song being in a movie trailer (“Curfew”). Your base, Beck, is waiting… :)

Beck Warm-Up Show/Benefit on March 11

Friday, March 6th, 2009

Beck is playing a benefit show at The Echo on March 11, benefitting Educating Children International.   I assume it is also to warm-up for the upcoming Japanese tour. Tickets at ticketweb.com if you’re in the Los Angeles area.

Club Nokia Show #2

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

I would say the second night at Club Nokia was pretty similar in quality, but different enough in setlist to make it worthwhile. If I had to choose, I liked the second night better, even though the opening act (Jay Reatard) was completely off the mark (i.e., lame). Regardless, Beck came out and opened up with “Where It’s At” — a unique choice to open with, I don’t recall that happening before. It’s great for a show to start with those chords! “Pay No Mind” was tonight’s “Hollow Log,” a short acoustic thing Beck tossed out that was not on the official setlist. Surprisingly, “Devils Haircut” may have been my favorite song of the night. Beck introduced “Star Power” as “we’re going to cover a Sonic Youth song,” and they pretty much nailed it. He also said this was his last show of the year.

1. Where It’s At
2. Girl
3. Devils Haircut
4. Que Onda Guero
5. Mixed Bizness
6. Nicotine & Gravy
7. Hell Yes
8. Black Tambourine / Clap Hands
9. Modern Guilt
10. Orphans
11. Soul Of A Man
12. Think I’m In Love
13. Star Power
14. Missing
15. The Golden Age
16. Lost Cause
17. Pay No Mind (Snoozer)
18. Chemtrails
19. Loser
20. Nausea
21. Gamma Ray (with Jay Reatard)
22. Timebomb
23. Minus
24. Indefatiguable
25. E-Pro

Club Nokia show #1

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Beck has scheduled two shows at the grand opening of Club Nokia, a new club in downtown Los Angeles. Last night was the first. It was a loud, rocking show, almost ferocious in its attack. It felt like to me that a lot of people were there for the grand opening of LA’s new club, and not Beck, which was a mixed blessing. The crowd was stoked most of the time and really into it, but at the same time it seemed to lack something normal LA club shows have. Anyway, it was fun.

Jenny Lewis opened–I was never a big fan, but her band was amazing, and I’m definitely more interested in her now. I actually would love to hear Beck with a band like that sometime.

The sound quality of the show was maybe a little bass heavy, but I like that myself, and overall thought it sounded amazing. Some of Tron’s keyboard effects sounded brilliant, in a 3D way, they were like circling my head. Because of that, and the crowd response, the Gameboy tracks (“Hell Yes”/”Black Tamborine”/”Clap Hands”) were a total blast. (I generally hate all those songs!)

During “Nausea,” Beck’s son came and stood on stage next to Beck for a bit. Beck didn’t notice at first, but when he did, he laughed and smiled and pointed at him. Then his son was taken back, and given a maraca to shake.

“Orphans” was done full electric, faster… last time I saw Beck, they did it with a mix of electric and acoustic, sounding like the album. “Sunday Sun” was a surprise. “Hollow Log” wasn’t on the setlist–Beck just said “you guys want to hear some fingerpickin’?” and busted it out.

And finally Beck introduced “a very special guest,” and everyone’s favorite dancer, Ryan5000, came out to dance for the 3 encore songs. Welcome back Ryan!

1. Loser
2. Nausea
3. Girl
4. Soul Of A Man
5. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
6. Novacane
7. Think I’m In Love
8. Modern Guilt
9. Youthless
10. Que Onda Guero
11. Hell Yes
12. Black Tambourine / Clap Hands
13. Devils Haircut
14. Orphans (all electric!)
15. Sunday Sun
16. The Golden Age
17. Lost Cause
18. Hollow Log
19. Chemtrails
20. Where It’s At (inc. High 5)
21. Gamma Ray
22. Timebomb
23. E-Pro

3rd nyc show + the information vinyl + fake beck

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Three cool pieces of news today:

  1. Beck added a third NYC show to his tour, October 8th at the United Palace Theatre. Presale tomorrow (Friday) at 10 AM here, password is YOUTHLESS.
  2. There is news about the Information on vinyl. It will be limited to a pressing of 3000 individually numbered sets. It looks awesome!packaging.jpg
  3. Fake Beck is twittering!

Also, the tour starts up again tomorrow! Have fun at the shows and make sure to send us setlists, pics, and recordings!

Some Bits Of News And Things

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

1. New music! Go here and listen. A radio contest winner got Beck to write a song about him. The results are marvelous! You think Beck doesn’t have fun anymore? Isn’t weird enough like he used to be? Listen to that.

2. Beck’s show in San Francisco was recorded, and is being shared here. Thanks to the taper!

3. Beck’s father, David Campbell, will be conducting an orchestra at Beck’s show at the Hollywood Bowl later this month. Hopefully they’ll do more than just “Paper Tiger” and “Volcano”! I have no idea what the plans are, but should be awesome. Campbell has conducted all the strings you hear on Beck’s albums; they work quite well together.

4. For some reason I thought I had more, but that’s all I can think of right now.

Beck in Reno and Outside Lands

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

First, the Reno setlist. Devendra Banhart opened, and played a couple songs with Beck. Our own Vitamin.Deb was there, and from whom I got the setlist:

Devil’s Haircut
Nausea
Timebomb
Loser
Girl
Minus
Que Onda Guero
Black Tambourine
Soul of a Man
Modern Guilt
Gamma Ray
Nicotine & Gravy
Youthless
Walls
Hell Yes (Ghettochip Malfunction)
Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat (with Devendra)
Hey Mama Wolf (with Devendra)
Golden Age
Lost Cause
Orphans
Where It’s At
Chemtrails
E-pro

Second, Outside Lands Festival… tonight. I’m a bit late on this, and am as annoyed as anyone, but apparently Beck’s set was webcast at attblueroom.com. GAH, missed it! Did anyone happen to watch and rip it? Please let us know: computergirls@whiskeyclone.net

UPDATE: Some clips of Outside Lands are already on YouTube. Watch and enjoy!

Beck Warm-Up Show (August 19, 2008)

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Beck played a warm-up show tonight at the El Cid, a tapas bar/music venue near Silverlake in Los Angeles. The band has come together very impressively since their first warm-up shows prior to the Europe tour. They head out on a short west coast trip here tomorrow, before a fuller North American tour next month.

Beck covered “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”–a classic Bob Dylan song. I’m told he recorded the song for some sort of compilation or project coming soon.

It was also nice to hear Beck play a bit of acoustic guitar on 3-4 songs, the last few times I’d seen him, he’d only played electric.

The El Cid setlist:

1. E-Pro
2. Modern Guilt
3. Timebomb
4. Nausea
5. Que Onda Guero
6. Gamma Ray
7. Mixed Bizness
8. Nicotine & Gravy
9. Youthless
10. Soul Of A Man
11. Replica
12. Girl
13. Minus
14. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
15. Hell Yes
16. The Golden Age
17. Lost Cause
18. Orphans
19. Volcano
20. Walls
21. Think I’m In Love
22. Chemtrails
23. Devils Haircut

Beck to play China? Maybe not anytime soon

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

According to Pitchfork, China will be clamping down on artists/musicians who perform there.  After an “outburst” in which Björk shouted “Tibet!” while performing in Shanghai, China says, “Any artistic group or individual who [has] ever engaged in activities that threaten national sovereignty will not be allowed in.”

I’m guessing they would include performing at a Tibeten Freedom Concert in that statement?  Who knows.  Anyways, Chinese Beck fans hang in there and feel the Beck love.