andrew bird at the paramount

thursday night i went to see andrew bird at the paramount theatre. that place is so beautiful. our seats were towards the back but it's a pretty small venue so it didn't really matter. the first 20ish minutes of the show were spent watching andrew kind of run wild around the stage playing with his looping mechanisms. it was fascinating! later he said, "i had to kind of indulge myself there at the beginning because it just sounds so good. i got to play carnegie hall a couple of weeks ago and this is almost as good." i find loops so interesting. it is almost mind-blowing to see one person make that much noise! the only other time i had seen andrew was with a band at acl in 2007. i enjoyed the band a lot but it is so entertaining to see him do it alone.  

i can't quite express how phenomenal the show was. it was like nothing i have ever seen before. everything was so grandiose and beautiful. highlights include:  

-pretty much all of his banter in between songs 

-having his guitar tech walk on stage a few songs into the set to deposit a sock monkey that was made in his likeness (he explained that a "nice woman" in toronto had made sock monkeys for all the members of his band and that all sock monkeys look the same except for their accessories. so his had a tiny violin case. he said he has to have it on stage with him now because he's afraid he'll have a bad show if it's not there.)

-pointing out to everyone that his socks had horses on them (he had taken his shoes off after that opening jam session) 

-why 

-a nervous tic motion of the head to the left 

-a "peril less" version of masterfade 

-TWO ENCORES 

-the part where he told us that people in austin are are nicer than most other places. "they must breed niceness here."

he was dressed really nicely in slacks and a blazer but i was sort of hoping for a v-neck :)