in time Beck was once a chimpanzee, but now, after more than 30 years of practice, practice, practice, he has made it to Carnegie Hall. “This is a good-sounding hall,” he said Tuesday night, during the second of two performances at the legendary venue. “It sounds very good. I’ve come a long way.”
In addition to his longtime backing band—guitarist and bassist Jason Falkner, keyboardist Roger Manning, and drummer Joey Waronker—Beck was joined by the 73-member St. Luke's Orchestra and maestro Edwin Outwater to deliver cinematic performances of his most moody and introspective songs, which were mostly his own. sea change And Morning stage “The band has gotten a little bigger since last time,” Beck joked. In fact, there wasn’t enough room for him on stage, with only about three feet of space and the catwalk in front of the violins to himself. Although he joked that he was afraid of falling on his cello, the show was far from restrained.
It was clear that Beck felt the importance of playing at Carnegie Hall, the New York City musical institution that has hosted composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Nina Simone, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Rolling Stones, among countless others, over its 133-year history. (The names of those performers, among others, are written on the subway walls at the nearby 57th Street station.) Although Beck kept things casual—he wore a leisure suit and sunglasses—he sang each song with a deep, clear sense of emotion. He also made enough room for himself to dance, strum, and even do a few laps to “Where It’s At” before the encore, though he had joked earlier in the night that he wouldn’t have room to dance.
Oh Marota*
Performing with a live orchestra was clearly special to him, as his father, composer and arranger David Campbell, had helped sketch the orchestral score for the original recordings. Beck paid tribute to his father and explained that Campbell was unable to attend due to a plane malfunction. But Beck performed this show, which concluded a series of concerts with orchestral accompaniment this summer, as if his father were there, always making sure to share the spotlight at Carnegie Hall with the symphony.
The orchestral arrangements were the real star of the night, and a sign of his maturation as an artist. Beck began his career as a collage artist, blending counterpoint folk, hip-hop, soul, and low-grade rock into playful compositions. Then in 2002, he found himself in another genre of funk and recorded sea changeThe album was a masterpiece, a contemplative medley that included Campbell’s orchestral arrangements of “Paper Tiger,” “Lonesome Tears” and “Round the Bend” — which Beck performed at Carnegie. The album was such a sea change for Beck that he joked Tuesday about how he thought his career was over when people started walking out of the room during a performance of the Nick Drake-like “Round the Bend” in the early 2000s. But critics loved the album, rolling stone He gave him his nickname. Blood on the tracks(Incidentally, the Carnegie audience commented on how remarkably Dylan-like Beck looks these days, with his curly hair and wide waistcoat. He even played harmonica on “One Foot in the Grave” on Tuesday.) Morning stageThe album was released in 2014, and featured more string arrangements and deeper emotions.
These songs created a somber atmosphere at Carnegie Hall, and the audience loved it. The wooden pews and four-tiered balcony remained quiet during the performances, and people respectfully refrained from raising their phones to take photos and videos (mostly), but they erupted in applause after songs that would likely soundtrack long bathroom lines at regular summer concerts because they weren’t, well, “Loser.”
After the orchestral-led “Cycle,” Beck opened the show with an acoustic guitar rendition of “Golden Age.” One of the lyrics is, “Let the golden age begin,” prompting Outwater, a veteran of the genre since conducting Metallica, to perform dramatic, ballet-like movements. S&M2 Concerts and Strings on the Mars Volta Chaos in Goliath The album. Dynamically swollen strings and expressive drums gave depth to the gorgeous “Lonesome Tears,” while “Wave” relied solely on the orchestra to propel it since Waronker sat out the track. The strings added new texture to Beck’s ode to Brazilian music, “Tropicalia,” playing tremolo notes before Manning’s trombone and keyboards swapped melodies. Beck even took flamenco poses during “The New Pollution,” interacting with the strings.
Most of the orchestral arrangements adhered to Campbell's work on the albums, with the exception of “Lost Cause”, Beck's meditation on a failed relationship. sea change The release sounds melancholic, and the new arrangement sounds almost upbeat with strings sliding over strings and a playful piccolo breaking through the musical ceiling. Beck sounds less resigned singing “I'm tired of fighting, fighting for a lost cause,” than in that song Beck was ready to move on.
Beck’s songs were a highlight of the evening. Beck joked that the show was “Scott Walker’s $100,000 karaoke moment,” as he performed two of the late singer Scott Walker’s 1960s hits — “It’s Raining Today” and “Montague Terrace (in Blue)” — mimicking Walker’s baritone voice while the orchestra recreated the ornate background music, down to the shimmering bells and dissonant strings. Colourbox’s “Tarantula,” which Beck performed in the style of This Mortal Coil, was one of the show’s best songs, with cellos and violins kicking it off and the rest of the symphony adding a cinematic dimension. “We Live Again,” a Beck original that Beck joked was a playful imitation of the late Françoise Hardy, echoed the feel of the playful pop genre.
Beck told the audience that he attended classical concerts at least twice a month and that his passion for the genre was still evident even as he moved away from the “serious” music that accompanied his slower albums. He didn’t have a turntable (but he did have a microphone) for “Where It’s At,” and the orchestra played valiantly a cacophony of noise that was the song’s signature melody. Violins chipped in with their strings, and drums and trumpets came in for the finale.
Then the orchestra, which had only been contracted for 90 minutes, exited the stage in such an orderly fashion that Beck joked that it was more efficient than boarding an airplane. With no musicians left in dozens of seats, Beck wandered around the stage, playing the various instruments he had left behind, including a four-foot-wide bell, and giving the row in front a double bassoon. He took out his harmonica and played “One Foot in the Grave” to test the “echo of Carnegie Hall,” standing on empty chairs as he moved around the stage with complete freedom. With only his band behind him, he gave a heartfelt rendition of “Devil’s Haircut,” strumming blues guitar, and ending the concert with “Loser” as a sing-along. These songs were enjoyable, but the audience, which had sat with strange deference through “Devil’s Haircut,” seemed blinded by the shift in tone. But they switched to “Loser,” and stood to applaud and sing along.
Although Beck was teasing the audience and telling stories behind each song throughout the night, he seemed to realize how special the evening was. This was Beck's golden age, and he managed to deliver a performance worthy of a 57th Street subway.
Make the list:
“turn”
“golden age”
“Everyone has to learn at some point.”
“lonely tears”
“Wave”
Tropicalia
“blue moon”
“Lost cause”
“New Pollution”
“missing”
“Spiders”
“It's raining today”
“Around the curve”
“paper tiger”
“We live again”
Montague Terrace (in blue)
“morning”
“phase”
“The Awakened Light”
“where it is in”
once again:
“one foot in the grave”
“Devil's Haircut”
“The Loser”
