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My friend Doug won tickets to see Beck at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago on thursday, and he invited me along. I should have driven, since he supplied the tickets, but I was shot from work, and would not have been able to pay attention to the road, and hold up a conversation at the same time.
As we were crawling along Lawrence, Doug saw a pizza place, so we stopped. Interesting place. It still had it's original 1970 decor - wood paneling, and a lot of red vinyl. And lots of mirrors. I particularly liked the stamped copper table tops, which was also on the walls between the wood paneling. It looks like it had originally been an Italian restaurant, but there were Asian figures painted on the mirrors covering the back wall. The Brewers game was on over the bar, and a jazz trio played. Kinda surreal.
We made it down to the Aragon, where there were still a few parking places left. Still $20. I think that's what I paid to park there ten years ago (Patti Smith at the Riviera). We walked across the street to get in line. The line came out of the theater, cross an alley, under the el, and around the corner and up another alley to where some homeless guys were hanging out with their shopping carts behind an old warehouse. The line was moving pretty quickly, so I think it only took about ten minutes to get inside.
We got there in time to hear MGMT's last three songs. They sounded familiar. I think they have a song in rotation on our local "new rock" station. Not bad.
Like many of the old ballrooms, it has a stage at the end of a big open floor, a balcony all around, and a big domed ceiling. The ceiling is painted up as the night sky, complete with glowing, twinkling stars. This place is more ornate than most. It seems to be Spanish with a good bit of Moorish. I did not realize until now, that Aragon is an "autonomous community" (region) in Spain. There are four "buildings" on the sides of the room, with doors, windows and balconies. Check out the picture below.
So... Beck. I like his music. It's fun stuff. And the show had this fun stuff. But the overall experience seemed a bit lacking. Part of this was undoubtedly due to the poor sound. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good. And we were standing near the sound board. I think it has to do with that domed ceiling. Maybe Beck's lo-fi sound doesn't translate well on stage? Or maybe he didn't connect well with the audience? He pretty much just played the music. I don't know. I'd think it was just me, but I've heard the same from others. I've also heard from others that the show was incredibly awesome, so... whatever.
His band was a five-piece, including himself on guitar and vocals. The other guitarist was a rockin' chick in a tight skirt. I liked her attitude. Jessica Dobson. Also Bram Inscore on bass, Scott McPherson on drums and Brian LeBarton on keyboards. He seemed to be the most outgoing one on stage. All but the drummer sang backup vocals. They did a couple of numbers standing at the front of the stage with small electronic devices that were essentially 8-bit synthesizers. Very old-school Nintendo. (video of this can be found on YouTube)
The stage featured oversize versions of old-time spotlights. Big glass lenses on the front, and those shades on the sides of the lenses. The curtain at the back turned out to be an LED screen. True to Beck's lo-fi sound, the "screen" was lo-fi as well. The LEDs were spread out, and never really showed more than two colors at a time. Most of the show had only block graphics. A few times it showed film people, and they were very vague looking. We'll call it reminiscent of ASCII art.
I'm a fan of Odelay and Guero, though not so much that I can remember which album the songs are from. I am somewhat familiar with Sea Change. I would say that I like most of his work. There was little that didn't appeal to me. The songs rocked, and were danceable. The crowd was not annoying. I was disappointed that he didn't play "New Pollution", but that didn't contribute to the overall impression of the show. I don't know why I didn't have a great time. Maybe it was because I was so tired. Or distracted by having my camera along. I've been feeling this way more often in recent years, though. I guess I'm just getting old.
Here are a coupla my pics:
Here's a video from earlier this year.
Here's a review including a pic of Beck. He's pretty much unrecognizable under the fedora and long hair.
Here's a set list.
Loser
Nausea
Girl
Timebomb
Minus
Mixed Bizness
Nicotine and Gravy
Que Onda Guero
Hell Yes
Black Tambourine
Devil’s Haircut
Soul of a Man
Orphans
Think I’m In Love
Walls
Missing
Chemtrails
The Golden Age
Lost Cause
Where It’s At
Encore:
Gamma Ray
Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat
Novacane
Profanity Prayers
E-Pro
If he played "Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat", I didn't recognize it. I see it on YouTube, and the music is unrecognizable as such, so was I unable to make out the words? Weird.
As we were crawling along Lawrence, Doug saw a pizza place, so we stopped. Interesting place. It still had it's original 1970 decor - wood paneling, and a lot of red vinyl. And lots of mirrors. I particularly liked the stamped copper table tops, which was also on the walls between the wood paneling. It looks like it had originally been an Italian restaurant, but there were Asian figures painted on the mirrors covering the back wall. The Brewers game was on over the bar, and a jazz trio played. Kinda surreal.
We made it down to the Aragon, where there were still a few parking places left. Still $20. I think that's what I paid to park there ten years ago (Patti Smith at the Riviera). We walked across the street to get in line. The line came out of the theater, cross an alley, under the el, and around the corner and up another alley to where some homeless guys were hanging out with their shopping carts behind an old warehouse. The line was moving pretty quickly, so I think it only took about ten minutes to get inside.
We got there in time to hear MGMT's last three songs. They sounded familiar. I think they have a song in rotation on our local "new rock" station. Not bad.
Like many of the old ballrooms, it has a stage at the end of a big open floor, a balcony all around, and a big domed ceiling. The ceiling is painted up as the night sky, complete with glowing, twinkling stars. This place is more ornate than most. It seems to be Spanish with a good bit of Moorish. I did not realize until now, that Aragon is an "autonomous community" (region) in Spain. There are four "buildings" on the sides of the room, with doors, windows and balconies. Check out the picture below.
So... Beck. I like his music. It's fun stuff. And the show had this fun stuff. But the overall experience seemed a bit lacking. Part of this was undoubtedly due to the poor sound. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good. And we were standing near the sound board. I think it has to do with that domed ceiling. Maybe Beck's lo-fi sound doesn't translate well on stage? Or maybe he didn't connect well with the audience? He pretty much just played the music. I don't know. I'd think it was just me, but I've heard the same from others. I've also heard from others that the show was incredibly awesome, so... whatever.
His band was a five-piece, including himself on guitar and vocals. The other guitarist was a rockin' chick in a tight skirt. I liked her attitude. Jessica Dobson. Also Bram Inscore on bass, Scott McPherson on drums and Brian LeBarton on keyboards. He seemed to be the most outgoing one on stage. All but the drummer sang backup vocals. They did a couple of numbers standing at the front of the stage with small electronic devices that were essentially 8-bit synthesizers. Very old-school Nintendo. (video of this can be found on YouTube)
The stage featured oversize versions of old-time spotlights. Big glass lenses on the front, and those shades on the sides of the lenses. The curtain at the back turned out to be an LED screen. True to Beck's lo-fi sound, the "screen" was lo-fi as well. The LEDs were spread out, and never really showed more than two colors at a time. Most of the show had only block graphics. A few times it showed film people, and they were very vague looking. We'll call it reminiscent of ASCII art.
I'm a fan of Odelay and Guero, though not so much that I can remember which album the songs are from. I am somewhat familiar with Sea Change. I would say that I like most of his work. There was little that didn't appeal to me. The songs rocked, and were danceable. The crowd was not annoying. I was disappointed that he didn't play "New Pollution", but that didn't contribute to the overall impression of the show. I don't know why I didn't have a great time. Maybe it was because I was so tired. Or distracted by having my camera along. I've been feeling this way more often in recent years, though. I guess I'm just getting old.
Here are a coupla my pics:
Here's a video from earlier this year.
Here's a review including a pic of Beck. He's pretty much unrecognizable under the fedora and long hair.
Here's a set list.
Loser
Nausea
Girl
Timebomb
Minus
Mixed Bizness
Nicotine and Gravy
Que Onda Guero
Hell Yes
Black Tambourine
Devil’s Haircut
Soul of a Man
Orphans
Think I’m In Love
Walls
Missing
Chemtrails
The Golden Age
Lost Cause
Where It’s At
Encore:
Gamma Ray
Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat
Novacane
Profanity Prayers
E-Pro
If he played "Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat", I didn't recognize it. I see it on YouTube, and the music is unrecognizable as such, so was I unable to make out the words? Weird.
