Andrew Bird plucked his violin — and did plenty more with it, too — on Sunday night at Meijer Gardens.
If Fiona Apple is the queen of the avant garde stage shtick then Andrew Bird is certainly the prince of instrumental invention.
Less than a week after Apple brought her unusual musical dream world to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, the Chicago indie-rocker, singer, violinist and world-class whistler delivered an equally creative approach to his set at the outdoor amphitheater, though Bird’s involved a compelling multi-instrumental assault ranging from looped rhythm parts to whirling gramophone speakers to whistling into his violin.
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The Sunday night concert, with Patrick Watson and band opening the show, seemed to keep the crowd of 1,500 fairly entranced (rather than standing and dancing) as Bird ran through a broad range of his eclectic songs, from fresh selections taken from his latest album, “Break It Yourself,” to older tunes such as “Measuring Cups” from his cleverly titled 2005 CD, “The Mysterious Production of Eggs.”
(The concert wrapped up a hectic stretch for Meijer Gardens, with five concerts in eight days: Brandi Carlile, Apple, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, Preservation Hall Jazz Band/Del McCoury Band and Bird.)
Bird and his band’s instrumental arsenal was impressive.
Bird’s milieu ranged from solo, synthesizer-enhanced, violin plucking to full-fledged, full-band indie-rock, with the singer-songwriter’s instrumental arsenal including everything from an electric guitar to drum mallets.
His commentary ranged from congratulating the crowd on a “good job” of developing Meijer Gardens (which he toured on his bicycle earlier in the day) to singing the lyrics, “You’re what happens when two substances collide, and by all accounts, you really should have died.”
Whether performing the laid-back “Why?” or the more uptempo “Desperation Breeds,” the musical satisfaction came in seeing a thoughtful and innovative artist with a truly singular approach – one who was a virtual unknown when he was booked to play Calvin College a few years ago (thanks to the keen eye and ear of Calvin’s Ken Heffner) – find a growing audience for his work.
Consider it a coronation for an indie-rock original.
(See a photo gallery of the concert by Sally Finneran at MLive.com here.)
Email: jsinkevics@gmail.com
