Beck, with Sean Lennon’s Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger in tow, made a West Michigan tour stop on Saturday, giving Grand Rapids a long-awaited dose of his boundary-pushing alt- and indie-rock.
Beck brought his tour to DeVos Performance Hall on Saturday night. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
By Troy Reimink
LocalSpins.com
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There is room for everyone in Beck’s Hyundai.
Beck’s Saturday night show in Grand Rapids started with “Devil’s Haircut” and ended with an onstage dance party. In between, his 24-song set contained one alt-rock classic after another: “The New Pollution,” “Sexx Laws,” “Girl,” “Loser,” “Novacane,” “Where It’s At.”
From “Sea Change” to “Morning Phase”: Beck at DeVos Performance Hall.
And of course, “Debra,” which has become sort of a new “Purple Rain” for a certain type of smart-aleck 30-something — and is, for what it’s worth, this correspondent’s personal karaoke white whale — got the encore treatment it deserved.
Consisting primarily of absurd come-on lines (“Lady, step into my Hyundai,” “I cold-step to you with a fresh pack of gum”), the extended soul jam found the singer rolling around on the stage, belting his falsetto to the rafters of a not-quite-sold-out DeVos Performance Hall.
His long-awaited Grand Rapids show, in other words, did not disappoint. Beforehand, it was hard to guess which version of the famously shape-shifting artist might appear.
Would we get the majestic Sad Beck of “Sea Change” and “Morning Phase,” the 2014 album he’s touring to promote? The tongue-in-cheek funk master of “Midnight Vultures”? The unsettled experimentalist of “The Information” and “Modern Guilt”? The effortless crowd-pleaser of “Odelay” and “Guero”?
The answer: Yes.
AMPLE HIGHLIGHTS: OLD HITS MESHING SEAMLESSLY WITH NEW TUNES
Backed by a six-member band of longtime collaborators, Beck delivered a career-spanning set in which the old hits coexisted seamlessly with new songs — “Waking Light,” “Say Goodbye,” “Blue Moon,” a goosebump-inducing “Wave” — that sounded brighter and more muscular than their recorded versions.
Psych-Rock Adventure: Sean Lennon of Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
For every minor letdown — no “Jackass,” no live horns — there were ample highlights: Beck ending the main set by stretching police tape across the stage, the solo harmonica performance of “One Foot In the Grave,” the band’s willfully ridiculous choreography.
Few artists of Beck’s generation have a catalog as rich and varied as he does. But “Morning Phase” is his first album in six years, and it’s the first time he’s admittedly repeating himself stylistically. (It’s basically “Sea Change 2.”) If this signals a mid-to-late-career settling down, Beck the human jukebox gave no indication on Saturday.
May the silly dancing never end.
The supporting act was The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, a psych-rock band led by Sean Lennon (son of you-know-who) and his partner Charlotte Kemp Muhl.
The band delivered an adventurous 35-minute set heavy on material from its acclaimed new album “Midnight Sun.”
BECK, GHOST OF A SABER TOOTH TIGER: THE LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Anthony Norkus
(Click on photo to enlarge gallery)
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music
Damn, I’m sorry I missed this. And with the Son of You Know Who to boot. There is no justice.