Andrew Bird Extravaganza (and the One Band / One Hour Playlist)

It was a crazy-go-nuts All Andrew Bird Day! I henceforth declare December 9th to be Eugene's city wide Andrew Bird Appreciation Day. It started with my hosting the One Band / One Hour show, and ended with a great live set from the man himself at the McDonald Theatre. Riddle me quite exhausted, hence the large delay of time between the radio show and actually posting the play list. I hope anyone that got to hear the show enjoyed it. You know it's a good one when you leave wishing you had more time for a few extra tracks. So without any further delay, the playlist!

Two Way Action (from The Swimming Hour)
Skin Is, My -- Live (from Fingerlings 2)
~ (from The Mysterious Production of Eggs)
First Song (from Weather Systems)
Sovay (from The Mysterious Production of Eggs)
Idiot's Genius (from Oh! The Grandeur)
Ides of Swing (from Thrills)
Nuthinduan Waltz (from Music of Hair)
Depressio Pasillo (from Thrills)
11:11 (from The Swimming Hour)
A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left (from The Mysterious Production of Eggs)
Masterfade -- Live (from Fingerlings 2)
Case In Point (from The Swimming Hour)
Don't Be Scared (from Weather Systems)
Fake Palindromes (from the Mysterious Production of Eggs)

Highlights: Everything.

Duds: Don't even joke with me about crap like that.

So for those of you who are interested, I also jotted down the playlist for his live set that evening:

Ravel
Sovay
I
Why
A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left
Armchairs of the Apocalypse
Skin Is, My
Tables and Chairs

It was admittedly a short set, but he was opening for Nickel Creek. The piece I titled "Ravel" was his own live rendition of a movement from Ravel's String Quartet. It was fantastic! And "Armchairs of the Apocalypse" is a slow and beautiful new song with really amusing lyrics which I wish I could remember to write for you here. His live set is becoming more and more experimental. The looping has become more dense, more discorded and more twisted, all for the better! Tonight he did a version of "Why" (which I understand he plays at virtually every performance) using his looping technique. The song really flourished in that setting.

This tour he's got his first Fingerlings CD back again! It was out of print for a while, but he's selling copies with a new cover from Jay Ryan (he did the artwork for Weather Systems and Eggs). I haven't heard it before, so we got our copy tonight. It's much more sparse thant Fingerlings 2, and a little more American Roots-ish. Nora O'Connor appears all over it, which is always welcome.

As an aside, another concert attendant directed me to this website. It's an archive of live music recordings from artists who have no problem with their performances being shared amongst the world of the internet. It looks pretty good. I did an Andrew Bird search and discovered more than 20 concerts, including some selections from his performance at C'est Lenoir. It's an incomplete concert, but I've been scowering the world for a copy of that concert ever since I first hear about it. I haven't done much searching around for other bands on that site, but you know I will. I hope you all find something there too.

Well, at this point I'd like to promise that you won't have to hear me talking about Andrew Bird for a while, but I don't like to set up unreasonable expectations.