I am a self-confessed Beck fan, so you can imagine how excited I was to see him play a rather intimate show at Element (formerly Vinyl) in Hollywood. I would venture to say that I’ve seen him about 10 – 12 times since “Mellow Gold” came out way back in 1994. Through the years he transformed into a dynamic performer and each album revealed and furthered his chameleon musical persona.
His show at Element attested to this fact, but lacked some of the energy of his previous tours, circa “Odelay” and “Midnite Vultures.” This is a trend that I’ve been noticing over the past couple years with him. Maybe it’s because he is married and has a child now, or maybe it’s his rediscovery of Scientology (yes it’s true, he’s a Scientologist – Link One – Link Two), or maybe it’s just because he is getting older, but his shows, although still entertaining, lack something that they once had. On stage, Beck now looks like he isn’t really enjoying himself anymore and performing almost appears to be a chore for him.
At this particular show, he turned over the harmonica playing to a band member, when in the past he has always played the harmonica himself. He doesn’t dance anymore either, and hasn’t in a few years. Instead, he has a backup dancer jolt around the stage for him, which sometimes proved to be more of a distraction than anything else during the show. It’s a shame because Beck is a very proficient harmonica player and was a great dancer. There are no more costume changes or even flashy outfits. Overall, his live show has diminished, yet he still is much better than 50% of other performers out there.
This show at Element seemed to be a warm-up show for his new album, The Information, which hits stores on October 3rd. He played a lot of new material off the album as well as many songs from his last album Guero, and even “Paper Tiger” off of Seachange. When he played “Diamond Bollocks” off of Mutations, arguably one of his best albums, as a precursor he announced that “we haven’t played this song in quite a few years.” The new material off of The Information was just as good as any previous albums and it was exciting to hear the new material for the first time live rather than on a record.
“Think I’m In Love” off his forthcoming album sounds like it is one of the stronger songs on the record and sounds seamless live. The chorus, “I think I’m in love but it makes me kind of nervous to say so,” which is rather self-explanatory, reminds one of first discovering that they love the person they are with, but are too afraid to say so for fear of all the consequences that it may bring. “Nausea,” the single from the new record, served as his closer before the encore and the crowd was already singing along with it, which is always a good sign.
He closed with an amazing medley version of “Hell Yes” that included portions of Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust”, Prince’s “Controversy” and “Erotic City.” I guess that’s one thing he hasn’t lost, the ability to do amazing and unlikely covers, though Prince and Queen aren’t a stretch for him considering the funk influence of more recent albums. Though, his shows are not quite the caliber that they once were, Beck still delivers an entertaining performance. Maybe he’s changed, maybe I’ve changed, or maybe Beck and his fans are just evolving.
