On this gloomy Friday, that turned into a partial sunny afternoon, we dragged our work week bodies to the Seaport Bar & Grill for some pregame beverages before walking over to the Andrew Bird / Calexico show at the BoA Pavilion with a clear understanding to catch all of the opener. Those unfamiliar with Calexico, get familiar. Originating from Tuscon, Arizona, they’ve been around the block. If you listen to WERS you’ve probably heard their latest single, “Two Silver Trees “, off of Carried to Dust. Over the years they’ve received sporadic recognition and exposure such as their collaboration with Iron & Wine for an EP, In the Reins, but are definitely due for more. One of their more famous tracks is a cover of the Love song, “Alone Again”, which closed out their set and forced us out of our seats to get the blood flowing before Andrew hit the stage. Turning around at the end of their set, I was happy to see a good portion of the venue filled. I’m sure they picked up a few new fans from this night.
Over all, the venue was a little more then half full for the show. A bit odd, considering Andrew Bird has been gracing the Boston area with his presence for over a decade (from Johnny D’s, to Middle East to Berklee to the Pavilion). But it was also refreshing to go up to get a beer and not have any line.
“Sweetbreads” opened the set, which is more commonly known as “Dark Matter” off of Armchair Apocrypha. Andrew was his usual talkative self and explained after this song that he was inspired by a cook book about sweetbreads that he once read while half asleep and thinking about eating thoughts. As he rambled he began to confuse himself and the crowd. Andrew likes to open his mouth and let his thoughts do all the talking so it’s usually disjointed. Sticking with the same album, they jumped into a lively rendition of “Fiery Crash”.
Reaching back a little father into his library, they played the slow and fidgety tune, “Opposite Day”, from …Mysterious Production of Eggs. The next set of songs would highlight his latest release, Noble Beast, starting with “Fitz and Dizzyspells”. The energy from this song was a sign of things to come for this show. “Natural Disaster” followed and relaxed the crowd back from the edge of our seats where we sat bobbing our heads to Fitz. “Mastersworm”, a song about radiolarians, tiny microorganisms that live at the bottom of the ocean. Andrew is a tried and true nature boy and it shows throughout his lyrics. Before moving on, he explained that the next couple of tunes are about anti-social tendencies. “Oh No”, the Noble Beast single and one of Bird’s greatest whistle-a-long songs to date, was first up. We tried to whistle with him but not every human being has as much saliva as Bird so this was short lived. “Effigy” was the second anti-social inspired song. The next song, “Anonanimal”, was inspired by the animals from the movie The Dark Crystal as Andrew explained. How can you not love this guy.
The first and only cover of the night was an old timey tune called “Trials, Troubled, Tribulations”. The next song, “Imitosis”, showcased the chops of Andrew’s drummer, Martin Dosh. I was hoping to get a “Simple X”, a song that blew me away at the Berklee show a couple years back and introduced me to Dosh’s abilities. “Cataracts” slowed things down but this was necessary for what was to come.
This was the last show for the joint Andrew and Calexico bill. Andrew has known the boys from Calexico for sometime and was very sad to see their paths divide. We all knew what this meant, it was time to use up the space on the giant stage; enter the six members of Calexico. “Skin is, my” kicked things off and as the guitars roared and horns soared towards the first chorus, the crowd slowly rose to their feet. For the remainder of the show most of us stood to pay homage to the amazing performance unraveling in front of us. The sound was huge and everyone was feeling it. Even folks who would rather sit joined in on the excitement. When they broke into “Synthian Empire”, I turned to my friend Josh in excitement. I had claimed this my favorite song of the year back in 2007 when Armchair Apocrypha came out and hearing it with Calexico on stage was a huge treat for these ears. One more with everyone, the sneaky but heartfelt song, “Tables and Chairs”, found on …Mysterious Production of Eggs. As they took their bows and left the stage, the crowd roared and banged on chairs giving them a clear sign that we would not be happy with just one more song.
Up until this point they had played songs from only the past three albums, besides the old timey cover tune. So it was a special moment when Bird came out all alone to pull off “Why?”, a song from his 2001 release, The Swimming Pool. As he rubs his head and moves about sporadically, this song shows off Andrew’s madness perfectly. From the pluck of the strings to the vilont stoke of his bow with horsehair loosely flying about, Andrew Bird is a true modern day virtuoso.
They went on to play two more songs in the first encore (“Headsoak” and “Fake Palindromes”). Then, feeling the excitement in the crowd, Andrew came back out for a 2nd encore and played “Don’t Be Scared” off of his 2003 album, Weather Systems.
It was quite a night and ranks up there with shows I’ve seen at the pavilion as well as shows I’ve seen period. We took a lot of pictures, below are just a handful. To see more, go to T Dog’s Flickr page.
Complete setlist:
- Sweetbreads/Dark Matter
- Fiery Crash
- Opposite Day
- Fitz and Dizzyspells
- Natural Disaster
- Mastersworm
- Oh No
- Effigy
- Anonanimal
- Trials, Troubles, Tribulations
- Imitosis
- Cataracts
- Skin is, My (w/ Calexico)
- Scythian Empire (w/ Calexico)
- Tables and Chairs (w/ Calexico)
1st Encore:
- Why?
- Headsoak
- Fake Palindromes
2nd Encore:
- Don’t Be Scared
Pictures from the show:
