Live music review: Beck goes solo acoustic for “indulgent” SXSW closer
“I’ve been at SXSW for two days and it’s felt like two weeks,” Beck said early in his set at the Moody Theater around 10:15 pm Saturday night. The sentiment was deeply felt by the badged attendees who have, in fact, been doing SXSW activities for the last couple of weeks. For fans looking for a tight, greatest-hits show by an artist they know and love to ease their tired rock ‘n’ roll souls after a week or two of music discovery, this was not that show. Beck was somewhere between “loose and conversational” and “sloppy and out of practice” depending on how generous you want to be.
The 25-song setlist was full of deep cuts, b-sides and obscure covers, sprinkled with stories about his memories of Austin in his three decades of coming to town. It often felt more like a guy picking up an acoustic guitar on the spot and playing whatever came to mind than a keynote performer closing out SXSW. Beck abandoned a number of songs because he forgot the lyrics, restarted a couple because he was out of tune and often commented on his own lack of preparedness. He would occasionally assess his performance after a completed song as “only a bit of a trainwreck.” I’m making this sound like a bad show, but the looseness was also endearing and the sloppiness only slightly got in the way of what was otherwise a very unique, cool Beck show.
“Who’s ready to have some fun?! Wait, I should preface that. I’m gonna play a lot of really sad songs” Beck said before going into a spectacular, confident acoustic version of “The Golden Age,” the opening single from his slow, sad Sea Change album. For those picturing an acoustic Beck show, this is what you hoped for. Beck with an acoustic guitar, harmonica, and a slide guitar player he insists he met the night before at 2 am, backing him up for his best slow songs. “We’ll be your two man honkey tonk for the night. As if you really need one.”
They then went into “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime,” which he told the crowd he wrote for his friend’s movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Two songs in he was locked in and playing exactly what you’d expect to hear and sounding spot on. Then it took a turn toward storytelling and deeper cuts. Beck talked about his first SXSW in 1994 when he not only played with Johnny Cash, but Cash opened for him. He was so nervous he overcompensated and smashed up the stage, accidentally hitting a fan in the head with a mic stand. He said he felt terrible until Gibby from the Butthole Surfers came backstage afterwards to tell him it was “the best fucking show I’ve ever seen!” Beck then played lesser-known “Rowboat” which Cash covered later in his career.
The middle section was when things got a little loose, with rare covers and deep cuts and miscues. He played “Canceled Check” for the first time since 2005*, dug back into Sea Change for “Guess I’m doing Fine” and covered Hank Williams’ “I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow” for the first time* and was so tickled with it, he started playing the beginning of another Hank Williams song as he told us he learned 40 Williams songs when he first learned to play guitar.
Beck talked about how weird it was to write protest songs in the ‘90s since there wasn’t much to protest besides malls and musicians selling out, so that was what he sang about in “Pay No Mind (Snoozer.)” Speaking of shopping, Beck thanked the folks at Stag on S. Congress for the discount on the bucket hat and said “Austin’s changed, huh. Did I see a Hermès store? Austin is a lot more friendly than L.A. I know a lot of assholes from L.A. move here. Hopefully Austin rubs off on them.” “Yeah!” yelled back the most obnoxious person in the world standing behind me who wouldn’t shut up between every song, yelling out “Free Bird!” and other dumb nonsense while holding her phone two inches from my face to record with her flash on.
In related news, Beck played a nice version of “Asshole” after he forgot the lyrics to Hollow Log and made up new ones. He played a tease of a new song, “40 Mermaids” which he also wasn’t sure of half of and started and stopped “Dead Melodies.” It was this half hour stretch in the 11 o’clock hour where it went from loose to sloppy. There were still highlights all throughout, with “Lost Cause” making me wish he’d just played all of Sea Change since all those songs fit the acoustic solo version of him the best. After getting it back together for a cleaner “Sissyneck” and fun “Country Down,” Beck left the stage.
“I just saw what time it was backstage. It’s almost midnight. Damn. We just keep going and going. I feel very indulgent,” Beck admitted.
It was a bit indulgent. But hearing someone with Beck’s talent digging deep into his catalog, bringing out rare covers and half-finished new songs was worth the long night. Beck rewarded the crowd for sticking it out with an encore of “Debra” that led to sing-a-longs, with Beck instructing the men and women to take turns singing to their loved one. Beck pulled out his pedal to assist on drums for a boisterous “One Foot in the Grave” that reminded fans what a normal Beck show is like before coming out for a second encore to give a hat tip to Austin with a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End.”
The show wrapped up just around midnight, ending SXSW for most of the attendees in a fitting way. This year at SXSW and this show was a more scaled back event that mostly went well and, even if it wasn’t perfect, it made you remember what you loved about it and was just nice to have it back in your life.
*According to Setlist.fm
All photos: Michael Maly
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