• 2009-11-20

    零碎的感慨 - [乱写]

    The Decemberists太棒了，Colin Meloy居然一度让观众替他弹吉它。我越来越喜欢这些美国乐队。

    终于看到了他们的现场，这意味着我又欠一篇心得。我那个“这辈子一定要看到现场”的单子越来越短了。我觉得终会有演唱会看腻的那一天。

    Andrew Bird的11日演出心得早晚要写，但此刻还没酝酿出来，似乎我总需要一段时间来接受爆炸性的事实，之后才能慢慢的写出来。这和“长歌当哭，是必须在痛定之后的”大约是一个道理。

    话说Andrew Bird的死忠粉丝群到底是些什么人？

    那天在Union Chapel门前排队时，我站了第一名。站第二名的女生是加拿大人，正在爱丁堡读文学硕士。她专门从爱丁堡飞去伦敦看鸟先生的演出。

    站三四五名的是美国人，两女一男。我无意间听到如下对话：

    女：你来自什么地方？
    男：纽约。
    女：城市？还是州？
    男：城市。
    ...
    男：你学什么专业？
    女：生物。
    男：哪个学校？
    女：哈佛。
    男：从没听说过。
    女：（笑）是啊，我们学校特别小。一点也不出名。

    我心想，哇塞，同行嘛...为什么鸟先生这么吸引生物学家？哈佛的，剑桥的...还都这么早早的来排队。要了命了。

    演出结束后，我在地铁站遇到一位英文讲得很吃力的意大利女孩。她专程从意大利飞来伦敦看Andrew Bird。哦天！我说，刚刚Andrew有出来和大家见面哎，你和他说话了么？她听到这个，似乎眼泪都要掉下来。“没有。我的英文太糟了。但是我爱他。” 我看着她，觉得很感动。“抱歉我太激动了”，她的黑眼睛亮晶晶的闪。

    哎。真是要了命了。

    Tag：AndrewBird
    exhilarating 发表于06:53:46 | 阅读全文 | 评论 1 | 编辑 | 分享 0

  • 2009-11-16

    Andrew Bird @ Union Chapel, London 2009-11-10 - [音乐-现场]

    11月10日和11日，我在伦敦的Union Chapel看Andrew Bird。两场的票早已全部告罄。之所以打定主意两场都来，纯粹是因为自己夏天在爱丁堡看他的现场后轻而易举的爱上了这位大眼鸟。而现在，看过这两场演出后，我猜想，未来若有Andrew Bird的演出，而自己力所能及，便一定会奔去。在小妹这里达此标准的音乐人天底下只有两个，另一位是Graham Coxon。（你这是在讨好谁？）

    心得写了个开头，便写不下去了，然后就糊里糊涂索性都写成了英文（惊）。可是为了方便大家阅读，还是在此简要概括一下。

    说简要概括并不确切。其实英文心得是认认真真的写演出写音乐；中文心得是随随便便发发花痴。

    不过也没什么特别可花痴的，无非是此人浓眉大眼，睁眼时令人害羞，露出笑容时脸上出现两个酒窝。总之一个字：杀。

    10日的演出中有个瞬间尤其值得自己珍藏：鸟先生忘了Mx Missiles的歌词。当时我坐在第一排，喊出那句歌词给他提了醒，他才继续唱了下去。搞得我非常荣幸又进一步陷入紧张，一副要时刻做好提词准备的提心吊胆状态。

    演出依然很精彩，可惜曲目不多。鸟先生似乎有些游离，两处忘词，两首歌重新开头，也有一处忘了和弦。然而忘了词儿的鸟先生糊里糊涂的站在台上，显得无比可爱。

    好，欲知更多细节，请看英文（殴殴殴）：

    Mr Andrew Bird has spent the whole of 2009 flying around the world putting on shows.

    He did 28 dates in 31 days with St. Vincent in October. I wasn't lucky enough to be a resident of the United States during that time to witness their collaboration on stage, but from what I heard, those shows were regarded as the best shows ever by many, even Mr Bird himself. He gave a little speech at the last stop of their tour together (in 9:30 club Washington DC), saying it was the best tour ever for him, that he was able to “jam” with Annie Clark of St. Vincent. It was also described that these two performed St. Vincent’s hit song “Marry Me” with eyes fixing on each other the whole time. It is no coincidence that people wish they were more than collaborators onstage. The comments I’ve seen include “Andy and Annie should date”, “make babies” and even, “have lots of super-skinny, musically talented children”.

    Anyway, his “best tour ever” ended on Oct 28th. After 10 days’ break, his second round of European tour began. Andrew was booked for two dates at Union Chapel in London, an active church / music venue most suitable for small, intimate shows. Both nights were sold-out. I had intended to come for only one date, but after being entranced by his live show in Edinburgh this summer, to go to both dates seemed a must.

    Union Chapel is beautiful. I would go as far as saying it’s my favorite music venue in London. The acoustics are fantastic. I particularly love the wooden benches. Yes, unnumbered wooden benches. Queuing outside for more than 1 hour, then going inside and sitting in the front row, this is all very great.

    Supporting band Moriarty consists of band members from New York and France. They are probably the best supporting act I’ve seen this year. Old school jazz and American folk might be their most obvious influence. The lead singer's voice reminds me of those diva ladies in the 30s. Their music is complex and multi-layered. Their stage performance is most distinctively old school style, with all band members huddling in front of the same microphone. There's a mystic air about the lead singer. At one time she greeted the audience with a low whispering "Good evening, bird watchers." Her eyes could talk. In other words, there was much captivity in them. She was seen often exchanging glances with the guitarist, who bears a striking similarity to Ewan McGregor. By the way, this is NOT the reason why I think highly of them. I've never seen any band give a theatrical stage performance as interesting as theirs.

    Moriarty left the stage at around 8:30. When Andrew’s roadies were busy setting up instruments, I noticed his sock monkey lying at the edge of the stage. I believe its name is “the night-hanger”.

    When Andrew got on stage holding his sock monkey, the crowd gave the warmest applause and cheers. He was wearing jeans, green checked shirt, dark sport coat, and a scarf, which, later I knew was a present from a fan a couple of weeks ago. No glittering shoes were seen. Mr Bird didn't bring them to Europe. He started with instrumental violin looping. Layer upon layer, soon the chapel was filled with intricate violin melodies, which evolved to be The Happy Birthday Song. Half way through the song, he made his horn revolving by hitting a pedal. Then he removed his shoes. His socks are red.

    After the second song Water Jet Cilice, he greeted the audience with some Bird-esque talking: “Hello…I don’t know…I’ve just got off the boat…I’ve got sea legs…That’s what you have while on a boat…I don’t know.” At the same time his left hand is seen making occasionally nervous gestures in the air. :)

    He introduced “Sweet Matter”, a previous version to Dark Matter. “Recently I’ve started to mash-up my own songs…not intentionally.” He had a false start due to a looping problem and had to start it a second time. The line “That’s the taste of neuron blinking” evoked some laughter just as it did when he performed it in Edinburgh. 

    He launched into “Why?” straight after that. This is a song I could never get tired watching him play. I could never get tired watching him play anyway. He mentioned in a previous interview that he had been playing this song on almost every show for the last 7 years and hadn’t got tired of it. The way he plays it, his facial expression during that song always get me under a spell. I’ve seen people declaring this song to be the sexiest song they’ve ever heard. Well, I’ve also seen people commenting “Andrew Bird’s voice is like sex with a violin.” Hmmm…I’m not sure. You tell me.
    “I always feel better after playing that song. It’s like it got something off my chest.” Andrew declared. “But I’ve changed the pronouns to protect…myself. I get people throwing things at me because sometimes I don’t give enough…emotional response. I’ve been playing that song for the last 7 or 8 years…It’s still true. Maybe that’s why it still works.”
    I giggled. He once admitted that he often takes the other person’s point of view when writing a song consists of dialogues. I suppose he had been damned for being easy-going. :P

    “Oh No” was played following “Oh Ho”. It’s interesting how he arranged the set in this way so that the palindrome still works. The audience that night was quiet, which probably lead Andrew to ask if everybody is alright. “Normally you’d expect the British audience to be a bit more … heckling”. (lol) 
    When giving background to the song “Effigy”, his talking was constantly interrupted by a woman’s laughter from the balcony. “It’s my birthday!” She shouted. It felt a bit weird at the time, particularly if you take into account that Andrew was talking about “a guy, sitting at the end of a bar/pub (‘you guys go to pubs here’ He said), blurted things out that have nothing to do anything, making people really uncomfortable.” So we have a song about loneliness and awkward social behavior, illustrated by some awkward social behavior from a member of the audience. (OK I’m being mean. I just hate seeing Andrew interrupted.)

    “Wake Up” was introduced as an unfinished song, “It’s been there for so long and starting to become an old song.” It occurred to me as a variation of “Trimmed and Burning” with the line “Jesus made my dying bed”. Like the other mashed-up song “Sweetmatter”, he had a false start with this one and had to start a second time.

    Mr Bird said he forgot to put something on the set list. “It’s very important. It’s about what kind of animal you become.” It took us no time to realize the song was “Anonanimal”, one of my most loved tracks on Noble Beast, and a song you can expect on every show in Andrew’s Noble Beast tour. When he played this song in the US last month, there were times when he forgot that he had to get ready for switching to the guitar. And this was what happened exactly. In the middle of the song, he put down the violin and hurried over to pick up the guitar, while gesturing to the audience with a lifted finger and a half apologetic face. “I always forget to switch to the guitar.”

    What I especially love about “Anonanimal” is that he sings “Don’t tell me this one I know I know this song I love this song” with his eyes wide open. Mr Bird has giant dark eyes. You don’t see them wide open during his live shows that often. He usually keeps them half closed, at the same time swinging his head into all directions. But occasionally when he opens his eyes, there’s so much clarity in them and it makes one shy to stare. He sometimes reminds me of an owl. Indeed there is something bird-like about him.

    Also included in the set were new song Lusitania and Tenuousness. During the latter he had to make a gesture to the engineers at the mixing desk to kill the track of the Moroccan instruments. At the end he commented, “I was amazed that things don’t fall apart … that was before I did that song.”
    After that he treated us with an old song “Mx Missiles” from the 2005 album “The Mysterious Production of Eggs.” I would be thrilled to hear him play any of his old songs, what thrilled me even more was – I was able to help him when he forgot the lyrics.

    He didn’t remember all the lyrics, which hit me as a surprise. The song appears on his 2005 album and he played it last month in a radio session, so it hasn’t been that long! He wrote that song after all! Anyway, he got confused during the first few lines and had to start again. I felt a bit relieved when he picked it up the second time. The audiences gave knowing and forgiving laughter. But he stopped again during the bridge. “I didn’t know what you were…?” I shouted out the lyrics. He got it. The song continued. I felt absolutely honored to have been the one who could give him a hand. There was similar situation in his US tour last month when he forgot the lyrics and was reminded by a member of the audience. I just never dreamed that it could happen to me.

    The cheers and applause didn’t get less warm. Indeed, it’s still a brilliant show, even if it’s not perfect. I once said “A bad day at fishing is better than a good day at work, an imperfect show from Andrew Bird is way better than a perfect show from many more”.

    “There’s only time for one song.” He said. “But I’d like to let you decide what that is.” All of a sudden suggestions poured down. The guy behind me even went as far as shouting “Anything you remember!” Oh that was really rude! But we laughed. Mr Bird laughed too. “That was fair” He said. In the end the choice was between Scythian Empires and Plasticities. There might have been more demand for Scythian Empires, but I was in the front row and I kept shouting Plasticities. :P
    So we had Plasticities. That just made the night perfect for me.

    That was the end of the main set. On his set list, he put down “I’m going home” and “Weather Systems” for encore, but he only played the first one. It’s an American folk type of cover song I believe. When he waved and bowed to the audience, then took his monkey and walked off stage I was still waiting. I didn’t expect him to play just one song for encore. Probably he was too tired.
    There was a fight over the set list (obviously), since Andrew was the only performer there was only one copy on the stage. A friend I met earlier that evening congratulated me on the little rescue I’d done for “Mx Missiles”. I could not help but smiled, and secretly thought, I bet Mr Bird would remember his lyrics well tomorrow. Well, judging from my experience the next day, I was very wrong.

    Like I said, it was still a good show. But I wish the set could be longer. He played 15 songs in total, including the instrumental “On Ho”. I think he was tired, probably due to his traveling across the Atlantic, plus he didn’t put on any show in the previous week, he might need some adjustment.

    I had prepared a gift for him. After the show I waited by the back door, and was soon joined by 3 other people. It was really cold outside. We felt even colder when we learnt there’s a fireplace in the lighted room by the street. It’s a room with art deco windows. I didn’t want to peek into the window but other people did. It turned out that Mr Bird himself was in that room. During the time we waited there was at least status updates. We knew he ate sushi, drank milk from a glass, and then a beer. Mr Bird ate sushi and then drank milk. What an adorable man. We waited for 1 hour 40 minutes. We waited until the lights were out, until doors to both the front and back of the building were locked. Mr Bird didn’t show up.

    I secretly blamed the other people, who were noisy all the time. Andrew knew there were people waiting outside, but he didn’t come out to meet us. I still can’t believe it. That’s just so unlike him, who is generous and sincere.

    Maybe he was tired. But I’ve got a present for you Andrew! How can you do this to me?! It was later suggested by a friend that Mr Bird didn’t feel like meeting the person who knows his lyrics better than he does. Well, this is comforting thought.

    That was how my Tuesday night ended up in chaos. Come to think of it, that was the first time when my wait by the stage door turned to nothing.

    Set list:

    The Happy Birthday Song
    Water Jet Cilice
    Sweet Matter
    Why?
    Natural Disaster
    On Ho
    Oh No
    Effigy
    Wake Up
    Anonanimal (not on the set list)
    Lusitania
    Tenuousness
    Mx Missiles
    Plasticities (chosen over “Scythian Empires”, which is actually on the set list)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I’m going home
    Weather Systems (on the set list but left unplayed)


    Tag：AndrewBird gig
    exhilarating 发表于10:17:49 | 阅读全文 | 评论 1 | 编辑 | 分享 0

  • 2009-11-02

    Andrew Bird - Glass Figurine 的两个版本 - [音乐-其他]

    这首歌很有意思。选自发行于1998年的第一张solo专辑Thrills。八成是他大学时候的作品。

    它的题材是：恋爱中不受重视的一方在抒发不满。他爱着歌里的那个“你”，爱到不行，爱到可以为“你”做任何事。然而那个“你”却没把他当回事儿，把他当玻璃雕像一样遛着玩儿。于是唱歌儿的人怒了：我可以为你做任何事，但我不要做你的玻璃雕像。

    谁知这是不是Andrew本人的故事呢？谁会把Andrew遛着玩儿呢？他以前说，在那些二人对话的歌曲里，他写歌的出发点通常是另一个人的角度，而不是他自己。不管怎样，Glass Figurine是一首迷人的小歌曲。

    你把我放在你的壁炉台上，像一尊玻璃雕像
    你怎能对我这么差劲？难道你不知道我有更好的事可做？
    我就像个家居杂志里的邮寄商品
    多么令人尴尬呀！女士，我才不要跳那只舞
    让长颈鹿们跳吧，让悲伤的小丑哭去
    你陶瓷一般的亲吻，也不会令我害羞
    不，我不是那个长着粉红面颊，令你发笑的小男孩。虽然我想到你便会脸红。
    我可以为你做任何事，但我不要做你的玻璃雕像

    you've got me sitting on your mantle like a little glass figurine 
    why must you be so mean? Don't you know I've got better things to do? 
    I'm like a mail order product from a housekeeping magazine. 
    How utterly embarrassing, well lady I'm not going to dance that dance. 
    Let the giraffes do it, let the sad clown cry. 
    Your porcelain kisses are not going to turn me shy. 
    No, I'm not your little boy, your rosy-cheeked joy, though the thought of you makes me sanguine 
    I'll do anything you want but I won't be your glass figurine 
    Let the giraffes do it, let the sad clown cry. 
    Your porcelain kisses are not going to turn me shy. 
    No, I'm not your little boy, your rosy-cheeked joy, though the thought of you makes me sanguine. 
    I'll do anything you want but I won't be your glass figurine 
    I'm like a mail-order product from a housekeeping magazine 
    I'll do anything you want but I won't be your glass figurine

    矛盾哇？！尤其是那一句：I'm not your little boy, your rosy-cheeked joy, though the thought of you makes me sanguine. 简直是太杀啦！

    这首歌的原始版本，也就是收录在专辑Thrills的版本当然是Andrew Bird早期风格的代表——热闹的摇摆爵士。请在这里下载。

    然而后来Andrew完全摒弃了他早期的风格。在采访中他说：有一些我早期和Bowl of Fire录的歌，如Glass Figurine或Eugene，它们的歌词我现在也会认同，但是在音乐上，现在的我会用完全不同的方式来处理它们了。

    果然Glass Figurine后来被他处理过了，这里便是Andrew在2006年现场演唱的版本。歌词没有变，但旋律和编制大相径庭。节奏慢了许多，加进了口哨。比起原始版本里的怒气，似乎多了些无奈。“Let the giraffes do it"那里的弦乐尤其动人。

    这个现场版本里还有Andrew对这首歌的介绍，很好笑。他说：“那是首很老很老的歌，第一张Bowl of Fire专辑里的。最近我第一次听它而没有起寒战...或者不如说，没有兴奋的脸红...倒不是说我讨厌它...我现在听它更多的感觉是好奇，为什么呢...我当时在想什么呀！？我现在可写不出这样的歌了是不是？”

    其实他早期的专辑也都很棒的。只是没有跳出音乐流派的框框而已。

    我大概是染上了Andrew Bird考据癖。

    Tag：AndrewBird
    exhilarating 发表于04:05:09 | 阅读全文 | 评论 1 | 编辑 | 分享 0

  • 2009-10-24

    看鸟人，贴鸟图 - [音乐-其他]

    A bad day at fishing is better than a good day at work. An imperfect show of Andrew Bird is better than a perfect show of many more.

    他美国的巡演场次总是有好看到令人崩溃的海报哇！可惜出了美国的演出就没有了。>D<

    很少这样大规模的贴图，希望不会弄坏你的浏览器。啊哈哈

    既然都贴了，索性再贴些。

    Andrew，你怎么能长这么好看，这么浓眉大眼，腿那么长，还那么有才华呢？犯规！

    Tag：andrewbird
    exhilarating 发表于06:18:46 | 阅读全文 | 评论 0 | 编辑 | 分享 0

  • 2009-10-21

    Andrew Bird当真要飞来北京和上海了 - [音乐-其他]

    今天收获的确凿消息：Andrew Bird明年初在北京，上海和香港的演出被他的官方网站确定了。

    怎么会这么快？！于是我赶紧打电话给订机票的代理公司。没打通。（喂你过于激动了！）

    总之这件事情是基本确定了。然而，想到我将可以在家门口看Andrew Bird，仍然觉得不能相信啊不能相信...希望国内的同好们会礼貌热情温柔的对他。:)

    Andrew的现场演出是独一无二的。有评论称：“他谦虚，他真诚的说话，他倾其所有的演出，好像恨不得把心都掏出来。” 有些天才艺术家是生性害羞而内向的，只有包围在自己的艺术里才感到放松自如。Andrew Bird便是这样的艺术家。他是位独特的音乐家，平均每年演出200场以上，然而即便是同一首歌，他演了多少遍，就有多少个版本，没有任何两次的处理是完全一样的。无论是小提琴的pizzicato段落还是他演唱的旋律，几乎什么都可以变，然而怎么变都令人神往。Andrew说，“我的歌，说到底就是几个和弦。”他会刻意在创作时留给每首歌很大的发挥空间，“如果我把同一首歌演了一年，到头来我对它厌倦了，那是我的错。”

    总之Andrew Bird的现场只能用欲仙欲死来形容。然而我纳闷得不行：所有乐评都盛赞他的现场，赞了也不是一年两年了。他现场EP也发了好几张，可咋就不出个现场DVD呢？

    果然我料事如神。10月16号（就是5天前啦），他在Milwaukee Pabst Theatre的演出被全程录影了，说是为发行DVD作素材。Andrew尽职尽责的演了两个小时的超长set。他还生着病呢。其实这一年来他有事没事的生病，感冒啊呼吸道发炎啊什么的。结果他说，我为这张现场DVD想了这么几个名字：Live in Milwaukee: sweats and chills；Mr Bird has a fever.；Malarial Milwaukee；The Giant Ill. （爆）

    这场演出的录音可以在此下载，感谢Radio Milwaukee。听得我心中满是波澜，浑身阵阵寒战。=)

    然后，托鸟先生的福（？），我也感冒了。嗓子痛。头晕。鼻塞。

    今天依然想到昨晚错过的Sondre Lerche，肠子都悔青了。我housemate说，还好你错过的不是你家鸟先生或者绵羊的演出。我说，假如是鸟先生或者绵羊的演出，即使那天我博士答辩也在所不惜的要去看。

    （呃，我闹着玩儿的。我还是有理智的。。。有吗？）

    Tag：andrewbird
    exhilarating 发表于04:31:16 | 阅读全文 | 评论 4 | 编辑 | 分享 0
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