Bird Watching

We headed to First Ave. May 11 to see Andrew Bird, the violin-wielding, whistler extraordinaire. If you ever get the chance to see him live, do it.

The last time I saw him he was opening for Ani Difranco at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego — a bit of a different setting, a bit of a different Bird. I was entranced at Copley as he played precreated loops, adding live violin, then whistling in a combination of sounds that was almost too satisfying to describe. All of this was heightened by the gorgeous acoustics in the symphony hall.

At the First Ave. show, Bird was the headliner with his own accompanying musicians — Martin Dosh, a percussionists that works with loops himself, on the drums and Jeremy Ylvisaker on bass. The drums intensified his music, making it less ethereal, but just as pleasing. The fact that Dosh and Ylvisaker are local musicians and Bird's latest album, Armchair Apocrypha, was recorded mostly in Minnesota made my first First Avenue experience appropriately local.



Dosh:











A little meta-photography:



I spied this toy on stage early in the show, but I was still elated when he picked it up. Unfortunately, I couldn't actually hear the familiar little moo or oink it must of produced when he used it:



I didn't get a clear picture of it, but he also had a sock monkey someone gave him at a show. It was dressed in a full suit and carried a little violin case of its own. It was a sock monkey version of Andrew Bird: