doodledee

Tonight Molly and I made a last minute decision to head over to St. Paul to catch Beck playing at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. He's back out on the road touring to support his most recent album Sea Change.

Sea Change is full of acoustic guitar, low mumbly singing, and a healthy dose of melancholy. As such, Beck's initial tour last fall was played solo, in front of well-behaved crowds sitting in fancy theaters. And yes, I'm still pissed I missed it when it came to town.

This time around, however, it's back to the basics. Beck and his band came out on stage, picked up their instruments, and exploded with a kaleidoscope of angst and funk. Less than a minute into the show, as I sat there watching Beck and the rest of the band posing down Charlie's Angles style, switching positions every few beats, pointing their guitars and drum machines at the sky, all I could think was "Beck is the coolest - and thinnest - guy I've ever seen."

And all it did was get better from there. Beat boxes, loud guitars, robot dancing, keyboards on wheels... you name it. He played many of his hits [Loser, Where it's At, etc], plenty of selections from his older albums [Novocaine, Beercan, Milk & Honey, etc], took some mellow breaks for the newer stuff [Lost Cause, Golden Age, etc], and even tossed in some wacky stuff, most memorably a main set ending cover of Nelly's "It's Gettin' Hot in Here". The show was straight ahead and it was fun.

At the end, Beck and the band came out for a second encore dressed in white jumpsuits and proceeded to rip through a ferocious Devil's Haircut. Hell yeah. That's what it's all about.