18th
Blurry photo of Fourth Presbyterian Church after last night’s Andrew Bird (and Nora O’Connor!)/Jeff Parker Gezelligheid concert. While I recognize that it’s easy to dismiss Bird as high-minded catnip for NPR listeners (in recent years, I’ve come perilously close to doing it myself; the NYT blog didn’t help), the man has multidimensional talents and this was a gorgeous show. It was nice to hear him stretch out and away from his “pop” songs in favor of free-form, slow-burn reinterpretations of same, beautiful, bright solo violin (including a wonderful rendition of a traditional Kenyan melody), and haunting, country-tinged folk reminiscent of the Handsome Family. Parker was amazing too, extracting a mind-boggling variety of textures and tones from his guitar. No holiday songs from either artist; given the setting, it would have been gratuitous. A+++
(If you’re a Bird fanatic or otherwise familiar with his live show: yes, he used the spinning machine (pictured), yes, he played in his socks, no, I didn’t see the monkey but it sounded like the couple next to us spotted it.)
