Faces furrowed with deep concern at the nefarious smell of a blown fuse, caused when the sound blew out with a dramatic bang, mid-way through Andrew Bird’s set at a packed Yugong Yishan. The Chicagoan singer-songwriter’s visit has been the buzz around town for weeks now and, judging by the squeeze, he could have easily filled a venue twice the size.
But after several minutes, the sound returned and Bird, who had reacted to the potentially concert-halting explosion with remarkable calm, soldiered on to complete his set, tired as he clearly was. In a way, the bang provided an unusual climax to a performance that otherwise lacked one: for all of Bird’s dazzling virtuosity and comfortable stage presence, he doesn’t quite possess the showman’s feel for lifting musical tension to its peak or the fine balance between instrumental exploration and pop execution. As a result, Saturday’s show was stunning without being fully satisfying, beautiful but somehow lacking closure.
What was never unclear was Bird’s gifted mastery of the violin: watching him construct his soundscapes, mixing deep, orchestral foundations with syncopated grooves and floating pizzicato, before launching into constantly astounding solo passages, was worth the price of admission alone. His guitar playing, on the other hand, is heavy-handed and raw, and while it provided his songs with a certain garage rock bite, it just left me yearning for more violin. Holding the ship together between this instrumental juxtaposition was his voice, which was much fuller than on his occasionally sleepy-sounding recordings, extending into grand Rufus Wainwright-like warbles before dropping into grittier, throatier territory during a Blues number.
“Are you guys having a good time?” he asked the crowd with an affable smile, looking casually smart in a faded green dress shirt and dark blazer. “I’m having a good time!”
Having opened with an easy-sounding half-time “Darkmatter”, in which his strummed violin sounded almost ukulele-like, the set picked up pace with “Nervous Tic” and “Fits and Dizzyspells,” both played rough and rocky. Part of the joy of a Bird live show is the faint sense of chaotic danger involved: you start to get nervous as he bounds back to pick up his violin or fling his guitar around his back to squeeze in a glockenspiel line—“Is he going to make it in time for the loop?”
The set pulled heavily from his latest album, “Noble Beast,” disappointing fans looking for earlier favorites. Still, his “Section Eight City” rendition was superb, and the set ended strongly with “Imitosis” (“brought to you by the letter ‘I’”) and a drawn-out, powerful version of “Anonimal,” whose skittering, ruminating-on-existence lyrics are imaginatively squeezed into a complex melodic flow. He closed with “Scythian Empires,” enlisting the crowd’s help in helping him keep time while he syncopated loops. Its majestic melody was entirely re-worked, which, while more fun for Bird, meant that it possessed little of the grandeur of the recorded version.
Despite endless cries for “Simple X”, it wasn’t to be, and his lone encore turned out to be an intimate cover of Dylan’s “Oh Sister.” It was a moving end to a show that the crowd was grateful to have had in the first place, sonic mishaps and all.
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That's a real shame. Up front, I could hear the noise coming from out back, even during Bird's performance. Real shame, and noisy to the point where folks in the pit were complaining to one another about it too.
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The only viable solution really is to either up the volume or put in some real sound absorbers. Maybe we should all pitch in to carpet the Yugong ceiling?
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Either that or people could just respect the artist and keep it down during the performance. Don't think that's a huge thing to ask. As you said, there's an upstairs area perfectly fine for getting your talk on.
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fair enough- but is there a way to somehow limit the amount of tickets sold? I was there and spent time right in front of the stage, and at the back near the bar. Left the front after a few songs because the crush was just too much. Too hot, to crowded, couldn't enjoy the amazing music. This happened at dj Krush too. Later saw a girl being carried out of the pit by a couple guys - don't know if she was drunk, but I'm guessing it was the heat that did her in. And like what you both have noted - in the back it was too loud to hear anything. People kept walking in front of the screen that was set up so even that was a bust. It pains me to say it, but I don't know if it's worth it to go to shows when the house is packed way over capacity.
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You've just nailed the problem with Yugong Yishan as a music venue, though. Its a cool place, but it's narrow design makes for a dubious live performance experience. You can only see the stage from maybe 1/2 of the entire room... if you get anywhere near the back-end of the room (where the bar is), you might as well be listening to the radio. Except, as you noticed, the acoustics get hammered by the narrow design and the fact that everyone in that part of the building is yammering away (probably because they can't see or hear the show). I dig the venue, conceptually, but the tubelike design truthfully makes it a crap place to see music unless you're in the pit. Even the area immediately above the pit sucks, because they've obscured the most direct view in the entire room by sticking the sound/light controls there and its usually filled with like 5-6 dudes, all standing up, and at least as many elevated videocams on tripods.
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pet conspiracy was way over-sold, so was dj krush, so was andrew bird. it's a recent trend and a little bit scary. bad things happens when bars and clubs get too packed! and, when you consider these electrical issues that keep popping up as well as the obvious lack of fire exits, seems like the right mix for a disaster.
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Bird's performance was incredible. The most talented violinists-vocalist-songwriter-whistler I've seen perform. Yet I left after two songs because people were talking so loudly at the bar. You could only hear the show at the front of the pit area. In the back, it was an expat hipster echo chamber. Why do people pay 180rmb to go to a show to talk all the way through it? Please people, if you're going to Yugong to socialize, there's a fine hangout area upstairs and a bar there as well.