Listen: Movie Theme
It could’ve been a complete wash. With the Killers playing across town, and the week’s schedule filled with plenty of hot indie acts, it was altogether possible that Beck, a sort of father figure to countless pop absurdists, would’ve seen him playing to a hollow venue peopled with aging hipsters and VH1 maniacs. Add to that two lackluster albums that mainly rehash his previous work on Odelay and Midnite Vultures and it seems that in the wake of the lachrymose epic Sea Change, Beck had simply lost either the knack for a quirky single, or had lost touch altogether. That last bit still may be true, but it wasn’t the case at last Monday’s show.
The secret to Beck’s prowess as an entertainer goes beyond profoundly conceptual set design and effortless charisma and charm. It’s maybe too easy to forget in “markets” like Philadelphia that without the “alternative rock” radio format that Beck has such a deep catalogue of songs, many legitimate hits, to pull out of his bag of tricks. For as pervasive and played out as “Loser”, “Where It’s At” and “Devil’s Haircut” were, nothing since Midnite Vultures has reached a level of pop cultural ubiquity he’d previously achieved. Without alterna-rock manna, Beck, who used to spend his time proofreading Malkmus lyrics, found himself adrift, cut loose from indie rock’s bedrock into the uncharted waters of the blog rock era, where the only constant is volatility.
Maybe that means Beck will never regain the market saturation he once enjoyed. Fair enough. Times change; he’s changed. Monday night Beck played to his strengths, opening with “Loser” and racing through four or five of the aforementioned bonafides, before venturing into a set interspersed with new songs and new old favorites. Accompanied by a band of marionettes [who were themselves accompanied by a band of marionettes, if the mis-en-scene is accurate: pictured], Beck rattled through the rough cut rock and hip hop favorites before revisiting the quieter, sober material of Seachange, an empassioned version of The Flaming Lips “Do You Realize”, an unexpected Louvin Bros. cover [“You’re Runnin’ Wild”] and, for a change of pace, Midnite Vultures’ geek makeout classic “Debra”. There was hardly a moment to catch your breath and the aisles were filled with people dancing [including Inquirer music critic Dan DeLuca!] as the strains of “EPro” blared into the windswept streets of Upper Darby.
[It goes without saying that B’more/Philly stylewarriors Spank Rock killed it with a breathless set of some of the summer’s (year’s?) most infectious jams, even though they were playing to a mostly empty house.]