andrew bird live in toronto.

a weekend of exceptional music in toronto…

i saw andrew bird last night at the opera house in toronto, the final show of a run of spectacular music that started with an energy packed okkervil river show at lee’s palace on friday night and continued through the beastie boys gala event at the o’keefe hummingbird sony centre on saturday. okkervil river rocked a small and sweaty club with a set of energetic indie/country rock that kept all of us dancing until almost 2 in the morning. they were notable for the tightness of their set, flowing seamlessly from song to song that focused mostly on their upbeat numbers. this was contemporary indie rock done well, and it seemed to be universally appreciated and enjoyed by the uniformly bearded/skinny-jeaned crowd. i walked out feeling like it was one of the better shows i’d seen in a long time; that sentiment lasted exactly 4 days.

andrew bird is a singer/songwriter from chicago. his shtick is mastery of a variety of instruments: over the course of the show, he bowed, plucked, and guitar-strummed a violin, strummed and solo-ed a guitar, whistled, sang, and even played a bit of xylophone or harpsichord or something else that i couldn’t quite identify but very much enjoyed. most songs started with a riff on one of these instruments that was promptly sampled and replayed as he picked up a second (and – gasp – third! fourth!) instrument to layer each new sound upon the last. the incredibly sophisticated and layered songs that resulted seemed impossibly produced by the three lonely guys on stage.

bird is quite aware of his musical insights and was clearly comfortable on stage, playing with the crowd through rounded lyrics, spoken word transitions, and the odd wink or smile. the show was well practiced but energetic throughout – at one point, bird mentioned that this show was the first for him after a week of solo shows, and he was clearly revelling in the support of his bassist and drummer/keyboardist sound engineer, each of whom played a variety of instruments that only served to reinforce the beauty and harmony of bird’s tunes.

and what music! creative lyrics! impossible timings and harmonic shifts! beside me, my friend jon – my concert buddy who knows about these kinds of things – would look over every few moments with a did-you-hear-that? look on his face. in most songs, despite the complexity of his music, bird would exhibit the extent of his creativity by veering wildly from the album versions of his songs, the trill in his voice evoking jeff buckley with a playful smile on his face, if such a thing could be conceived. my own reaction was much more emotional: quite simply, it was the kind of music that puts laughter in my heart and makes me happy to be alive.

i would have been more self conscious about my odd, gaping smile if it weren’t for similar looks echoed on faces all around me. i know that look; the last time i saw it, i was passing through bloor subway station. on the northbound platform, an accordion-playing busker was unexpectedly accompanied by a chinese woman who had the most amazing operatic voice i’ve ever heard. the two of them were playing a duet, but the accordion was overwhelmed by the power of this woman’s voice. even she seemed to be overwhelmed; her singing made her seem lighter than air as she floated, danced, around the accordionist, simultaneously innocuous in her ripoff handbag and poorly cut jeans and entirely memorable for the sensational power of her voice. poor acoustics, be damned: all of us in the station stopped, abandoing our midday transit to be rooted in our place, unable to turn our eyes away from this spectacle that was so out of nowhere yet so toronto: a chinese woman and a busker singing italian opera in a subway station. the subway arrived, just moments after the song concluded to raucous applause, and, for a few moments, those of us lucky enough to bear witness to this incredible moment were left with an indelible smile on our faces as we stared indistinctly out the windows of the train. this was the same look that we all wore during the andrew bird show.

surprisingly, the show was less packed than my last visit to the opera house to see indie-rock darlings ‘the national’, and the typical toronto crowd of boys with girlfriends slowly thinned out as the show progressed. but those of us that stayed enjoyed the luxury of room to dance (or rhythmically bob our heads). the applause that urged bird’s return after “dark matter”, at the end of the set, roared over the music still resonating from the end of the song, several minutes after the band had left the stage. he ended with “scythian empires”; if there were music that could make me cry, it’d sound a little like that song.

if you like music, do yourself a favour and check out andrew bird.