I'm breaking my repeat rules to do what I said I'd do yesterday, so here's another Andrew Bird song, and what I'll consider my review of Noble Beast and his live show! You get a two for one.

Yesterday I talked about how Noble Beast's linear sections are basically the death of the album, and that while all the songs are uniquely beautiful in their own Andrew Bird-y way, there's no rhythm to the album, there's almost no flow to it. You can't rock out, except maybe for a split second at the beginning of Fitz & Dizzyspells, and maybe when Anonanimal (this song) gets going at 2:52, but like everything else on the album, the song-y part is short-lived and veers off in some other direction far too soon. (I should make special mention of Not a Robot, But a Ghost, which is pretty song-like but so fucking weird and long that it's almost uncomfortable to listen to.)

I enjoy Noble Beast, and don't get me wrong, you probably will, too, but don't take it in the car with you, and don't expect to score any sort of party with it. This is an album to be listened to while you're lounging in your favorite chair, in front of a fire, with a glass of wine (or a joint), and maybe (maybe) with a group of similarly minded people (silent people! there will be NO TALKING during this album, you must announce). Sadly, I don't really have a lot of space in my listening habits for a good album. I need good songs. I need something that grabs at my soul for three to four minutes, and not slowly over the course of an hour.

However.

Andrew Bird needs to be seen live. There's a quality in him, live, that isn't there on his albums. His voice is absolutely unbelievable, smooth, even in a full wail. I had warned my girlfriend that "you are going to witness some pretty extreme virtuoso whistling," she didn't believe me, laughed it off, but two songs in she was, quite loudly, proclaiming his proficiency at whistling. He took off his shoes after the first song (to expose pink and brown striped socks, which totally set off my hipster jealousy alarm), which he played on his own using only his violin, his looping pedals, and this weird speaker box with two Yellow Submarine-styled cones on it that spun past a microphone. It was utterly beautiful. I have no idea what song it was.

The pure skill Andrew Bird displays almost makes the long linear sections of Noble Beast worth it. The guy is composing beautiful music, and admittedly it doesn't adhere to any sort of conventional verse-chorus-verse songwriting, but to sit in an audience full of people (and we were all sitting the whole time, which was nice) and watch him (and three others) perform these complex and beautiful songs in a live setting is something to be witnessed.

Thankfully he played a few older album tracks (not much older, though) and the four-piece version of Fake Palindromes was completely unbelievably awesome, it rocked, far harder than any allusions to rocking that are in the album version, it was hard and fast and totally sublime. Tables and Chairs has certainly gotten a lot better, especially with Bird's stage antics / theatrics / nervous tics.

That's the best thing, clearly, about seeing Bird live: he doesn't seem to be afraid to change or improve his songs. He didn't have to reinvent Fake Palindromes for the four-piece, he didn't have to do that utterly adorable nuanced way he sang "there will be snacks!" at the end of Tables and Chairs, but he did and by doing so he probably ruined the album versions for me forever.

I was hoping that seeing Andrew Bird live would open a door for me, a door to loving Andrew Bird's full discography, even the weird stuff that I can't listen to while I'm driving, but what I really came away with was an appreciation for Bird's live show. (The albums almost seem superfluous now, although Noble Beast does accurately capture the beauty of Bird's live vocal, whistling, and violin playing.) These were the most expensive tickets I've purchased, I think, for an artist I wasn't sure I would totally enjoy, and it was totally worth it and I totally enjoyed it and then some (yeah, I jizzed in my pants, what of it?).

I'll definitely go see him in the future.

If his next album is less like Noble Beast, anyway.