A Love Letter To Beck

October 17th, 2006

Dear Beck,

You crazy Scientologist, you.

You totally kicked my ass last night! Thank you for FINALLY coming back to Toronto and doing us right.

Love,
Kat

OK seriously – last night’s show at Ricoh Coliseum was trumps. I fully expected to be disappointed by the venue itself but Beck turned it out and sounded GREAT. I would have easily paid $100 to see a show of that calibre. Where to begin?

First of all – what’s with the crazy Bez wannabe in the band whose main purpose was to entertain the crowd with crazy dance moves and pantomimes? I so fell in love with him.

Then there were the marionettes. Wow. If you haven’t yet heard/read about the puppet version of Beck & his band, who play the entire set simultaneously behind the band and are projected onto a big screen so you can watch, you absolutely must!

Last night was the perfect blend of all the hits and favourites. The only disappointment was that my favourite track off The Information (Cellphone’s Dead) wasn’t played. But from what I’ve seen by way of setlists, it isn’t usually part of the live set. But I mean, come on – Broken Drum, Devil’s Haircut, I Think I’m In Love, Nausea, Paper Tiger, Where It’s At, Loser, Mixed Bizness, Que Onda Guero? And Beck did a great job of bookending the show with two GREAT hits – opened with Loser and closed with E-Pro. Best.

I’m not even a fan of The Flaming Lips [indie hipster community, feel free to write off any of my opinions from this moment forward] but Beck did a great version of “Do You Realize” (which, btw, is a killer song). And when the band, seated at a romantic dinner table surrounded by chalices and champagne flutes, broke into “Clap Hands”, using their cutlery and the glasses to break out the percussion, EVERYONE was into it.

Just before the encore, there was a puppet video that was likely taken earlier that day in the streets of Toronto, showing the puppets walking past major landmarks all the way to backstage at the Ricoh Coliseum. I imagine they do this in every city, but wow. The best rhyme from the skit: “Toronto! Toronto! Eat a cheese burrito with cilantro!” After the video, the band came back in BEAR COSTUMES, with Beck climbing up one of the crew’s rope ladders and dangling precariously from it. And the puppets were outfitted in Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys. WTF?!

Oh, and the perfect way to cap off a night? How about a 509 streetcar FILLED with concert attendees breaking out into a spontaneous singalong of Loser & then E-Pro spearheaded by yours truly? Huh?

Posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 10:01 am by Kat and is filed under Blog.