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Beck: Beck's Laws

Mr. Hansen pulls out all of the stops.
22 augustus 2000, Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)

Tekst: Ariën Rasmijn

Publicatiedatum: 22 augustus 2000

I usually don't fret over whether an artist is "real" or not. Integrity and credibility are probably the most hollow, most marketed terms our generation has ever used as some sort of justification for buying somebody's record. As if it would really matter, like it would somehow enhance the listening experience, the quality of the songs.
But somehow I just can't help but think a little bit in those terms when it comes to Beck. Whatever he does, it always seems that little bit too disingenuous to ignore. Always the right moves at the right time to appease the hipsters. Doing art exhibits with his late grandfather's work, releasing material on small labels when he really doesn't have to, doing small shows in spots he could easily sell out ten times over... Call me paranoid but he's never ever fucked up even once, has he? In my opinion Beck has probably one of the most meticulously planned careers in rock, also one of the most well-crafted and effective public images. No other major artist can out-cred him. The paradox of a planned, choreographed appearance of chaos and freewheeling. Being the "Coolest Kid On Earth" does not come easy, folks. That night in front of the Paradiso desperate souls were trying to get in, offering up to three times the cost for a ticket. The gig had sold out within an hour, and for months this was the show to brag about in advance if you had the ticket. The weather was hot, clammy, and the air inside was dense with anticipation. It was going to be one of those special occasions. You knew it, heard it in every breath inside the main hall.
The show was supposed to start at nine, but Beck and just a few of his band members eased up on stage at 9.20, started out with 'Cold Brains', and admitted that they just had to have some Thai food first and that they were going to pull a long one that night. What followed was a performance Beck apparently only does twice a tour. The first 50 minutes were one solid acoustic jam, featuring a lot of 'Mutations' tracks and the more obscure material of his folky repertoire. These are songs he rarely gets the chance to play live, so I sympathized when at one point he snapped at the yakking audience members in the back, telling them to "shut the fuck up." I honestly thought I'd never be able to see this: Beck, for a prolonged period of time alone with his guitar and his harmonica churning out a seemingly endless stream of his folk-oriented songs, all very well played, all heartfelt. At times it did get a bit monotonous ("Didn't he play that song already ten minutes ago?!") but you toughed it out simply because it was a special occasion. He basically let his guard down and let his musicianship (what he's really all about, where all of his stuff actually springs from) rather than his showmanship do the talking, and all I was thinking was "he does this only twice a tour?!" People do this every night, Beck Hansen has to plan for it in advance and does this ­ yeah, I know I'm getting repetitive here ­ only... twice... a... tour which is mad, stupid if you think of how beautiful his performances of 'He's a Mighty Good Leader', 'Tropicalia', 'Rowboat', and especially 'Nobody's Fault But My Own' were and how much of a contrived, tongue-in-cheek juggernaut the second full-on-Vegas-mode Midnite Vultures/greatest hits part of the set had evolved into by the end of the tour (even though they played the party jams more loosely than usual this time and with less stage antics). I mean, every song was beefed up, prolonged, enhanced with all sorts of wild breaks and interludes. On one hand props to the band for keeping it nice and tight but on the other you have to admit that a good party jam knows when to glide like a Porsche and when to hit you like a truck. Ask Prince. Beck hasn't perfected that trick just yet for at times the live arrangements sounded just a tad overcooked. Sometimes it did work, like on 'Mixxed Bizness', 'Hollywood Freaks', and 'Where It's At', other times it just went on and on, prog-rock style, and you couldn't really get all the way down to the song, like on 'Get Real Paid', and 'Peaches and Cream'. The audience, however, finally got what they wanted after the glorious yet admittedly rather self-indulgent folkjam and reciprocated enthusiastically with awesome, loud applause. But you know what? Whoever said self-indulgence would be a bad thing never held a sixstring clenched to his/her pelvic bone, it's all part of the package and most of us understood this, I guess...
The show stopped kind of abruptly, without an encore. The day after rumours were flying that Beck had injured his hand, but none of the following dates were cancelled... Afterwards, bass player Showboat got out to talk to some fans, people were gathering around, sitting down, drinking in that wonderful venue that is Paradiso to discuss all that had occurred in the past two solid hours. The consensus was that this was a rare, great performance. I agreed, solely on the fact that the man and his band - finally - for once just hung loose and played. Maybe next time around he could do it more often like this.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/live/beck/beck-beck-s-laws/319/
Meer Beck op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/beck