Beck, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger @ The Pageant

Photo courtesy of John Ottenlips

After a six year album gap, Beck is on tour again. I was fortunate enough to experience the show at The Pageant in St. Louis this past wednesday.

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger is the creative outlet of Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl. I felt that the opening band sounded a lot like their name. Their songs were psychedelic and heavy, mystical and fierce. Lennon was an unexpectedly good soloist.

Beck and his six-piece band opened with "Devil's Haircut," dancing and smiling around the stage like a little kid who gets to play rockstar. They toured the entire Beck catalog with a stunning twenty-four song set.

It was obvious that the entire band was having even more fun than the audience. I think that's one of the key elements of a great concert. Playing the harmonica on "One Foot in the Grave" to the beat of the audience clapping is another one. And "E-Pro," which had the pit thrashing and pumping their arms, ended with the band members murdering each other while Beck put up crime scene tape across the stage.

The defining characteristic of a Beck concert is the way the genre seems to change seamlessly. The show went from hip hop ("Novacane") to folk ("One Foot in the Grave,") dance ("New Pollution,") country ("Blue Moon,") psychedelic ("Chemtrails,") punk ("Minus,") and even weird soul ("Debra.") Beck shows that good song-writing transcends genre.

Grouplove @ The Pageant

Photo courtesy of Adrienne Franke.

English band Alt-J opened up the evening of 10/7. The group had a unique sound that blended genres. It felt like the singer/guitarist was in a folk band while the other three members were in more of a dance and electronica mood. Surprisingly, this fused naturally into something that was equally beautiful and danceable. Their drummer had a very tight, precise style that made him a human drum machine. "Tessellate" sounded particularly great.

Grouplove started with "Itchin' on a Photograph." With only an album and an EP to their name, the American band played through almost all of their recorded material throughout the set. Although they're by no means the most ground-breaking band, their simple pop-rock songs were catchy, blissful, and even uplifting. I would argue that everyone in the room was having a good time. How can you not smile when you hear songs like "Naked Kids" or "Lovely Cup"? Their lyrics aren't political or angry, they're about youth and having a good time. Sometimes that's all we need to hear about.

About halfway through the show, bass player Sean Gadd interrupted the song "Chloe" after a few chords. It was drummer Ryan Rabin's birthday. The audience sang "Happy Birthday" to him and Alt-J came out holding a cake with lit candles. Audience participation can sometimes be obnoxious, but this was cool and it made the show a little more special.

This concert was not a life-changing experience, but it was a genuine evening of entertainment with great friends. Never Trust A Happy Song is out now on Atlantic Records.

Childish Gambino @ The Pageant

Photo courtesy of Keegan DeJong

I wouldn't want to be the opener at a sold out Childish Gambino show, but somebody's got to do it. Chance the Rapper, a fairly unknown artist, came off as rather young and naive. He had a DJ on stage with him, but the tracks being played still had Chance's vocals on them. This turned the entire performance into a glorified sing-along. His flow was off and he was missing most of the words. Even when he got it right, it was too slurred to hardly be understood. He also does this weird thing where he goes "byahahahh" all the time. Like this (listen from 0:10 - 0:20). He didn't impress me at all.

Finally, Childish Gambino (AKA Donald Glover; AKA Troy Barnes from Community) took the stage. He had a full band with him: guitar, bass, drums, keys, and a laptop. They opened with "Outside" quickly followed by "Firefly," the first two tracks off Camp, his first official LP release. His flow was just as tight as the album, never missing a beat. He performed most of his hits, including material going all the way back to 2010's Culdesac mixtape.

The stage set up was very simple. There were a few trees on stage to set the camp atmosphere. The lights were few, but they were used well. The large screen behind him was used in several different ways depending on the song. It was used for still photos, graphics, lyrics, and video. All of the lyrics always matched up with the screen exactly.

The encore was really something. It included one of the very recent singles from his website ("some new shit," as he called it), two freestyles, and a currently unreleased song. The crowd was engaged the entire time. When he said "throw your hands up," no one even questioned it.

This concert only proved to me the truth in Gambino's music. His lyrics are often about overcoming adversity. Despite all of the troubles in his life, he has still managed to become a successful musician, actor, and comedian. Today, influential music sites like Pitchfork and Stereogum don't like him at all. Even with them working against him, he produced an incredible sold out show. To me, that is the real awesomeness of Childish Gambino and it's a message everyone can relate to.

Manchester Orchestra @ The Pageant

On May 3rd I attended the Manchester Orchestra concert at the Pageant. While the show did not sell out, the pit was incredibly crowded because the balcony wasn't open. I was in the second row of humans, center stage.

The first of three bands was Harrison Hudson, a three-piece outfit from Nashville. The singer and guitarist, Harrison himself, had the appearance of Buddy Holly meets Arcade Fire. Big glasses and a slightly strange haircut. Between the three members, the songs were well-balanced. No one outshined the rest. They played songs about relationships including a very humorous song about Katy Perry. THe entire set could be summed up in their song "Run My Way." "Love is a waiting game." Very true words.

The second band was Australian rock duo An Horse. They showered us in half-shouted vocals and fast beats. Singer/guitarist Kate Cooper played an orange Fender Mustang that looked as though it had been bought earlier that day. He vocals were very energetic but sometimes difficult to understand. Drummer Damon Cox pulled out some stunning fills that I definitely don't remember from the album. Despite the tease of an acoustic on stage, there were no acoustic songs.

Finally Manchester Orchestra took stage, starting with an older fan favorite, "Shake It Out." Friends, it only takes a few melty crayons to ruin an entire coloring book. When one guy charges his way to the front, it creates a mosh pit. This was a particularly violent one. Three songs in and frontman Andy Hull had taken notice.

"It seems some of us are smiling a little too much about all the pushing and shoving."
"Thank you!," said everyone in the front.
"Yeah, do you see all these people, especially women saying thank you?," said Andy to the moshing guys, "That means you're wrong."

 The set included a few songs from their forthcoming album, Simple Math, but was for the most part very old-heavy. We were treated to a beautifully slow cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland, 1945." Andy continued to play many of their most popular songs at a much slower tempo than the album. I like to believe that this was to discourage shoving in the pit. Hull played a black Gibson hollow-body the entire show except for one song played on a custom telecaster built by guitarist Robert McDowell.

My favorite thing about Manchester Orchestra is that it seemed as though all five members knew exactly what their songs were about. I could really tell that they were feeling the lyrics as they played the songs. Drummer was smiling like a little kid during the entire show.The band opted to not do an encore and just play one extra long set.

A fantastic concert. A terrible audience. It only takes one, kids. It only takes one...