hooves on the turf

Andrew Bird was willing to be a lot sillier at Webster Hall last night, throwing up his arms clumsily in dramatic gestures and making playful pauses in some of the stylized performances. Characteristic of him, he does it all with a straight face, even when he brought out the sock monkey someone made for him. He held the figure in his hands and took the time to show off his clothing (pin stripe suit), especially the socks, as well as the violin he carries on his back. After this the monkey sat in front of one of the gramaphone amps for the rest of the night.

Photos after the jump.

In comparison to the show at Bowery Ballroom and Union Hall, also with Martin Dosh and Jeremy Ylvisaker, this one felt a lot more polished (ps. they all wore ties). There were still a few new experiments, like an interlude that had some distortion on his violin and an extended intro for one of the songs. Most were from Armchair Apocrypha, including “Dark Matter,” “Simple X,” “Plasticities,” “Fiery Crash,” and a notably strong performance of “Armchair” (but no “Scythian Empire”). Saying that spring reminds him of it, however, he also played “Masterfade” with slight modifications.

Perhaps picking up from the Coachella webcast, there was a lot of demand for “Fake Palindromes” for the encore. However, he returned with Bob Dylan’s “Oh Sister” which, at least where I was, created some confusion (”I don’t think I know this one”). Then he said he was tired of playing all the instruments and asked the audience for help on the final song, “Tables and Chairs.”