By Gideon Cross
Daily Bruin Contributor
The half homage, half poking fun soul/hip-hop posturing that
sometimes wears a bit thin on Beck’s mostly impressive latest
release “Midnite Vultures” was in full force Friday
night at the Greek Theater.
The eclectic musician kept his tongue firmly in cheek for most
of the hour and 40 minute set, in which he shouted out the area
codes of surrounding communities and quoted gangsta rap lines (Ice
Cube’s “It was a good day / I didn’t even have to
use my AK” among them) during jam sessions.
These jam sessions, which occurred frequently during the first
half of the concert, were disappointingly repetitive and never went
anywhere particularly interesting. Extended jamming is often one of
the highlights of a concert, because it allows fans to view a
different aspect of an artist’s music than studio recordings
provide. Unfortunately, every time a song reached its natural end
on Friday, things immediately went downhill and stayed there until
the next song began.
Managing to stand out from the lackluster first half of the
concert was an energetic performance of “Mixed Bizness”
that got the crowd moving. One of the best songs on “Midnite
Vultures,” the concert version didn’t stray far from
the fast-paced, funky album cut.
Less successful was a take on Beck’s first hit,
“Loser,” that saw some of the lyrics partially drowned
out by backing music that took on a harder rock tone than best
suits the song.
Despite the concert’s less-than-stellar beginning, Beck
seemed in a good mood, bantering with the crowd and relating how,
before he made it, he used to camp out in the bushes above the
Greek Theater to hear the concerts.
At one point, he urged all the people listening from the bushes
to shout, but over-eager members of the paying audience made it
impossible to tell if there was any reaction.
A little more than halfway through the show, when it looked like
the highlight of the night was possibly going to be the well-done,
but unexceptional “Mixed Bizness,” Beck managed to show
why he’s one of the most important, vital popular musicians
today. An affecting, stripped-down version of “Nobody’s
Fault But My Own,” that featured only Beck and his guitar,
almost made up for the night’s missteps all by itself.
Versions of “Odelay” hits “Where It’s
At,” “The New Pollution” and “Devil’s
Haircut” came across better than the “Midnite
Vultures” tracks and jamming. They comprised the
concert’s first half, but were not nearly as strong as
“Nobody’s Fault But My Own.” Without deviating
too much from the album versions, Beck performed the three singles
well, but didn’t provide any interesting innovations or truly
memorable moments.
In many ways, that was the problem that plagued Beck for most of
the night: Play it safe and close to the recorded version and get
it right, or dare to try to turn the song into something more, but,
most often, fail to reach that goal?
In between these two approaches lay not only
“Nobody’s Fault But My Own,” on which Beck
managed to truly find something special in his live performance,
but also a surprisingly soulful Spanish language version of
“Jackass,” that saw opening act Café Tacuba
playing along.
Café Tacuba, a Spanish language rock outfit, performed a
45-minute opening set that, while a bit uneven, bristled with
positive energy and featured more than one memorable hook that had
the audience singing along. The band’s best moments
weren’t on a level with Beck’s, but overall Café
Tacuba gave a more consistently engrossing performance.