Beck played Grammy Week 'Citi Sound Vault' series (pics, review, video, setlist)
Beck played a smaller-than-usual show in LA on Friday night (2/10) as part of the Grammy Week Citi Sound Vault series at the Hollywood Palladium (“a new live music platform curated exclusively for Citi cardmembers”). Check out some pictures of the show in the gallery above.
The crowd was palpably excited to get a chance to catch Beck in such an intimate setting, and at a time when he doesn’t have any announced tour plans or a new record to plug. Backed by a giant TV-screen with ever-changing graphics, Beck and his band ran through a high-energy, career-spanning set that provided a nice mix of deep cuts along with the classics. Opening with the peerless double-whammy of “Devil’s Haircut” and “Loser,” the bar was high immediately, and they did an excellent job of matching that energy level for the rest of the set.
His band is incredibly clean and tight, and the sonics in the room were fantastic — you could hear every distinctive flourish that we all know from the recordings, an especially satisfying thing when it comes to music that has such memorable production details. About halfway through the set, after slowing things down for an exceedingly pretty version of “Lost Cause,” the band was joined by a local choir for a cover of Pastor TL Barrett & The Youth For Christ Choir’s gospel song “Like a Ship Without a Sail,” which was a surprising and lovely addition to the set. They stayed on for the rest of the show and provided great dynamics all night, particularly on stuff like “Fourteen Rivers Fourteen Sails,” new song “Wow,” and closer “E-Pro.”
The whole night was a polished, confident outing from an artist with, at this point, an enviable catalogue of music to pull from, and the crowd was absolutely on board the whole time. At one point Beck paused to reminisce about recording in a studio just down the street from the Palladium, and about how that part of Hollywood didn’t used to be so safe and have so many nice restaurants. It was the kind of observation that might rankle from someone without Beck’s LA bona fides, but Beck is, in a lot of ways, kind of an ultimate LA artist (and author of one of the ultimate LA songs, “Que Onda Guero,” which he performed), an outsider who ascended to industry royalty status. He’s also one of the great pastiche artists from a pastiche town, and for set-closer “Where It’s At” he and the band spent about 15 minutes name-checking influences. They went in and out of bits of Chic’s “Good Times,” Bowie’s “China Girl” and Michael Jackson’s “Bille Jean,” among others. The rambling goofiness of that last 15 minutes stood in contrast to the tightness that came before it, but it was a welcome change-of-pace, cementing a joyous vibe that permeated the evening.
Video of part of that “Devil’s Haircut” finale and “Sex Laws, as well as and the Palladium setlist, are below.
Metallica play tonight at the Palladium to close out the Citi Sound Vault series. UPDATE: Read about the Metallica show HERE.
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Beck — 2/10/17 Hollywood Palladium Setlist
Devil’s Haircut
Loser
Black Tambourine
The New Pollution
Qué Onda Güero
Think I’m in Love
Soul of a Man
Go It Alone
Lost Cause
Blue Moon
Like a Ship (Without A Sail)
Fourteen Rivers Fourteen Floods
Mixed Bizness
Wow
Girl
Sexx Laws
E-Pro
Encore:
Paper Tiger
Where It’s At
