beck in austin

after work yesterday we (kelli and i) drove from houston to austin to see beck in concert at the back yard. if anything i was a little worried about the weather. the last week in houston has been full of thunderstorms and a little flooding. two days ago i checked the weather conditions in austin and it looked great, clear and sunny, highs in the low 90s. when i checked again yesterday it said scattered thunderstorms. this wouldn't have been a big deal if beck were performing in an indoor venue. instead it was in an outdoor theatre called the backyard.

it's a weird scene. first of all it's in texas hill country. second, it's kinda in the middle of nowhere. third, this older theatre is surrounded by a brand new looking strip mall (best buy, old navy, etc). parking is down these dirt roads and in these empty fields. after you park you've got to walk up these windy dirt paths and the mall parking lots to get to the theatre. you get in line to enter the venue but just before you reach the entrance you have to split into boy and girl lines, i guess for security cop-a-feel purposes. i was groped by a man, kelli was groped by a dyke. not that there's anything wrong with it, my father's gay. anyhow, once we get in the scene looks kinda familiar. not big like the shoreline amphitheare or cynthia mitchell woodlands theatre, more like the small-medium saratoga mountain winery theatre.

we find a spot to stand about 40-50 feet from the stage dead center. as we're people watching i see this cute blonde gal walking around holding up a small piece of cardboard and toting one of those soft-sided coolers. i'm guessing she's selling beer or something but i couldn't see the front of her sign as she disappears into the crowd. finally she reappears and it turns out her sign says "FALAFEL". only in austin. ok, maybe in berekely as well. i guess there have been times at concerts where i've been thinking to myself "shit, a falafel would really hit the spot right about now!" right about now, the funk soul brother, check it out now...

anyhow, the weather turns out to be awesome. a few billowy clouds drift by but overall a clear night, you could even see the stars. every now and then a cool breeze would blow some second hand joint smoke our way. i forget the opener's name, he's a one man show. he's in pajamas and a robe with a white towel wrapped around his neck. he's standing in front of this table with all kindsa sampling and looping gear. he's beat boxing and rapping and recording and looping and tweaking various effects to make some semi-organized music. at first i thought it was just random but his last song made me reconsider. he was singing some lines, i actually thought he sounded taylor hick-ish. anyhow, he sings this line, records it, loops it, and then repeats the line but in a different, key, and repeats the process. now he's playing like four of himself but totally harmonizing. pretty inventive.

when he was done we got to see beck's stage gear. not your typical rock setup. back right - drums. back left - keyboards. back center - not sure, looks like a miniature stage or booth but had a miniature drum kit on it. front right - bass and bongos. front left - more keyboards and percussion effects. above it all was a big piece of cloth that was to used as a projector screen. when the band comes on stage and starts to play, it appears that the little stage in the middle back is to be used for a puppet show rendition of what's going on in front of them. it was actually pretty funny, one puppet for each band member, and dressed exactly like the real thing. even the little instruments looked true to life. when the real drummer drummed, so did his puppet. when beck sang, his puppet's mouth moved. when the geeky dana carvey looking guy danced around, so did his puppet. tonight's show brought to you live in puppetron according to beck. this was to go on for the entire concert and would be projected above the whole stage. it was pretty cool, i definitely hadn't seen anything like it, and it was probably a distraction since i found myself watching the puppets more than the humans. it's not just their puppets, but the fact that the puppeteers made their motions mimic their counterparts so well. for the entire show. the miniature stage even had a monitor in the back that projected the puppets so it really mirrored reality.

they played a combination of new (guero) and older stuff, and even a few brand new unreleased tracks. at one point it was just beck and the bass player (on guitar at that point) doing a few acoustic songs while the rest of the band sat down at a table and chairs that was brought on stage. there were glasses, plates, silverware, and even some food was brought out. they were just eating, drinking, chatting, just having a grand ol time. eventually they started banging away on glasses, plates, and even the table, creating a whole percussion section to go along with the acoustic tune going on. pretty entertaining really. to lead off the encore there was a short film starring the various puppets and their mini adventures in austin. then there was a live puppet performance to beck's first single "loser". you probably had to be there to appreciate it but it was all pretty funny. they played a couple more songs and then beck literally cut them off right at 10:30pm. maybe it's a curfew since it was an all ages show? regardless, it was an overall great show.

of course leaving one of these shows is always an event. big bottle necks leaving the venue as well as the parking lot. when we finally got to my car the traffic was pretty much at a stand still. all the cars were forming a few lines heading in the same direction that we originally entered. i saw one car take an exit on the opposite side and disappear into the dark. i wasn't sure where that led so decided to play it safe and follow everyone else. after 30 seconds it was clear this wasn't going to work so i pulled out. i saw one more car disappear into the dark and never say any cars come back out so figured it might be an exit. i flew down towards that exit, it appears a gate had been opened, and headed down that dirt road. it looked like there was some construction going on around the area but then it led to some paved roads. i kept following it and it eventually took me back to the main road where everyone else was exiting. this trip saved us a good 30 minutes. i know this doesn't seem like a big deal but when you've been standing for 3 hours and need to pee and are thirsty as hell, this is a big deal.

we gassed up, got some fluids, leaked my lizard, and headed back towards houston. about halfway home i got a text message telling me that miami edged out dallas. for whatever reason i was glad that dallas lost. i know that's not a very texan thing to do but whatever. i wanted san antonio to win anyway. where's that falafel gal when you need one?