Beck Brings the “WOW” to The Armory

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Beck. The music icon that blasted through the 90’s with his hits “Devil’s Haircut”, “Loser” and “Where It’s At” made his way up to the (not so cold) tundra of the Twin Cities to play a show at The Armory on September 13. Almost a year prior to the show Beck released his latest album “Colors”. The album became a pop and alternative rock sensation with songs like “Wow”, “Colors” and “Up All Night”. Needless to say he would cover his ground and then some.

Before Beck lit up the stage, The Voidz christened it. Or maybe more of less demonized it with good old fashion rock and roll attitude and noise. The band led by Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) was an electrifying experience. As Casablancas looked around the new venue he said to the crowd “This is a cool place. There is like a quarter mile of bar on each side… If you have trouble getting a drink, you have no one to blame but yourself.” He said sarcastically as he sipped out of his red solo cup full of who knows what.

When the band went hard they were untouchable. Casablancas sounded no different from “Is This It?”, the drummer flailed around like the Muppet Animal and the guitars work was truly something to be admired. The set time was short still impressed the crowd and got them ready for the next legend of the night, Beck.  

After a lengthy turnover the lights went out, the crowd scream and the entire stage became a screen full of colors. The band walked out and made a wall of noise. Then out of the center of the stage out walks Beck, sporting a cowboy hat and a pink suit coat. Beck walked up to the mic and yelled “Odelay!” and then immediately started “Devil’s Haircut” The crowd went nuts, as opening with a banger like that is unseen. But Beck being Beck took it a step even further. The second song they played was “Loser”, and that’s is what you call a one, two punch. 

After playing some classics and deep cuts, Beck brought his band up to the front with a whole bunch of acoustic instruments to play a mini acoustic set. This set included “Blue Moon” and two covers “Row Boat” by Johnny Cash and “Take Me With U” by Prince. However, before playing the Prince song Beck point to a man in the front row wearing a Husker Du t-shirt and said “We’ll do Husker next time”. 

Beck closed the main set with “E-Pro” with an ending that sped the song up to ungodly speed, it was easily one of the most incredible and punk moments of the night. For the encore the band opened it with “Wow” and closed the set with “Where It’s At”. But, Beck had some more tricks up his sleeve. During “Where It’s At” he introduced all the band members and had each of them front a song to show off their talent. The guitarist (who looked like a cross between Mick Jagger and Paul Westerberg) played had the band do an upbeat version of “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones, the drummer got an incredible solo, the bassist had the band go into some “Rapper’s Delight” groove. The keyboardist played some incredible beats that were unknown to keys, and the three back up people (who Beck coined as the B-53’s) sang a portion of “Once in a Life Time” by The Talking Heads. After the introductions the band jumped right back into “Where’s It’s At”. Near the end of the song all the people left there instruments and shuffled off stage together, except the drummer and keyboardist who kept the groove going for roughly a minute before exiting.

There isn’t much more to say than I left feeling extremely satisfied and amped from both performances. I made sure on the way out to snatch some of the best merch on tour including a Beck “Colors” Kaleidoscope.

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