The Beck show at Jazz Fest back in April was rained out and the House of Blues show in October 2014 was SOLD OUT quicker than you could say “Ghettochip Malfunction.” It’s hard to believe, but prior to that House of Blues show, Beck hadn‘t played New Orleans since his Boot show, yes the Boot, back in 1994 on the Mellow Gold tour. The Saenger show for all intents and purposes was to make up for the Jazz Fest show raining out. The show being SOLD OUT was still not as painful as a potential Jazz Fest set. Each venue has their plus and minuses, but one can’t get past the pure beauty of the Saenger.
As opposed to his House of Blues show, Beck had some local flavor open up for him, Quintron and Miss Pussycat. In all the years I’ve been living here, for some inexplicable reason, I have never caught a Quintron show. Being an opener with thirty minutes ahead of a living legend could have easily been a daunting task, but Q and Miss P took everything in stride. They remind me of the love child of the B52’s and the Doors. I look forward to seeing them live again with and expanded set and maybe even the puppet show.
After finishing a stint of summer festival shows, Beck has been off the road for a little while. His show at the Saenger was the start of a seven-show run, ending at the Pilgrimage Festival in Tennessee. For the most part, one would have concluded that Thursday night’s show and the dates to follow would be prime time to play some new material off his forthcoming and yet to be titled album. Well, he did play two new tracks “Dreams” and debuted “Wow” live. If “Wow” is any indication of the path the new album will be taking, we can expect a more pop-oriented and silly outing, much like his earlier stuff and nothing like his last release Morning Phase. The amazing think about his catalogue is, for the most part, every album has its own identity. Of his astounding catalogue of twelve albums, thirteen when the latest comes out, Beck played material off of eight of them, emphasizing his 2005 album Gureo. Unlike his last appearance at the House of Blues, this set seemed to be more representative and user-friendly. This was mostly due to the fact that the set [http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/beck/2016/saenger-performing-arts-theater-new-orleans-la-73fdaa5d.html] wasn’t weighed at the beginning with several tracks from one particular album. Personal highlights for me included, “Girl,” “Hell Yes,” and “Paper Tiger.” All the bells and whistles that accompanied the show, helped round out the experience. While Quintron was playing, I couldn’t really grasp what was surrounding him and Miss P, which gave me a lackluster feeling about what Beck’s stage performance was going to be about. Needless to say, three chords into “Devils Haircut,” I was completely blown away. If I learned anything, it’s to NEVER doubt Beck and enjoy the ride. A nice bonus to the show was his crowd banter which mostly focused on the city and how much he loves it. I’d be curious to know if the drink story he told was real or not. You can see more pictures here[http://jalbum.net/a/1749695].
