LENOX, Mass – It was something still a bit new for veteran rocker Beck, and something really different for many Beck fans gathered at Tanglewood Tuesday night.
A large, diverse crowd packed the shed and the sprawling lawn areas of the picturesque Berkshire Hills’ venue on a typically warm and humid July evening to witness an unusual musical event that brought together two unlikely camps of musicians.
Along with the 64-member Boston Pops Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Edwin Outwater, Beck, the once mislabeled ‘slacker-rock’ icon of the 1990s, performed a range of stand-out tracks from his lengthy 30-year discography.
Since the beginning of the month, Beck and his band have been teaming up with orchestras around the country to bring audiences a hybrid rock-folk-pop-orchestra setlist of his hit records and Grammy-winning compositions. The tour will commence at the end of this month with a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Beck noted that this relatively new live performance format is challenging, yet exciting, because it allows him to play songs that he rarely, and in some cases,never, gets to perform live.
Over the years, the genre-fluid artist has amassed a growing collection of recordings featuring orchestrations integrated in his songs. His interest in orchestration is not too surprising because Beck (whose legal name is Beck Hansen) grew up with a father who was an accomplished orchestra composer.
The arranging of the setlist and format for this one-of-a-kind tour demonstrates that Beck possesses an adept understanding of his fanbase (and the type of fan most likely to attend such a concert) – so much so that he even applied the orchestra treatment to fan-favorite songs never intended for orchestration.
As the day’s last light faded to dusk, Beck and the BSO opened the much-anticipated collaborative event with the lush instrumental “Cycle,” followed by one of Beck’s all-time best songs, the mellow and reflective “The Golden Age.”
The added orchestration of this live rendition of “The Golden Age” was gorgeous – enhancing rather than impeding the song’s masterfully deep, raw emotions and introspection nature.
From there on out, it was one treat after another for Beck’s fans, especially for the hardcore loyalists who have closely followed the musician’s extensive career and discography.
Next, Beck performed a riveting cover of The Korgis’ track, “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime,” and then laid down two of his more somber orchestra-rich compositions – the melancholic “Lonesome Tears” (Sea Change, 2002) and the haunting “Wave” (Morning Phase, 2014).
After a string of mellow tracks, the energy level of the crowd shifted dramatically when Beck and the BSO broke into a lively, danceable Beck classic, “Tropicalia,” heavily influenced by a romantic admiration for Brazilian music.
Revealing to the audience that his mother, who he said lives ‘nearby,’ was in attendance, Beck credited her with introducing him to Brazilian music.
Not longer after, the orchestra broke into another Brazilian-influenced Beck track, “Missing” (from his 2005 album, Guero) – a track he said he hasn’t performed live in two decades.
The setlist for the concert was thoughtfully arranged, one can see, to fit in as many Beck classics as possible.
At the half way point of the show, Beck presented a beautifully warm (with extra orchestrated) rendition of “Lost Cause” followed by a juiced-up rendition of the epic rocker, “The New Pollution.”
Undoubtably, for a contingent of diehard Beck fans, many who have seen him live before, the concert was a special, if not unconventional, treat to experience songs that were once youth anthems receiving the orchestra treatment.
Next, Beck spoke to the crowd about the kind-of-obscure-but-not-really musician Scott Walker.
While never commercially successful, critics and fellow musicians have long admired Walker’s intricate orchestrations and introspective lyrics.
Beck honored Walker with a moving cover of Walker’s 1969 track, “It’s Raining Today,” and again later in the show with a cover of “Montague Terrace (in Blue).”
The hybrid collective also performed Beck’s haunting “Round the Bend” from 2002’s amazing album, Sea Change, as well as “Paper Tiger” and “We Live Again” (off of 1998’s Mutations) which he commented was influenced by, and thus dedicated to, French singer Françoise Hardy.
From that point, Beck and the BSO performed back-to-back a trio of tracks from Beck’s 2014 Grammy-winning Album of the Year, Morning Phase.
They included the haunting, “Wave”; the gentle, contemplative “Morning,” and the uplifting and hopeful “Waking Light.”
Because it is so extensively woven with orchestrations, and since it made such a huge impact that year, it made sense that there were more songs (six in all) from Morning Phase in Tuesday night’s setlist than from any other Beck album.
Interestingly, the last number that Beck and the BSO performed was another 1990’s iconic track, “Where It’s At,” with its old-school, yet familiar (especially for middle-aged dudes), refrain: ‘two turntables and a microphone,’ which the charged crowd had no trouble singing loud and clear.
When the orchestra left the stage, Beck’s curious inner-child emerged as he proceeded to nose around the sea of instruments left behind (“hey, they got a gong!”), wondering aloud if he was going to get into trouble.
With the orchestra backstage, and his talented touring band squeezed into place, it was now time to go full-throttle electric.
Following the rousing harmonica riffing of “One Foot In The Grave,” the band leaned in hard on the driving, mischievous “Devil’s Haircut,” followed by the funky, eclectic “Mixed Bizness” from 1999’s Midnight Vultures.
Last, but definitely not least (considering it’s Beck’s biggest track ever), it was the moment for the all-time anti-hero anthem of the 1990s – “Loser.”
Related: The real story behind Beck’s “Loser” and how the mainstream media intentionally defames young people to generate profits
Not surprisingly, by the time the first notes of the immediately-recognizable “Loser” riff rifled through the air, a loud roar from the crowd rumbled across the venue grounds.
Undoubtably, for more than a few people in the crowd, this was the seminal song that coalesced with memories of their youth (and MTV).
The collective energy of everything at that moment was palpable and crackling with electricity.
Each time Beck pointed the mic in their direction, thousands of people loudly sang out – “I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me.”
Clearly, judging by Tuesday night’s performance at Tanglewood, and Beck’s long, successful career as an eclectic songwriter and musician, neither he – nor his generation – has ever been a loser (baby).
Concert photos by Hillary Scott for the BSO.