BECK
POP chameleon Beck twisted the minimalist mantra “less is more” into little is large with a rocking puppet show at Madison Square Garden’s Theater Wednesday.
Musically, it was a safe deal for both fan and band. Beck anchored the 100-minute set with his hits from the past dozen years, while he featured well-chosen selections from his just-released CD “The Information.”
He used his groundbreaking 1994 single “Loser” to open the show. It was excellent, as were “Devil’s Haircut,” “Black Tambourine,” “Where It’s At” and “Guero.” Of the new songs, “Nausea” was tops.
But it wasn’t the music that made this performance so compelling. It was the staging.
The concert was of a mirror reflected in a mirror.
Ready to get dizzy? Beck and his band were, of course, onstage playing the music. At center stage, where most rock outfits place their drummer, was a small, exactly detailed marionette stage, on which puppets (dressed like the band) aped every move that flesh ‘n’ blood Beck and his pals made.
The real-time puppet show of the concert was projected on the stage-wide video screen behind the actual band.
So when Beck would sing a lead, the video cameras at the little stage would do a close-up of the singing Beck puppet, which was flashed on the big screen behind living, breathing, singing Beck.
It was a low-tech high concept that never got old. This gimmick might seem limited on the surface, but the puppetry (provided by the crew that created the well-received movie “Team America: World Police”) was so synchronized with the actual concert that the virtual gave the actual a run for your attention.
In fact, when Beck worked a slower ballad and gave the puppets a mid-show break (probably to get re-stuffed) the gig took a nosedive.
Concert rituals seem written in rock, from opening song selections to the number of encores taken – deserved or not. This show ditched the expected with production as sharp and entertaining as the music.