{"id":1030,"date":"2015-09-28T00:16:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T00:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=1030"},"modified":"2026-06-28T00:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T00:18:24","slug":"andrew-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=1030","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

October 2012, Georgia Theatre, Athens, Ga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been one for whistling in songs, it mostly comes across as trite and gimmicky. And it\u2019s rare when the person whistling knows what they\u2019re doing \u2014 nothing ruins a good song like half-assed whistling.<\/p>\n

But Andrew Bird can whistle, and what a whistle it is. An instrument unlike any other, the sound from this whistling Bird is magical and alarming in its sharpness and power. There\u2019s no sense for anyone else to whistle in songs, because it cannot be done better than Andrew Bird \u2014 trying is futile. He is the master whistler \u2014 but he is way more than that.<\/p>\n

For hours Andrew Bird performed an act of musical art, a wondrous array of strings and chords, crashing electronics and violin strums, for a raucous and appreciative Georgia Theatre audience. Bird played solo and with the band, preaching through his inventive lyrics and wild arrangements, showcasing an imagination vivid and rare.<\/p>\n

He opened the show on his own, taking center stage with violin in hand, recording strummed loops while performing a sweeping violin for \u201cHole in the Ocean Floor,\u201d off his album Break It Yourself<\/em>. The packed crowd was rapt, quiet and attentive to the wave coming off the stage. The eight-minute opener merged into the happy Why, from 2001\u2019s The Swimming Hour<\/em>, a bluesy tale of relationships told with wry lyrics and playful chords. Wow.<\/p>\n

The band joined Bird, and the foursome ranged its way through songs new and old. \u201cA Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left,\u201d \u201cDanse Caribe,\u201d \u201cOrpheo Looks Back\u201d and \u201cDesperation Breeds\u201d were all played with verve, perfectly pitched on a night when the Theatre\u2019s sound system was at its best. And it had to be, the intricacies within Bird\u2019s music demand it.<\/p>\n

Midway through Bird gathered guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker and bassist Alan Hampton for an intimate four-song bluegrass set, Ylvisaker armed with an acoustic and Lewis with an upright bass. The highlight of the mini-set was \u201cRailroad Bill,\u201d a song dating back to the 1930s about a legendary man who was either Robin Hood or outlaw, depending on who you ask. It was one of the finest displays of bluegrass\/folk music I\u2019ve seen in a live setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cTables and Chairs,\u201d \u201cThree White Horses\u201d and the lively \u201cPlasticities\u201d followed \u2014 the show continued to top itself. An encore included the cover of Towns Van Zandt\u2019s \u201cIf I Needed You\u201d and \u201cFake Palindromes,\u201d from 2005\u2019s excellent The Mysterious Production of Eggs<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Bird\u2019s command of the stage and the crowd was a sight to behold. Near the show\u2019s end I stood on the ramp to the left of the stage, watching the crowd watching Bird. Nary an eye shifted to anything beyond what was in front of them, and Bird, whether conscious of this or not, gave them something worth seeing. And hearing, of course, but that was obvious from the moment he walked on stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 2012, Georgia Theatre, Athens, Ga. I\u2019ve never been one for whistling in songs, it mostly comes across as trite and gimmicky. And it\u2019s rare when the person whistling knows what they\u2019re doing \u2014 nothing ruins a good song like half-assed whistling. But Andrew Bird can whistle, and what a whistle it is. An instrument […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[195,40],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-andrew-bird","tag-georgia-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions\/1031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}