Andrew Bird has a whole bunch of tracks and live versions scattered across different places, and it’s kind of wild how many there are.
Some songs, like “Sovay” and “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left”, got played live in Berlin or showed up in Mayfair Studio, while others such as “Blood” and “Banking on a Myth” were recorded at Beech House, which honestly sounds like a place where you’d drink tea and watch squirrels. Then you have “Measuring Cups” and “Skin Is, My” popping up at The Barn, and there are demos tossed in, like “Tables and Chairs”, that feel like secret versions only your best friend would send you at midnight.
Orchestras even got involved, bringing a fancy twist to “Fake Palindromes” and “Happy Birthday”, which is kind of unexpected and cool. Sometimes, the same song gets played in a bunch of different ways—one minute it’s a demo, next time it’s all orchestral and dramatic, and suddenly you’re hearing “The Happy Birthday Song” three times and you’re not even mad about it.
Fans think it’s fun when artists mess around with their own music.
If you’re hunting for a live show, Andrew Bird’s got dates all over the place, from Atlanta to Seattle, Denver to Chicago, and even North Bethesda (which, let’s be real, sounds made up but apparently isn’t). He teams up with different symphonies in each city, so if you’re in the crowd, you might hear the Atlanta Symphony one night and the Oregon Symphony another, and that’s just how it goes. Sometimes he’ll play at a fancy concert hall, and other times it’s a church—guess you never know what kind of ceiling you’ll be staring at during the show.
There’s a whole bunch of symbols next to each date, like $ and @, and those just mean which orchestra is joining him. It’s like a secret code, but not really a secret, since the key is right there at the bottom.
One time, I saw someone try to play violin with a potato, but that’s a story for another day.
