Beck hasn’t done a concert in awhile, two years may be? But he just did one last Thursday at the Uptown Theatre, a small art-deco venue in the middle of Napa Valley.
According to several reports (and in particular AdmiralNeeda, who posted a lot of videos on YouTube), Beck divided his show into two parts, first an acoustic set, then a more rocking-electric one, getting some help from a Sea-Change-era band, which he hadn’t played with for 10 years.
Since the theater seats only 837 people, I can imagine fans having a hard time getting a ticket, and the first 3 rows were reserved for those who had purchased yearly memberships to the theater, and had bought their tickets in advance of regular customers.
But you may wonder why this strange venue and unique concert? In fact, Beck was also set to perform at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, CA this weekend, so this explains why he was in the neighborhood, just warming up for Neil Young’s big gig.
In a video, Beck said he wanted to dust off a few Sea Change songs for the Bridge School benefit, and the Napa venue staff came up with the idea for the acoustic/electric set separation.
Actually, the first part was so mellow, that fans politely remaining seated, to what Beck reacted with a ‘I promise that the second half of the show will be a little more….. livelier’.
Acoustic or electric, I wouldn't mind if Beck decided to do a concert in LA!
Setlist:
Acoustic set:
Golden age
Lost cause
End of the day
Guess I'm doing fine
Dead melodies
Pocahontas (Neil Young cover) Young is the organizer of the Bridge School Benefit)
Graham Parsons song? ‘Sleepless nights’, a song he did with Norah Jones
Already dead
Winter is blue
Sunday sun (which was intense according to some fan)
Jackass (which according to some fan was phenomenal)
Electric set:
Where it's at
Black tambourine
Think I'm in love
New Pollution
Paper tiger
Modern guilt
Girl
Gamma ray
Nausea (a highlight, according to someone)
Devils haircut
Encore: E-pro