Beck Rawks Tulsa

Sunday night I went to Indian Territory to see Beck with Holli, Faith, Tom, and Holli’s friend David. The concert was at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. This was my third time to see a show at Cain’s, and it’s starting to feel like a familiar location to me.

Our plan was to get right up front, since this would most likely afford us the safest place to protect a 4 year-old child. Despite being a bit far back in the line for the door, we did manage to secure a spot up front on the right side of the stage.

They were very emphatic about the fact that no cameras of any kind would be allowed. There are some really good photos taken by a local paper here.

I had never heard of the opening band, MGMT (apparently pronounced “management”). Apparently they are currently generating a bit of buzz. The fact that I didn’t know that shows how out of touch I am musically. I thought they were decent and possibility worth more investigation. They have kind of a hard rock/synth-pop/dance thing goin’ on. The fact that Holli has apparently dismissed them after seeing their videos makes me both curious and frightened.

I usually don’t wear earplugs to concerts. Most of the time I don’t feel the need, but perhaps due to a concern for saving my remaining hearing I brought some to the show. As soon as MGMT cranked up I decided that I didn’t care whether I looked like a dork, and I stuffed them in my ears. It was pretty loud.

The wait for Beck after MGMT finished playing stretched a bit long, but it seemed to pass quickly though. As the lights went out, the band came on one-by-one, with Beck coming out last. He was dressed all in black and wearing a hat. His hair is extremely long these days. As Beck and company launched into “Devils Haircut”, it soon became apparent that the earplugs would be staying in place for me.

This was my second Beck show. Last time was a much more theatrical affair, what with the famous puppets and rapping bear. This time Beck favored a more straightforward approach. Between the volume and the song selection, the uptempo side of Beck was more evident. Beck didn’t talk to the crowd much at all, and most of the time there was no empty space between songs – they just launched right into the next one. Pretty much the whole band was new this time, the only exception being the keyboard player. And the new guitar player (Jessica Dobson) is really cute!

I thought the band was pretty good. The sound mix could’ve been better - it was very heavy on the bass and the guitar was mixed way too low. And of course the whole thing was a bit too loud.

At one point the whole band ditched their instruments for headphones and various electronic gadgets (one of which I coulda swore was an iPhone), and they all huddled at the front of the stage to perform “Hell Yes”, “Black Tambourine” (reminiscent of the Adrock remix), and “Clap Hands”.

Towards the end of the set Beck brought out the acoustic guitar to do “The Golden Age” and “Lost Cause”, and it was kind of a disappointment that he forgot the words to LC and then didn’t properly finish the song. Beck did provide a shoutout to the history of Cain’s by mentioning Hank Williams and then doing a cover of “Lonesome Whistle”.

Overall I thought it was a really great show. It was definitely cool to be so close to the band. I thought the crowd was pretty into everything, and of course everyone went extra nuts for “Loser”. For me the highlights were “Devils Haircut”, “Chemtrails”, “Nicotine and Gravy”, “Loser”, “The Golden Age”, and “Where It’s At”. I didn’t get to hear my favorite song from the new album, “Volcano”, but them’s the breaks. And I was really impressed that Faith made it until the next-to-last song!

Setlist:
Devils Haircut
Nausea
Novacane
Girl
Think I’m In Love
Orphans
Loser
Mixed Bizness
Nicotine and Gravy
Hell Yes
Black Tambourine
Clap Hands
Que Onda Guero
Walls
Profanity Prayers
Youthless
Chemtrails
Modern Guilt
Soul of a Man
Youthless
Gamma Ray
Lonesome Whistle (Hank Williams cover)
The Golden Age
Lost Cause

Encore:
Timebomb
Where It’s At
E-Pro

Setlist note: I was fully expecting to be able to find an accurate setlist online somewhere, like I do with almost every other concert I go to. But I couldn’t find one! If I would’ve known that no one else was going to do one I would’ve taken notes! So this is the setlist as best as I can remember. I am confident that all of these songs were played, but I don’t have the correct order except for the first 2 and last 2.