Beck – Shepherds Bush Empire

I’m a big Beck fan, so even though I saw him 2 weeks ago at the V Festival – I still grabbed tickets when I heard he was doing one night at The Shepherds Bush Empire.

The show opened in the same way as his festival slot – puppets miming to “Loser” before the real band come on and finish the song. The also kicked off with the same trifecta of hits, with “Loser” quickly followed by “Devils Haircut” and “Girl”.

Although the set was much the same – it was a far more enjoyable experience seeing Beck up-close. The sound and musicianship was awesome (quite a bit got lost in the wind at the outdoor festival) and you also got to see some of the more subtle touches in the show production – like the puppeteers not only mimicking the stage outfits for each performer but also all their stage moves and mannerisms. Also because the crowd in the smaller venue could see the show without the aid of jumbo video screens – the footage on the screen concentrated almost exclusively on the puppets – and was far more enjoyable as a result.

The main changes from the V set was the inclusion of far more new material – with 7 or 8 new songs featured in a mid-set bracket that the band clearly enjoyed playing. Standouts of the new material were “Nasaeu”, “The Information”, “1000BPM” and particularly “Cell Phone’s Dead” which recalls the ‘Mellow Gold’-era Beck of old.

A full band “Paper Tiger” was great, as was a drawn out “Sunday Sun”, and an acoustic slower reading of "Tropicalia".

The acoustic bracket features Beck in cover mode, tackling “Everyone’s Got To Learn” originally by The Korgis (although possibly better known for Beck’s recording on the soundtrack to ‘Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind’), and a snatch of Hank William’s “(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle” that led into “The Golden Age” that, as at V, had the band drumming along on a table and glasses – leading into “Clap Hands” and “One Foot In The Grave”.

The encores also ran similar to V, with a crowd pleasing “Where It’s At” quickly followed by “Epro”. Beck is clearly an accomplished performer, so he really excelled at the smaller venue and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better way to spend a Saturday night in London.