Now, as a promotional blog that focuses primarily on artists who've yet to grace the 'big-time', it's interesting that a virtuoso such as Andrew Bird would make such an appearance. Bird, a thirty-nine-year-old multi-instrumentalist, recently ended his lengthy tour at the Simon Estes Amphitheater in Des Moines, IA -- while it did look like our shrinking budget was going to cancel any aspiring plans of this for C.C.I., our dedicated crew pulled together and lo-and-behold, August 21st, 2012 was indeed a very memorable day.
Georgia soul-queen and opening act Kelly Hogan set a fantastic tone early,
connecting with the audience with her emotionally-driven lyricism while revealing some of her own personal
relationships with other top-tier artists including Neko Case, M. Ward,
and Andrew Bird himself. Her most recent release, "I Like To Keep
Myself In Pain", is out now on ANTI- Records.Plus, she guest-starred on an episode of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" with Neko Case! Im-press-ive.
Whether it's his pioneering whistle-techniques or the ukulele-esque stylings of his violin, missing Andrew Bird would be of costly error -- easily been the best example of musical professionalism that we've ever seen. Andrew Bird, accompanied by several band-mates and an awe-inspiring gramophone set-up, played for nearly two hours, entertaining the crowd with previous hits ("A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left" was one of the first songs of the night) as well as several soon-to-be released tracks from the upcoming album "Hands of Glory", due October 30th. And a pitch-perfect encore.
Very inspiring night -- highly, highly recommend catching him when he picks back up in late September.
(Audio ONLY)
(8/21/12)
(8/21/12)
(kudos to you, msmith0485!)
