Beck Brings Wall of Sound to Berkshires
 Beck's nearly two-hour performance on Tuesday night at Mass MoCA could be heard throughout the city's downtown. See more photos here. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Beck fans crowded into Joe's Field at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art to hear various songs from the 1990s alternative rock pioneer's catalog.
Beck Hansen played a near two-hour show at Mass MoCA that solidly rocked the valley — and even prompted a noise complaint from faraway Drury on Florida Mountain.
"We don’t get up here too often so we are going to play a semi-long set," he said of his tour stop in Western Mass.
Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl and five-piece, psych-rock band The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger opened the concert.
Beck looked out into Joe's Field and pointed out the art that is spread throughout the Mass MoCA concert venue, including the "insect-eyed omniscient tower" that sits near the entrance of the venue.
The band hit the stage and instantly went into Beck's 1996 hit "Devils Haircut" off "Odelay," his fifth studio album. With little transition, the band went directly into "Black Tambourine," a song from his 2005 album "Guero."
Beck thanked the crowd for coming out on a Tuesday night.
"We are here to have fun and get slightly rowdy," he told some 5,000 fans after thanking them for coming out on a Tuesday night.
Beck played his first major hit, "Loser" off his 1994 album "Mellow Gold," and urged the screaming crowd to sing the chorus to his genre-blending classic.
Although Beck sampled songs from most of his 12-album catalog, he focused on songs from "Sea Change," his 2002 melancholy eighth album.
The band backing him was the same one with which he recorded "Sea Change," so he wanted to revisit those songs.
The band played long acoustic sets with "Sea Change" tracks such as "Golden Age" and "Lost Cause" bleeding into each other.
Beck also performed songs such as "Black Bird Tree" and "Heart Is a Drum" from his recent release "Morning Phase," the so-called sibling album to "Sea Change."
He came back for an encore and played funk and soul-inspired songs from his 1999 album "Midnight Vultures." He played extended versions of "Sexx Laws" and the "Prince-esque slow jam" "Debra.” The band jammed on the two songs while Beck interacted with the crowd.
The band moved right into an extended high-energy version of "Where It's At" off "Odelay" to finish the show. The band ran into each other and threw their instruments around creating noise and feedback until the crowd was faced with a wall of sound ending the concert.
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