Beck Goes Orchestral at Carnegie Hall

In the time of chimpanzees he was a monkey , but now, after 30-plus years of practice, practice, practice, Beck has made it to Carnegie Hall. “This is a good-sounding room,” he deadpanned on Tuesday night, during the second of two performances at the fabled venue. “It sounds pretty good. I’ve come a long way.”

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In addition to his longtime backing band — guitarist-bassist Jason Falkner, keyboardist Roger Manning, and drummer Joey Waronker — Beck was joined by the 73-member Orchestra of St. Luke’s and conductor Edwin Outwater for cinematic renditions of his most moody, introspective songs, largely off his Sea Change and Morning Phase albums. “The band got a little bigger since last time,” Beck joked. In fact, there was barely room for him onstage, since he had only about three feet and the catwalk in front of the violins to himself. Although he kidded that he was afraid he’d fall on a cello, the set was far from restrained.

It was obvious that Beck felt the importance of playing Carnegie Hall, the New York City institution that has variously hosted composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, the New York Philharmonic, Nina Simone, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Rolling Stones, among countless others, over its 133-year history. (Those performers’ names, among others, are written on the subway walls of the nearby 57th St. station.) Although Beck kept things loose — he was wearing a leisure suit and sunglasses — he sang each song with deep, visible emotion. He also made enough room for himself to dance, strum guitar, and even do a little popping and locking to “Where It’s At” before the encore, even though at the beginning of the night he kidded that he wouldn’t have room to breakdance.

Performing with live orchestral accompaniment was clearly special to him since his father, composer and arranger David Campbell, helped chart the orchestral scores for the original recordings. Beck gave his dad a shout-out and explained that Campbell couldn’t be present due to a flight snafu. But Beck performed this show, which concluded a run of concerts with orchestral accompaniments this summer, as if his dad were there, always making sure to share the Carnegie Hall spotlight with the symphony.

The orchestral arrangements were the real star of the night, a signpost of his maturity as an artist. Beck began his career as an expert collagist, blending anti-folk, hip-hop, soul, and lo-fi rock into feel-good, funky party jams. Then in 2002, he found himself in another kind of funk and recorded Sea Change , a collection of introspective ruminations that included Campbell’s orchestral arrangements on “Paper Tiger,” “Lonesome Tears,” and “Round the Bend” — all of which Beck performed at Carnegie. The album was a 180 for Beck, so much so that on Tuesday, he chuckled about how he thought his career was over when people began walking out of the room in the early 2000s during performances of the Nick Drake-like “Round the Bend.” But critics loved the album, and Rolling Stone dubbed it his Blood on the Tracks . (Incidentally, Carnegie audience members commented on how Beck looks remarkably Dylanesque these days with his curly hair and wide lapels. He even played harmonica on “One Foot in the Grave” on Tuesday.) Morning Phase , released in 2014, featured even more string arrangements and deep feelings.

These songs set up a melancholy vibe at Carnegie Hall that the audience appreciated. The parquet seating and four tiers of balconies stayed quiet during the performances, and people respectfully refrained from raising their phones to take photos and video (mostly), but they erupted into applause after songs that likely would be soundtracks for long bathroom lines at the average summer concert since they weren’t, well, “Loser.”

After the orchestra-led instrumental “Cycle,” Beck kicked off the night with a strum of an acoustic guitar to sing “The Golden Age.” “Let the golden age begin,” goes one of the song’s lyrics, prompting dramatic, almost ballet-like motions from conductor Outwater, who’s a pro with these types of concerts since he conducted the orchestra at Metallica’s S&M2 concerts and the strings on the Mars Volta’s Bedlam in Goliath album. Dynamically swelling strings and expressive tympani gave the gorgeous “Lonesome Tears” more depth, while “Wave” relied solely on the orchestra for its propulsion since Waronker sat this one out. The strings added new texture to Beck’s ode to Brazilian music, “Tropicalia,” playing tremolo flourishes before the trombones and Manning’s keyboard traded melodies. Beck even struck flamenco poses during “The New Pollution,” reacting to the strings.

Most of the orchestral arrangements stuck to Campbell’s work on the albums, with the exception of “Lost Cause,” Beck’s rumination on a failed relationship. Where the Sea Change version sounds doleful, the new orchestration sounded almost hopeful with strings that glide over the chords and a perky piccolo poking through the musical ceiling. Beck sounded less resigned singing, “I’m tired of fightin’, fighting for a lost cause,” as the Beck of that song was ready to move on.

The concert’s other highlights were the cover songs. Beck joked that the gig was really his “$100,000 Scott Walker karaoke moment” since he performed two of the late pop crooner’s Sixties songs — “It’s Raining Today” and “Montague Terrace (in Blue)” — mimicking Walker’s baritone as the orchestra recreated their ornate musical backdrops down to the shimmery chimes and dissonant strings. Colourbox’s “Tarantula,” which Beck performed à la This Mortal Coil’s moody rendition, was one of the best songs of the night since the cellos and violas started the song and the rest of the symphony gave it a cinematic scope. And “We Live Again” — a Beck original that he joked was a rip-off of the recently departed Françoise Hardy’s style — replicated the feel of lilting yé-yé pop.

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Beck told the crowd that he attended classical concerts at least twice a month and his affection for the genre still showed even when he drifted away from the “serious” music of his downtempo albums. He had no turntables (but he did have a microphone) for “Where It’s At,” and the orchestra gamely played stabs of noise where the tune’s trademark feedback used to be. The violinists sawed away at their strings and drums and horns joined in for a big finale.

Then the orchestra, who were contracted only for 90 minutes, exited the stage in such an orderly fashion that Beck joked was more efficient than boarding a plane. With no musicians left in the dozens of seats, Beck wandered the stage, played various instruments left behind, including a four-foot-wide gong, and gave away the contrabassoon’s sheet music to the front row. He whipped out a harmonica and performed “One Foot in the Grave” to test “that Carnegie Hall reverb,” standing on the empty chairs as he moved about the stage with total freedom. With only his band backing him up, he performed a faithful rendition of “Devil’s Haircut,” played some blues slide guitar, and ended things with “Loser” as a big sing-along. Those songs were fun, but the audience, which oddly sat respectfully during “Devil’s Haircut,” seemed blindsided by the tonal shift. They came around to “Loser,” though, and stood up to clap and sing along.

Although Beck joked with the audience and told stories behind each song throughout the night, he also seemed to soak in how special the evening was. This was Beck’s Golden Age, and he succeeded in putting his all into a performance worthy of a brick in the 57th St. subway.

Set list:

“Cycle”
“The Golden Age”
“Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime”
“Lonesome Tears”
“Wave”
“Tropicalia”
“Blue Moon”
“Lost Cause”
“The New Pollution”
“Missing”
“Tarantula”
“It’s Raining Today”
“Round the Bend”
“Paper Tiger”
“We Live Again”
“Montague Terrace (in Blue)”
“Morning”
“Phase”
“Waking Light”
“Where It’s At”

Encore:

“One Foot in the Grave”
“Devils Haircut”
“Loser”

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