BECK + lots of others
McSweeney's Pop-Up Magazine - The Song Reader Issue
May 20, 2013
San Francisco, CA, USA
Davies Symphony Hall


Before I heard about this show, tickets went on sale for a one-off Beck show in Santa Cruz on May 19. I tried and failed to get tickets. Then this show appeared with very little information as to what it would actually be, but it's Beck so I had to try - and this time I got my ticket. 

Ten years ago, I went to a show at Stanford put on by McSweeney's. They Might Be Giants were on stage to play songs during and between people reading stories, and then they played an hour at the end. I was hoping this would be similar, especially with the show being named after Beck's book of sheet music. It turned out to be a lot of different musicians/actors playing songs from the book, with Beck doing 3 songs and a Q&A in the middle of the show with Justin and Roger and then doing another song at the end with Justin and the International Space Orchestra. Throughout the evening were also stories and presentations, and the occasional live advertisement (these were actually pretty funny). Overall, it was an interesting show and I'm glad I was there. One of the songs Beck played was its live debut, and the other 3 he played live for the first time the night before.

Sound's pretty decent, but a lot of what happened was very quiet and I was far back. Samples below.


1. (applause)
2. (intro by a couple guys)
3. We All Wear Cloaks - Thao Nguyen + Green Street Mortuary Band
4. (Electronic Music - Steven Leckart)
5. (John C. Reilly talk)
6. The Wolf Is On The Hill - John Reilly & Friends
7. (The Expert - Daniel Handler)
8. (The Lumpen - Nishat Kurwa)
9. Please Leave A Light On When You Go - San Francisco Rock Project
10. (live ad for Mail Chimp)
11. (Dan The Automator talk)
12. I'm Down - Got A Girl (Dan The Automator and Mary Elizabeth Winstead)
13. (Charlyne Yi talk)
14. You Don't Have To Change Your Shoes (To Walk All Over Me) - Charlyne Yi
15. (How We Hear - Meara O'Reilly)
16. (live ad for Squarespace)
17. (Beck Q&A with Susan Orlean)
18. Sorry - Beck
19. (Beck intro to next song)
20. America, Here's My Boy - Beck (live debut)
21. Don't Act Like Your Heart Isn't Hard - Beck
22. (The Player - Marc Bamuthi Joseph)
23. (A Life In Vinyl - Joshua Jelly-Schapiro)
24. Just Noise - Devendra Banhart + Kronos Quartet
25. (live ad for Anchor Brewing)
26. (Last Dance - Jessica Hopper)
27. (Kool A.D. talk)
28. Saint Dude - Kool A.D.
29. (The Manly Family Song Album - Daniel Handler + Autumn De Wilde)
30. (Dear Charlie - Joe Hagan)
31. (What Is Music? - Christian Robinson + Martina Castro)
32. (live ad for Airbnb)
33. Title Of This Song - Meklit & Quinn + Melody Of China
34. (Past Lives - Laurel Braitman)
35. (Ledisi talk)
36. Do We? We Do - Ledisi
37. (live ad for Warby Parker)
38. (The Quietest Place - Sam Green)
39. (Nelly Ben Hayoun talk)
40. Heaven's Ladder - Beck + Nelly Ben Hayoun + The International Space Orchestra
41. (outro by a couple guys)


2 hours, 19 minutes, 51 seconds

Zoom H2-->WAV-->Audacity to raise volume and try to reduce bass-->CD Wave for track splitting-->you guys