Word: becking
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Some rules: Rock concerts don’t start on time, on-stage collaborations can’t work and never should the opening band upstage the headliner. But neither the Flaming Lips nor Beck, who passed through the Orpheum Monday night on their joint alt-pop-rock tour, are known for adhering to standards. The Lips emerged in an ecstatic parade of video, smoke, exploding confetti and zebra costumes and indeed, right on time too. Their charge was to warm up the crowd and make way for the Magical Wizard of Rhythm himself. They had to hurry...
...mood by launching into a slew of downers, from the old surreal folkie “Pay No Mind” to the new love lament, “Guess I’m Doing Fine.” Perched on a stool in a bland shirt and tie, Beck shunned the goofiness that waxed falsetto on Axl Rose and tossed out two-dollar quips during this summer’s solo tour. Instead, he seemed muted by the mature, dour loneliness that fills his latest album, a beautiful group of breakup dirges called Sea Change...
...during the bittersweet song “The Golden Age” did little to lift Beck’s spirits. During “Lord Only Knows”, a kitchy trucker rap from Odelay, Coyne lifted his arms in desperate appeal for the applause he apparently knew Beck needed. The crowd cheered loudly in loving spurts; but all attempts to make the singer say something were met only by reticent nods and waves. Beck did start to break out of his shell on the Rick James-meets-Kraftwerk jam “Get Real Paid...
...what Beck didn’t put into his demeanor he poured into superb renditions of his finest material. Providing a rich backdrop, the Flaming Lips deftly fleshed out some songs, like “Lonesome Tears” and the lounge jam “Paper Tiger,” as they cleverly injected their own alterna-pop flavor into others like “Lost Cause.” As serious as he seemed at times, Beck was in top form during the most rollicking and silly tracks, like “Nicotine and Gravy...
It’s a good thing that the next hardest working showman is Wayne Coyne, whose boundless energy is just as suited to his amazing studio work as to the flashlights he wields onstage behind Beck. But even though both performers are at the top of their respective games as musical scientists, their experiment at the Orpheum proved little about their strength as lab partners. While the music was great, the chemistry seemed lacking. It’s not hard to imagine that Beck, the moody perfectionist who is used to conducting his own cut-and-paste band...