Beck kicked off his seven-week North American tour at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada. The show opened with "Devil's Haircut" and continued on a 23-song set that weaved tracks like "Chemtrails" and "Gamma Ray" from his most recent album, the Danger Mouse-produced Modern Guilt, in with old favorites like "Loser," the song perhaps most responsible for introducing the world to the quirky singer and his Beat-like poetry ("In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey/Butane in my veins and I'm out to cut the junkie"). The show boasted folk rocker Devandra Banhart as an opener, who joined Beck on the stage for his own "Hey Mama Wolf" (which Beck hailed as his son's favorite song) and a rendition of Bob Dylan's "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat." Beck's tour continues throughout the States, with a stop at the Hollywood Bowl, where the famed Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings conducted by his father, David Campbell, will play a sold-out show at the spacious outdoor venue.
The eclectic singer-whose music draws upon but is not limited to folk, country, hip-hop, pop, blues, R&B, jazz, indie and experimental rock, psychedelia, funk, lounge and Brazilian music-emerged in the midst of the alternative resurgence in the '90s as the perfect answer to the media age. Beck is unable to confine to one genre, as his musical style features odd juxtapositioning of sounds that only he would try together. His unpredictable music, which basically has something for everyone, features lyrics that read like free-association poetry with humor and honesty thrown in for good measure.
Beck David Campbell was born in Los Angeles in 1970 to conductor and string arranger father David Campbell (who has lent his talents to Beck's records) who left the family when he was a young child. Beck adopted the last name of his mother Bibbe Hansen, who had been a fixture at Andy Warhol's Factory and appeared in the iconic artist's film Prisoner. The creativity continues through Beck's lineage, as his grandfather Al Hansen, a prominent figure in the Fluxus art movement, helped jumpstart the career of Yoko Ono. Beck spent a lot of time with his grandfather in Europe and with his other grandfather in Kansas while growing up in L.A., but dropped out of school after his sophomore year to concentrate on music. Beck self-produced a cassette of home recordings titled The Banjo Story in 1988 and moved to New York one year later but soon returned out West.
In 1991 Bong Load label owners Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf approached the struggling singer about recording some folk songs laced with hip-hop beats; the result was "Loser" and several other revolutionary tracks. The following year Beck inked a published deal with BMG and in 1993 he issued his first official releases, the single "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack" and the full-length cassette-only Golden Feelings. Bong Load finally released "Loser" and the single was an instant smash on indie radio stations in L.A., spawning a major label bidding war won out by Geffen (which allowed Beck to continue to release noncommercial material on independent labels). Mellow Gold was Beck's major label debut in 1994 and Geffen re-released "Loser," making the song the anthem for the slacker generation and allowing Mellow Gold to go platinum. After a string of small indie releases, Beck embarked on his first major promotional tour and issued his sophomore major label effort, Odelay, in 1996.
Critics were undecided about Beck after Mellow Gold, but the singer received unanimously positive reviews with his second major label album; Odelay was a commercial success with a succession of MTV hits like "Where It's At" and "The New Pollution" and was lauded by critics as well. Although Beck released the mellow Mutations in 1998, the official follow-up to Odelay came with 1999's Midnight Vultures, which was succeed by 2002's folk album, Sea Change. While Beck's collaboration with French electronic duo Air and his previous two albums were decidedly more trippy, his 2005 album Guero was a conscious return to Beck's Odelay days. The album featured radio staples like "Hell Yes" and "E-Pro" and was followed by a remixed version of the album titled Guerolito later that year. The hip-hip influenced record, The Information, appeared in 2006 and two years later Modern Guilt paved the way for the singer's current tour. The singer is sure to pack stadiums so get your Beck tickets soon and watch out for notable openers like Spoon and Band of Horses.
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Beck Tickets-Beck is Back on Tour
Author: Kirby Brooks