Chopstork

Went to the Download Festival at Shoreline this weekend. It was alright. Rocked out to Coheed and Cambria on the second stage. Never heard Muse before, but they were pretty good. That was my overall impression of the show—just pretty good. We lay in the grass watching the bands on the screens the whole time.

Until Beck played. I wasn’t particularly excited about Beck playing before the show, but his set was ingenious. They had look-alike puppets performing the entire concert on a replica stage. We’re not talking stuffed band members bobbing up and down to the music. These puppets had all the details down. They were moving their mouths in sync to the music. They were strumming their guitars realistically. They were scratching the tiny turntables. The puppet token-dancing-guy was getting his groove on as he shook the tambourine. The puppet drummer was hitting his puppet high hats. And the puppet stage even had a miniature puppet stage on it.

For a couple songs four or five band members sat around a kitchen table and played only cups, plates, utensils, wine glasses, the table, salt shakers, etc. And of course the puppets all sat around a miniature kitchen table and played the dishes too. Mesmerizing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera on me (shocking, I know). Oh look, here’s a clip on YouTube…how convenient. Though in this clip the music is recorded for most of it and only the puppets are live (they use Loser as their entrance theme).

That first part was the puppet mini-movie before the encore that features the area they’re playing that night. Couldn’t find the Shoreline episode, but here’s another one from Yahoo! the night before.

If you work where I work (to remane unnamed),
And you are a Beck fan,
And you are unable to see Beck tomorrow at the Download Festival,
And you are up for infiltrating our neighbor company,

Then you may be interested to know that Beck is playing at Yahoo! tonight as the entertainment for Yahoo! Hack Day—a massive geek fest, according to the squid who laughs.

Our company’s events: Order catering from Armadillo Willy’s, and if you’re lucky you get a cup of beer.
Yahoo!’s events: A big slumber party, and if you’re lucky Beck plays a private concert.

I should have gone into software and been geekier.