Beck breaks boundaries at SPAC - 6/6/98

 by Seth Rogovoy 

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y., June 7, 1998) - - In a show veritably dripping with irony and post-modern gesture, the artist currently known as Beck - - as he mischievously referred to himself -- pointed the way toward a pop-culture future without walls or boundaries, where genre-hopping from song to song or even within songs or within individual musical passages is the norm. 

At the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Saturday night, Beck alternately played the role of hip-hop emcee, glittery rock star, latter-day bluesman, angry punk-rocker, balladeer and funk revivalist. Already a star in his own right, Beck made coy and playful references to James Brown, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson and undoubtedly a host of other pop personalities who swirled by in the dizzying freneticism of his 90-minute stage show. 

Backed by an all-male, seven-piece band, including a two-man horn section and a DJ, Beck took the stage swigging from a half-gallon container of milk, muttering something about his need for vitamins in order to keep up with the frenetic pace of the show. 

With his ensemble laying down a funk riff, Beck -- or "MC Self-Help" as he called himself -- eased into "Loser," the hit single that first brought him to fame in the early-'90s. Next up he delivered a slow, soul-stirring funk ballad in falsetto voice so over the top, both musically and visually, that it almost seemed like a "Saturday Night Live"-style parody of the artist formerly known as Prince. 

Beck introduced a number of selections from his upcoming album, due for release this summer. Judging from what we heard, the recording will be just as varied and difficult to pigeonhole as such earlier efforts as "Mellow Gold" and "Odelay." He offered a miniature, '70s-style progressive-rock opera, a gloomy, minor-key rock ballad, and an a capella blues fueled by Sonny Terry-style harmonica. 

Beck brought the show home with well-paced renditions of hits from "Odelay," including the upbeat soul-rocker, "Devil's Haircut" -- in which he struck as many poses as Madonna -- and a final encore of "Where It's At," with Motown-like choreography and requisite audience participation. 

As is typically the case with so much contemporary art, it was sometimes difficult just to sit back and enjoy Beck's show without looking for the ironic signifiers embedded in his music, lyrics or highly- stylized movements. And especially in his case, relying as much as he does on black musical forms including blues, soul, funk and hip- hop, Beck -- fronting an all-white band of musicians -- treads a fine line between intelligent tribute and tasteless parody. In this case, fortunately, he erred safely on the side of intelligence. The problem with that, however, is it comes at the cost of emotion, for which no amount of irony can compensate. 

There was no lack of emotion in the cathartic warm-up set by pop trio Ben Folds Five, which preceded Beck with a blistering set of its own melodic, retro-pop. The guitarless trio -- leader Ben Folds bangs the piano -- updates the complex harmonies of the Beatles, Joe Jackson and Squeeze, with bass guitar lending some fuzzy, punk-inspired distortion to underline the bitter, deceptively acerbic lyrics, which straightforwardly tell stories of revenge and guilt. 

Folds is a composer combining jazzy sophistication -- his songs are strewn with quotes and references to George Gershwin and other piano heroes -- with punk energy, encapsulated by the iconic gesture he used to close his set: smashing the keyboard with his piano stool. 

[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on June 8, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]