Andrew Bird masterful in concert

Seeing a favorite musician for the first time in concert is always a good time. But when Seeing a favorite musician for the first time in concert is always a good time. But when someone still has the ability to astonish three times running, well, they’re definitely someone exceptional.

So it goes with Andrew Bird, who kicked of the Levi’s Presents Benefit Braddock concert series at the Braddock Carnegie Library on Thursday night.

One Andrew Bird song contains, on average, six distinct melodies, harmonies, or phrases at once. While this might not seem very noteworthy given modern recording technology, seeing him perform these compositions solo on stage is almost unreal.

He becomes a one-man orchestra, and a maestro of the loop pedal, which allows him to record and play back, in real time, one instrumental line after another. Soon his single violin becomes the entire orchestra section, and he’s singing or whistling and playing guitar or glockenspiel over top to boot. Calling him “multi-talented” would be a gross understatement. From Suzuki method, classical, blues and jazz violin styles to his trademark whistling, he is the Swiss Army Knife of musical performance.

In his introduction to “The Naming of Things,” Bird half-apologized, saying, “I’m giving you the cabaret version of this, because I can’t really play it like it is on the record.” And while that’s true, he sure got damn close.

And his stage presence is nearly as strong as his musical abilities, especially on his dramatic performance of “Why?,” which he acted out as if in a conversation with the audience, then stated blithely at its conclusion, “That’s not even written from my perspective. But I have a cameo role in the part where I shrug my shoulders.” He had nearly as many stories as songs, recounting the time Randy Newman stopped by during a recording session and his experience with writing a song for the upcoming Muppets movie. When at last he announced his final song, the audience’s disappointed “awww” was clearly audible.

The theater itself lent a good deal of enjoyment to the night’s performance. Tucked along the side of the Braddock’s Carnegie Library, its old-fashioned wooden seats accommodate just a few hundred people, and its ornate opera house-style plaster moldings and appointments show its Carnegie philanthropy heritage. Nearly every seat would be close enough to hear the artists even if there wasn’t any sound system; arrive early enough, and you’ll be no more than twenty feet from the stage. That kind of intimacy beats fighting the noisy cacophony of thousands of people at the Consol Energy Center or the Trib Total Media Ampitheater any day.

If this is the kind of fundraising effort that’s going to help the town get back on its feet, then here’s to hoping Braddock has many more benefit projects to come. It’s certainly a space worth saving.