Beck has been surprising listeners for twenty years with his eclectic, genre-spanning approach to making music, but fans of the singer-songwriter were given a truly unexpected treat Saturday night at the Fox Theatre, where he was scheduled to perform as part of his tour supporting his latest album, Morning Phase.
When supporting act The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger — headed by Sean Lennon — had to back out just hours before the concert due to unspecified reasons (it was later revealed that there were issues at border control after the prior night’s show in Toronto), Beck and his band quickly found an ideal opener: themselves.
By taking on the opening slot, Beck was able to rework his regular show into two distinct segments. First up was a 10-song, 40-minute set that drew heavily from the meditative reveries of his most recent effort and the contemplative ballads of 2002’s Sea Change, as well as a track originally commissioned for Johnny Cash.
After intermission, the band returned onstage and Beck tore into a mostly electric, 80-minute set comprising 16 songs that kicked off with “Devil’s Haircut” before finally coming to a head with an extended encore. Along the way, the artist made room for rarely-played faves like “Get Real Paid” and “One Foot in the Grave.”
Although reports surfaced over the weekend that a man is now in critical condition after falling over a stair railing as he was leaving the show, Beck was still able to turn what could have been a losing situation into a winning one for his fans, as well as a valuable lesson on why concertgoers should never skip out on opening acts.
Watch fan-shot video of the performance below: