Andrew Bird and Julianna Barwick unite DC on the Gezelligheid tour

December 6, 2010, at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue

By Peter Cutler
Published: December 11th, 2010 | 7:00am

“What I hope to do with these shows is adapt my music completely to the atmosphere of the space and the season. I'm inspired to do this based on childhood memories of performing Handel's Messiah in various churches on an annual basis. The music will be mostly original instrumentals using my voice only to intone. I want the audience to be both lifted and comforted as we head into another cold and dark winter. I feel the space should be sacred so the audience can experience my music in a different atmosphere."

That’s how Andrew Bird described his Gezelligheid tour in a press release, anyway. On stage, dwarfed under the dome of a historic synagogue, his rhetoric was a little less formal. He described the concert to his audience as a cherished opportunity to perform without restrictions—without having to conform his music into cute, popular packages—a chance to let his music and instincts guide the direction of the show. What does that mean for the performance? It’s like listening to a great artist singing alone in the car – improvisational, fun, and sometimes flawed.

Julianna Barwick opened the show in the spacious synagogue. Like Bird, Barwick loves to layer and loop aspects of her performance, but where Bird reserves the loop mostly for instrumental and whistling tracks, Barwick applies the effect to her vocals. As she begins, her song is simple and flat—one extended note. But with every new vocal layer she records and replays, her sound develops texture. Her songs become cavernous and intricate. Finally, once the audience is busy parsing all the strange noises in the room, she introduces something more pronounced, something that pierces through the more ambient tracks and steals the audience’s attention. With Barwick, there’s no ego or anxiety. She’s completely involved in bringing the audience out of their seats and into the world she creates with the layers of her voice.

Andrew Bird took the stage as Barwick’s echos died out. Feeling a little bit stiff, Bird’s first songs channeled his recent TED Talk—little talking, lots of involvement with his musical process, alternating between pedals, violin, and soft vocal percussion. After a few mistakes and difficulties setting loops, Bird dived into his past work, playing “Why?” from his Bowl of Fire days. “There, that’s better,” he acknowledged at the end of the track. He seemed revived.

Bird was unusually talkative throughout the rest of the concert, offering various insights and jokes about the strange nature of the concert. After playing mostly from his instrumental album, Useless Creatures, he criticized himself for not offering any more recognizable tunes. Much of the work he offered isn’t available on any of his current albums. By way of apology, he offered a remixed version of his hit track, “Plasticities,” a haunting, slowed down performance similar to the rendition found on his 2007 tour E.P. Soldier On.

Wrapping up, he walked off of the stage and through the rows of audience seating into his dressing area. The audience stood and applauded him on his way. They remained standing until he returned for an encore, playing more unrecorded material. This seemed like it was enough fuel for most in the audience, as at the conclusion of the show, their procession outside was filled with post-show jitters, none of them focused on the freezing temperature outside.

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Andrew Bird official site

Andrew Bird MySpace page

Fat Possum Records

Julianna Barwick official site

Julianna Barwick MySpace page

Asthmatic Kitty Records