BeckIt is a surprise to walk into Margaret Court Arena and find it curtained off to limit capacity, providing an unexpectedly intimate setting for an evening with Beck.
Wasting no time, the band take the stage and Beck materialises seemingly from nowhere, launching into Devils Haircut. Bathed in red light and shimmying across the stage, it's a hell of a welcome. Gaining a hat for Black Tambourine, the initial call-and-response portion of the evening doesn't quite come off as planned, with audience members a little reticent to show off their vocals chops so early. The crowd rallies for The New Pollution, and hips begin to loosen up.
"We're from California we'd like to sing a song about where we're from," says Beck before busting out Que Onda Guero, which roughly translates to "what's up, white boy?", the vividness of the playful lyrics transporting punters to a bustling street full of enquiring citizens. "I've donned the leathers, because I've got a little business to take care of tonight," he says, and does indeed look like a toy-sized cowboy-biker. Pink-cheeked and fanning his face with his hat, Beck's childlike enthusiasm while performing is infectious. "We've got a lot of ground to cover, shall we play a long show? Do we have a curfew? Who cares!" judging by the response from the crowd, Beck will be playing all night if permitted. Think I'm In Love segues into Donna Summer's I Feel Love, the first of three covers this evening. Shooting from the easy synth to I'm So Free, a fist-in-the-air slice of rock'n'roll, the singer's versatility is dizzying.
Taking the pace down a notch and strapping on an acoustic guitar, we're treated to back-to-back stunning covers of Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime and Prince's Raspberry Beret (which is especially beautiful), both of which fully showcase Beck's powerful vocals. He asks the crowd for requests and is drowned out immediately, although Debra seems to be the order of the evening. He performs it, although changes the title to "Sheila" in honour of his Australian audience. Spotting a lone lighter in the back pocket of the assembled masses, Beck cracks, "I'm really appreciating the-one man lighter, that pretty much sums up my career." While Debra has punters rolling in the aisles, Lost Cause and Heart Is A Drum have the crowd pin-drop quiet. The entire shift of the set to this softer detour allows space for the emotional weight of these songs to be absorbed and appreciated fully. The raucousness of the bookending parts of the gig are delicious in their own right, but this slower, acoustically focused portion is heartbreaking and gorgeous.
Lest the evening become too mellow, we are jolted out of our melancholy with the thumping Soul Of A Man. The clattering feel-good Wow is a trip, with the word projected along with a psychedelic collage on the enormous screen behind him. By now the general admission standing area is a party, all singing and all dancing. Deepest sympathies are extended to those in the seated areas. Dreams is a swirling pop of psychedelia and E-Pro is a room-encompassing singalong that culminates in a snarling, sonic car crash as guitarist Jason Falkner drags the screeching strings of his axe against a synth - a demonic possession.
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The iconic acoustic intro to Loser shepherds in the encore and is sung at a deafening volume by the crowd. An epic, meandering 19-minute version of Where It's At sees Beck do the robot (if there is something more pure and joyful than Beck doing the robot, we don't know what it is), introduce the band and then finally slide his way off the stage.
The scope of Beck's musical curiosities and the rabbit holes they have taken him down make for a fascinating career, and a truly unique concert experience for those in attendance. Tonight is full of songs that tug at the heart - and others whose lyric sheets read like a test page from a broken typewriter - yet all are equally compelling and performed with aplomb. During his farewell in Where It's At, Beck promises to come back again soon, adding he'll bring along pyrotechnics and confetti. We'll hold him to that. But, just between us, all he needs is the songs, the band and those dance moves.
