Concert Review: Andrew Bird at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

Friday night, fans of Andrew Bird were treated to a special evening as he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall to celebrate twenty years of The Mysterious Production of Eggs. The seminal album was performed in full, followed by a collection of fan favorites.

Bird’s pairing with an orchestra felt like a natural extension of his work. The man himself is arguably a walking orchestra, layering sultry violin bows and plucks through live looping while playing guitar, singing delightfully rich lyrics, and incorporating his signature whistling. Having a world-class orchestra behind his sound felt like a natural extension of Bird’s work rather than a novel experience.

I can still remember seeing Andrew Bird live for the first time in 2006, when The Mysterious Production of Eggs was becoming his breakout album. Those violin layers weaving between whimsical whistles and catchy, calm melodies opened me up creatively during my formative college years. You don’t experience music quite the same way as you grow older. Tracks like “Sovay” and “A Nervous Tick Motion of the Head to the Left” opened me up creatively as a young artist.

Andrew Bird at Walt Disney Concert Hall by Bryan Olinger

Led by conductor Jacomo Bairos, Bird and the Los Angeles Philharmonic did something magical Friday night. The orchestral arrangements allowed me to experience a twenty-year-old album as if it were the first time. For one evening, I was that college student again, feeling the cathartic waves of “Tables and Chairs” and the dopamine-inducing hits of “Fake Palindromes.”

“Masterfade” which topped off the first half of the two-hour performance, was one of the standout examples of how an orchestral arrangement can truly enhance a wonderful, folksy, guitar-forward song. While the studio version features a lovely string section and harp plucking gently beneath the more prominent guitar strums and whistles, the strings took center stage in the orchestral arrangement. Along with the full-size harp, they transformed “Masterfade” into a cinematic score.

Bird brought us out of the whimsy with a laugh, calling intermission a “side break, as we need to flip the record.”

The second half opened not with the next album track, but with French composer Maurice Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante défunte.” Bird’s violin and whistling were on full display, demonstrating how seamlessly his signature sounds fit into classical compositions.

The night approached the end with one of my personal favorites, “Tables and Chairs.” Its upbeat energy was made for a large ensemble, making use of the entire orchestra—even the triangle got to chime in. Watching Bird switch between violin and his Gibson, slinging the guitar over his shoulder to make room for his bow, was a treat.

Bird didn’t disappoint when it came to putting a special twist on a fan-favorite lyric from “Tables and Chairs”, the one that assures us “there will be snacks” even when the world collapses. He went out of his way to squeeze in a few extra notes, adding a bonus: “There will be snacks, I don’t know why you’re so concerned, it will be fine,” line to the song which received a few “woop! Whoops!” from the concert hall audience,

This happens to be the very line that made my daughter an Andrew Bird fan at a young age, so I was particularly charmed to see this lyric grow into a fan moment for Bird.

And at that moment, I looked around the room. I noticed a median age and wondered how many audience members, now some parents, some with white in their hair, had they discovered Andrew Bird in their youth while tirelessly editing that student film or working late at night on a canvas in the studio. Did they listen to “Sovay” while the kiln fired?

Andrew Bird made us feel cool. We were cool. We still are cool. And Andrew Bird, together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, made us feel all those right feelings that night.

The night was concluded with an encore of “Three Wild Horses”, “Pulaski at Night”, and moving solo performance of “Weather Systems”