Andrew Bird at the State Theatre

Saturday the eleventh of April, my mum and I watched Andrew Bird play his lovely violin at the (historic) State Theatre in Minneapolis. We've both seen him before, but this time was really smashing.
His buddy artist Haley Bonar opened up for him, and although I can't say I'm a huge fan of her style of music, she's got a beautiful voice and represents Minneapolis well. She made another appearance later in the night, but I'll get to that in a moment.

So, our dear Andrew came out playing his violin and removing his shoes. He moves his stockinged feet and sways those hips just to make us swoon, I think. He played lovely pieces on his violin, and after awhile the rest of his band came out to join him. They played a lot from Noble Beast, including the wonderful 'Masterswarm,' 'Effigy' (which he explained was about that guy who sits at the end of the bar, sketching weird things in his notebook), and a jazzed-up version of 'Fitz and Dizzyspells.' And a bit later, 'Armchairs.' (Oh, wow). Time's a crooked bone, indeed. Of course he did the regulars, 'Dr. Stringz,' and 'Nervous tic motion,' during which he sporadically threw his head to the left. And later, he recruited Ms. Bonar to sing with him on 'Scythian Empires,' which was quite beautiful. They finished with 'Fake Palindromes,' which was a final burst of energy, to say the least, but he wasn't quite finished. He came out and did an encore, which included 'Table and Chairs' and another one in which he spoke along the words while playing his violin, as if it is a part of him. He painted pictures with his arms and hands, with all these flowery gestures that we never got to see at Rock the Garden. He belongs onstage in the theatre, I think. After that, he left the stage, only to come back for a second encore. Nice.

Dreadfully, all the photos I took are blurry enough to cause seizures, so I'll sample one of the better ones here:

[I know, it's pretty bad.]