If any fans have a chance to see Beck on his current tour, I strongly suggest it. It was a very fun show. I got the chance to see him at Wolf Trapp in VA, which is an incredibly nice venue. His show is not nearly as crazy as I've heard from the past, but it was still very cool and very funky

I'm going to catch his show here in Seattle in June. I am hoping this is more upbeat than the acoustic tour he was on last year?

I really enjoyed that one, but I'd like to see him perform some of the crazy stuff too...

Suprisingly, he played about 7 songs off his latest album! I was happy about that, because it's just amazing. Although I suppose that was what you heard at his last tour.

Other than that, most of the show was from Odelay and Midnite Vultures, which are the other two albums I have of his. He played a few songs I didn't recognize, so I couldn't say if they were from Mellow Gold or not, however he did get Loser out of the way as the first song. It's funny when you're at a rock concert and the lyrics that everyone knows and sings along to while the band stops is: "that's chokin' on a splinter"

Regardless, I think you'll be quite happy with the show. He definitely played the upbeat stuff, and ended the show really well

Unfortunately, his opening acts weren't great. The Black Keys were the openers, and they were decent as far as guitar/drums garage blues duos go. However, the second act was Dashboard Confessional. I don't know how many of you actually like "emo", but in my opinion, it's horrible, and so were they. I have no idea why they were touring with Beck.

"that's chokin' on a splinter"

Heh! I love that...!

That good to hear... My friend and I saw the acoustic show and while I loved it, she was disappointed he didn't play anything from Midnite Vultures. I tried to explain that most of his back catalog is mellow folksy stuff like that, but she didn't care. If he doesn't play "Debra" this time around, I think she's going to rush the stage with a bat...

The Seattle show was the first of that tour, so there were some slow points. At one he asked what we wanted to hear and someone shouted Debra. He laughed and said people either love or hate that song... but didn't play it. He did play a long improvisational song about how his hear was broken for the first time by some girl in Seattle... cool.

Hehe, well, I doubt he'll play the R Kelly-esque Debra, but he did play a bunch of stuff from Midnite Vultures.

I always wondered why Beck seemed to swap between upbeat and folky rock for his albums... here's the explaination from AllMusic.com:

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Beck released his debut album, Mellow Gold, in early 1994. Mellow Gold received rave reviews and became a gold record as "Loser" climbed into the Top Ten. Beck's contract with DGC allowed him to release records that he and the company deemed as uncommercial on indie labels. Consequently, the singer/songwriter released two new records by the summer of 1994, which were both recorded roughly around the same time as Mellow Gold. Stereopathetic Soul Manure was a noisy, more experimental album than his debut and was released on Flipside Records. One Foot in the Grave accentuated his folk roots and was released on K Records. Neither album sold on the level of Mellow Gold, but they sold respectably.

Throughout 1996, word-of-mouth began to spread on Odelay, and earned Album of the Year status from most major critics' polls and, even more surprisingly, it received several Grammy Nominations, including Album of the Year. Originally slated for release on indie label Bong Load, Mutations instead became Odelay's "unofficial" follow-up when it was released on DGC in the autumn of 1998; the soul-influenced Midnite Vultures followed a year later. Beck teamed up with Mutations producer Nigel Godrich again for 2002's wonderfully melancholy, stripped-down Sea Change. That summer and fall, Beck embarked on two tours: one was a solo acoustic jaunt that featured some guest stars, such as the White Stripes' Jack White, the other was a full-band excursion featuring the Flaming Lips as his opening act and backing band.

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Yup, that's it allright. However, "Sea Change" is an official release, not one of his "independant" ones. As was highly publicized (which I felt bad for him about), the reason for the mood change on his last album was the breakup with his long-time girlfriend.

If I could recommend one song of the last one, it would be "Lonesome Tears". That one is incredibly sad, yet still began to distort the impressive speakers at the arena I saw him at