Magpies & Other Birds (Andrew Bird @ Civic Opera House 4.10 and Neko Case @ Chicago Theater 4.24)

Once again I've fallen too far behind to write meaningful reviews. Maybe now that I'm on twitter, I can just post my genius thoughts DURING the shows for you all to read. Because there are so many of you, dear readers.

So - the birdman: It was such a treat to be in the radiance of the opera house, and to sit and be civilized. Bird played a lot of pieces from the new album, as well as several from the last two - and nicely surprise us with a few pieces from The Swimming Hour and beyond. I think playing for the hometown crowd, he knew he'd please some folks with that, especially on night two. He brought Nora O'Conner out for the older bits, and I whispered to my friend my prediction that we'd see her onstage with Neko Case in a couple of weeks.

And I was right. Two weeks later, we sat in the similarly opulent Chicago Theater - the opened, Crooked Fingers, was enjoyable, but didn't play any of the tunes that I'm familiar with. It was nice to see Miranda Brown for the second time in a month, since she was such a treat playing with AC Newman at Logan Square earlier this spring.

The stage set for Neko was spectacular - An owl wrapping its wings around the screen, on which were project film and animation throughout the show. We heard mostly from Middle Cyclone, so there were not the knock-you-on-your backside vocals from some of her past shows, but there was a quiet beauty to behold. Especially on Middle Cyclone itself. As always, the banter between Neko and Kelly Hogan could not be topped, and there was a tiny bit of Nora O'Conner as well. Hogan cranks a mean custom music box too.

The highlight for me was "Red Tide." I love all of the marine and nature references on Middle Cyclone, and hadn't really dug any deeper on any of the lyrics of the songs. Neko said that this one was about breaking up with a town - and either she or Kelly mentioned that Seattle was the "bitchy town in question" for this case. Then they launched into it - and it made me want to be in rainy Seattle, even though I've never been to the Pacific NW.