Who knew that I love puppets?

So, how was Beck last night? In a word: phenomenal. In many words: cool, groovy, fun, fantastic, trippy.

If my sleep-deprived mind remembers correctly, Beck kicked off the show with "Black Tambourine." He performed songs from every album, including “Loser,” “Devil’s Haircut,” and “Girl.” The band was tight, but I found it hard at times to hear Beck’s voice, especially if he was talking (the Tabernacle isn’t the greatest acoustically). He didn’t perform my favorite — his cover of “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes,” from the Eternal Sunshine soundtrack — I read that he started it at the Athens show the night before, but the crowd was too drunk and rowdy, so he stopped.

The best part of the show was the puppets. The puppeteers behind Team America: World Police were on stage the entire time, doing a real-time puppet performance of the show, which was broadcast on the screen (the Puppetron) behind the band. I know — it sounds goofy — but it was so damn cool, so much fun. Each puppet was dressed just like his band’s counterpart — down to the bassist’s fabulously huge ‘fro and loud striped suit — and did exactly what its human counterpart was doing on stage at that moment. Beck’s puppet was adorable, with Beck’s longer, shaggy hair, white shirt and vest, and hat. It was very Being John Malkovich. Here are some photos I got from "Beck"*:

The Puppeteered Beck and Band

One guy in Beck’s band has the best job in the world: He dances. That’s it — well, he did bang a tambourine once or twice, and did hit the drums once. He’s dressed like a science teacher and he dances around the stage (you can see him in the YouTube video I included in yesterday’s post). And it’s not choreographed Justin Timberlake-like dancing; it’s fun dancing. [This could be the job for you, Professor Bastard.]

Beck and His Puppet

Beck did a great acoustic set mid-show, starting with the heartbreakingly beautiful “Lost Cause” and ending with the amazing “The Golden Age.” As he played this set, the rest of the band set up a table on stage and had supper; so did the puppets … except for the acoustic-strumming Beck puppet, of course.

Before the encore, they played a video of the puppets cruising around Atlanta — even hitting The Varsity. [Grant: There was a robot puppet in the video; maybe your daughter knows more than she’s telling us.]

He ended the show with “Where It’s At,” sliding into “E-Pro.” The entire place was dancing and gyrating and singing … except for the three guys standing behind me, who carried on some inane conversation.

Just one complaint: No dancing from Beck. He’s a great dancer, and I was really looking forward to seeing him cut a rug, but he played guitar and sang the entire time. I guess his footwork may have taken away from the puppets.

The show ended at 11 p.m. on the dot; I guess the puppets are unionized.

So I was 19 again for a couple of hours ... but I turned back into the older pumpkin-with-a-job-and-responsibilities at midnight, as the young ones bolted from my Beetle for post-show partying.

BTW, check out Beck’s site; one of the best I’ve seen in a while.

*Have you stumbled across these Live Journal blogs where people pretend to be Beck, or Michael Stipe, or some other famous person, and they write daily posts as if they’re Beck, or Michael Stipe, or some famous person? These folks need lives, people — their own damn lives.

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