September 2, 2006 23:30

Beck plays intimate London show

It’s puppets, fine dining and new songs at Shepherd’s Bush

Beck played a rare London show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire tonight (September 2).

The singer-songwriter used the gig to preview tracks from his forthcoming album ’The Information’, however it was the nature of his performance that stole the plaudits.

As at previous shows, Beck and his band were accompanied by miniature puppet replicas of themselves who copied the real group’s every move.

However at this evening’s show Beck allowed the toys to star, letting them open the gig with 'Loser' before the real band appeared on stage to complete the song.

The puppets then continued to mimic the real performers with Beck even shaking hands with his Mini-Me and greeting it “Hello sir” in the middle of the set.

The puppets then starred during the break before the encore, showing a mock documentary of them roaming around Shepherd’s Bush earlier in the day.

However, the real performers were not out done by the replicas.

With a set that mixed crowd favourites including ’Devil’s Haircut’, ’Black Tambourine’, ‘Tropicalia’ and ’Girl’ the group also played tracks including ‘Nausea’ and ’The Information’ from the forthcoming album of the same name.

Meanwhile during Beck’s solo section the band outshone themselves.

With just their leader on guitar to play covers including ’Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime’ and Hank Williams Jr’s ’(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle’, the band sat the songs out on a dinner table specially laid out at the front of the stage.

However during a stripped down version of ’Hell Yes’ the group turned their dining instruments into an improvised backing, vibrating glasses of water and banging knifes and forks to accompany Beck’s guitar.

Returning for an encore skit that involved some of the band dressing-up in bear costumes, Beck then concluded the show with ’Where It’s At’ and aggressive closer ’E-Pro’, leaving both the puppets and the real players to share the sold out crowd's ovation.

Beck is now set to release ’The Information’ on October 2.