Andrew Bird with Loney Dear at Roseland Ballroom
Portland, February 21, 2009
With the economic crisis this country is facing right now we can’t afford Andrew Bird. There are too many jobless folks out there for us to allow Bird to fill so many roles by himself. In the span of an hour and a half and with the aid of multiple digital delay pedals and the sheer force of his talent, Bird displaced as many as an entire chamber orchestra by dint of sonic cloning. Imagine a world in which each one of us could simply conjure the idea of a car and then build it piece-by-piece before your neighbor’s incredulous eyes. That’s exactly what I saw in Portland this weekend and it is unsettling.