Beck to the future
The musical chameleon promises an upbeat NZ show after a nearly 20-year absence, writes Anna Loren.
Beck Hansen – he of the folk-rap beats, the stream-ofconsciousness lyrics, the frenetic dance moves – hasn’t toured New Zealand in nearly 20 years. He played Auckland in 1994, just as his breakthrough single, Loser, and album, Mellow Gold, were hitting their zenith on the charts, then Auckland and Wellington in early 1998. Then, nothing.
Down the phone, our interview sandwiched into a long string of others, snatched in one of those rare moments of travelling in which his phone has reception, the lively 47-year-old offers no explanation for the delay. He seems, however, incredulous, his Californian drawl stretching one syllable into three: ‘‘Wha-aa-aat?’’
His manager, Michael Meisel, also comes off as slightly bewildered. ‘‘Has it really been that long?’’
Well, the wait is nearly over. Beck will headline the 2018 Auckland City Limits music festival, which returns to Western Springs Stadium on March 3. The line-up also includes one of the original queens of disco, Grace Jones, as well as a plethora of local and international acts: Peking Duk, Justice, George Ezra, Aaradhna, and The Libertines.
The gig, Meisel promises, will be full of energy. There’s a new bass player, a new drummer, and a new trio of background vocalists and multiinstrumentalists, the B-53s. Beck, for his part, waxes lyrical about ‘‘going through the joyous fire’’ of performing, of growing up in the heyday of The Rolling Stones and Nirvana. ‘‘We come from a school where bands had a very