Dan and the Beam Band ?

[mememe]

Hi!

Has anyone heard the band Daniel is touring with... the BEAM? I saw a crapquality youtubevideo only. Im planning on going to Århus, Denmark to see a gig, and was wondering if anyone has any experience? It seemed like a more orchestrated effort than most Johnston collabs.

[Alex]

I saw the show with the Beam orchestra in Den Bosch last year. Dont expect a Johnston show as usual, this is very very different. Some songs are all instrumental done by Beam, what was a big dissapointment for me. They do a fine job, but some songs are made too long by the orchestra, and in some songs it even toke a while for me to reconize what song they were actually playing. They do a show with Daniel in Amsterdam again in april, what i'll probably attend again couse besides some songs were made too long, it was quite good (Hopefully Daniel will sing on some of the instrumental songs this time, like Worried Shoes )

[mememe]

Thanks for the reply! I found some more videos and it looks like just as you described... It was funny watching Dan just sitting there with the band playing

Anyways, this is my first chance to see him live, at least not too much travel (I live in Finland), and Århus seems like a nice summertown so I think I´ll be going to the gig!

[raphneck]

i will see these show tomorrow, hope it will be good !

[raphneck]

It was really good ... most of the time.

One of the good points was that Daniel played a lot of songs with only 2 instrumentals from the Beam Orchestra alone.

After an introduction played by the orchestra (a derivation of Speeding motorcycle) Daniel played a song with the band (Mind movies or Keep punching joe i think , really cool) and then 4 or 5 song alone with his little guitar.
He begin with Lost in my infinite memory, without the noise on the album i realised that must be one of the saddest song of his career.
After that the all played together (10 or 11 musicians) with Daniel. Daniel had a break during a very bad interpretation of Living life by the band alone and then he came back.
The show ended with Fake Records of r'n'r. Before the first encore with True Love (and another one , can't remember which one). And they came back once again to play the beautiful Try to love.

The music had often a very jazz touch, and they played song like Keep Punching Joe or Desperate Man Blues that are perfect for this big band. Sometimes like on Lost Without a Dime they had a more experimental feeling, this interpretation was really great.
Sometimes the big-hollywood-jazzy touch ruined the song like on Wicked world. And we heard too many clarinet or guitar solo in my opinion.
The best moment of the show a beautiful interpretation of Syrup of Tears with a few words about Mark Linkous by Danny as an introduction.

If you have the chance, go see them. It's very unique.

Sort of playlist without order (and i must forget one or 2 songs):


Wicked world
Lost without a dime
Mind movies
Fake Records of r'n'r
High Horse
Light of Day
Devil Town
True love will find you in the end
Walking the cow
Syrup of tears
Love enchanted
Desperate man blues
Try to love
Hey Joe
Keep punching Joe

DJ alone:
Lost in my infinite memory
Mask
Must
?

Beam orchestra alone:
Speeding motorcycle
Living life

[Thibo]

I was at the show too. It's my first Daniel Johnston concert, at last. I wanted to see him in 2006 in Saint Malo (France), but the show was cancelled.
It was a really great experience for me, but the Beam Orchestra was a little bit too much "noisy". Sometimes Daniel voice was muffled behind all those instruments.
I remember that Daniel sang "Tears", from "Is and always", but I'm not sure.
There is a little video from the show on Youtube, a beautiful version of "True love...":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3oRVDgUmgw