Andrew Bird (solo) - San Francisco Bath House
Tuesday 15th January 2008
San Francisco Bath House
Wellington
Wednesday 16th January 2008
The Dogs Bollix
Auckland
Tickets on sale at Real Groovy from the 14th of November 2007
Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist and lyricist Andrew Bird picked up his first violin at the age of 4. Actually, it
was a Cracker Jack box with a ruler taped to it, and the first of his many Suzuki music lessons involved simply bowing
to the teacher and going home. He spent his formative years soaking up classical repertoire completely by ear so when it
came time for a restless teen-ager to make the jump to Hungarian Gypsy music, early jazz, country blues, south Indian
etc., it wasn't such a giant leap. It's fitting that now, though classically trained, he has instead opted to play his
violin in a most unconventional manner, accompanying himself on glockenspiel and guitar, adding singing and whistling to
the equation, and becoming a pop songwriter in the process.
Since beginning his recording career, Andrew has released nine albums: six studio albums, both solo and with his former
group the Bowl of Fire, and three live albums. The recently released Armchair Apocrypha will bring the tally to ten.
Armchair Apocrypha was recorded mainly in Minneapolis at Crazy Beast Studios (Ben Durrant) and Third Ear Studios (Tom
Herbers).
Andrew Bird has impressed huge festival audiences at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, SXSW, the Montreal Jazz Festival, Radio
France, and made appearances on the BBC, KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic," and NPR's "World Cafe" and "All Things
Considered." Positive reviews and Best of 2005 lists followed including Magnet, Paste, The Onion, the Boston Globe, CMJ,
and popmatters, as well as a nomination for the 2006 New Pantheon award, and the following rave from Pitchfork: "I looked at my notes and next to 'Skin Is, My,' the only comment I had scrawled was 'Wow!' The same dumbfounded comment
was chicken-scratched next to three other song titles. Fitting, as there's no better word to describe Andrew Bird live."
This will be Andrew Bird's first visit to New Zealand.
ENDS