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Andrew Bird, Live In Concert: Newport Folk 2013

By Stephen Thompson
Published July 30, 2013 at 6:00 AM AKDT
Adam Kissick for NPR

Andrew Bird's records have grown quieter and more intimate in recent years, but he remains a remarkably dynamic live performer: Last year's Break It Yourself wouldn't seem to be the stuff of blockbuster live shows, and yet when he took it to the stage, he injected its characteristically smart, brooding songs with surprising intensity. Of course, it helps that, 12 albums into an unpredictable career, Bird has become a cult superstar whose fans clearly fuel him onstage.

Hear Andrew Bird dump out his bag of tricks — including a formidable vocabulary, classically trained violin chops and the best whistling in the business — as part of the 2013 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Sunday, July 28 in Newport, R.I.

Set List

  • "MX Missiles"

  • "Give It Away"

  • "Something Biblical"

  • "When That Helicopter Comes" (The Handsome Family cover)

  • "Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed"

  • "Dear Old Greenland"

  • "Begging Questions"

  • "Dark Matter"

  • "Tenuousness"

  • "Three White Horses"

  • "Headsoak"

  • "Danse Caribe"

  • "If I Needed You" (Townes Van Zandt cover)

  • "Don't Be Scared" (The Handsome Family cover)

    • Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    Stephen Thompson
    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
    See stories by Stephen Thompson