How hot was it at Ravinia Wednesday night when Beck and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra took the stage? It was so hot that the rosin bars were melting, he said by way of introduction. If ever there were a perfect Ravinia joke, that was it.
Midway through his sultry set, the singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist, looking in glasses and flowing curls every bit like Warren Zevon in his early wild child days, stopped to note that when he was growing up and one of his music idols performed with a symphony orchestra, that meant only one thing: “They’re done. It’s over.”
But the CSO fit Beck as well as his sharp pinstripe jacket and skinny pants. He put together a lush, atmospheric song list that played to the strengths of the fine orchestra and the venue itself. At one point, he talked about having PTSD from playing Lollapalooza in Chicago in 1995, saying it’s the only show he’s ever done where he left the stage not remembering the performance.
But up at the North Shore’s wine-mom-a-palooza, there was nothing to dread. Just a mellow vibe and vocals reminiscent of, at turns, Donovan (“The New Pollution”), Leonard Cohen (several numbers) and even some Mick Jagger-ish falsetto on a spirited “Debra” that name-checked both Schaumburg and Barrington.
Beck seemed to be having fun and made a strong connection with the appreciative audience, who mostly stood in the pavilion after the CSO left to make way for a more rocking encore that closed with an energetic “Loser.”
Beck was loose-limbed, wry and even goofy throughout the 24-song performance while displaying his uniformly strong musical chops. He’s playing gigs with orchestras across the country during this tour, and it feels like it could be a nice groove for him to settle into.
Summer’s whipping by, but Ravinia still has plenty of promising shows to check out, including King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard, another genre-bending rock act, playing with the Chicago Philharmonic Aug. 6., and Maren Morris Aug. 22.
Photo by Alec Syrvalin
