Armchairs - Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha - 2007

So last night I went to see Will Ferrel's show on Broadway where he plays former President GW Bush giving a farewell to the nation. My buddy Shani bought me a ticket as an early birthday present since she'll be in LA for my actual b-day. As is typical, I got stuck in the bar a little too long and had to haul my ass to the theater district to make the gate. We barely had time to throw down a quick glass of champaigne before the lights started blinking and the show started.

Now Ferrel has certainly lost a little of his luster in the last year or two, but there is no denying he has been one of the comedic superstars of the last decade, and his Bush impression has certainly made the last 8 years slightly more bearable...but what struck me most about the show was how much of it might have been too painful to laugh at.

There was certainly very funny stuff, but by and large it was the bits of absurdism(Bigfoot, Monkeys with spear guns, western style handjobs) that packed the biggest punches. The topical stuff (My Pet Goat, "Nice Job Brownie" and of course "Mission Accomplished") mostly served as reminders of what a total clusterfuck that administration was. It's not that Ferrel wasn't funny, or that the time wasn't appreciated so much as...it was the first chance I'd had to look back since President Obama's innauguration. And to see the scope of exactly how badly the W administration really and truly bent this country over a table was staggering. There was still funny stuff in this (Dick Cheney and the Goat Demon, Condie Rice as the office hussey) but mostly it was a bit like being punched in the gut.

Anyway, this Andrew Bird song is a good antidote for that. Bird has always had a strong knack for writing a melody, and his instrumentation has generally been one of his strong points (a rock musician who clings so strongly to the violin as his core instrument certainly has to be inventive). In recent years, Bird has added a level of maturity to his songs that shines through on this track, a fine song for a sad evening.