Even better though was to have that followed with a Talking Heads cover (original - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)), and then later a Beirut cover (original - A Sunday Smile). Probably should've figured since both covers are also on his 7" Singles set; not necessarily so spontaneous like Yo La Tengo pulling off a random Sun Ra cover on the spot just because there happened to be a poster of him in the store.
The most similar or comparable experience that I can think of is Andrew Bird, as both of them are talented at creating music simply by recording themselves while performing or improvising on the spot with different instruments, and then electronically looping those recordings on top of each other, almost like a one-man band/orchestra... only this time with a string quartet as backup. and a guy using a banjo as a percussive instrument. and another female singer. Okay, this analogy isn't really that simple anymore.
It's like going to a classical music concert that's really a psychedelic indie pop gig in disguise with Japanese American overtones... that otherwise makes you feel like a high-class hipster snob because you're sitting most of the time in these fancy cushioned seats in the Palace of Fine Arts (which also has a really nice pavilion in the back that looks inspired by Roman and Greek architecture) instead of standing on the floor like most other concerts. The last time I can recall seriously sitting for a concert was for Godspeed You! the first time around... which also could draw some comparisons to a classical concert.
That said, around the middle everyone got up for an "exercise set" featuring the more energetically danceable songs off of his latest ("...by latest I mean second") album, the aptly mispelled Lighght. There were several opportunities to sing-along with the mic turned on us (the ooh-o-ooh-o-o-o-o-o-oh's from Philosophize With It! Chemicalize With It!- and later on at the end of the concert, the ai-e-ai-e-ai's from It All Began With a Burst) that were fun. And before the last song, after the rest of the performers had left the stage, Kaoru asked the audience permission to improvise something first, and then decided midway through that he liked what he was making so much that he had to record it ("sorry guys, this is really unprofessional... but this is how my albums get made.") Of course, none of us minded; it was really cool to watch.
Everyone came back for an unplugged instrument improvised performance right up close in front of the audience that led into Bright Whites. I'm not sure if it was just the aural/acoustic quality of the theater we were in, but it sounded almost as if the entire audience was humming along the melody with them. It was like we were all collectively sitting in on a comforting campfire folk song.
Only other thing I have to add is that Kaoru is kinda awkward on stage, though in a cute and earnest kind of way, enough so that everyone in the audience laughed along with his nervousness ("I'm swear I'm not high.") and still cheered him even as he was having trouble finishing his scrambled-thought sentence-joke-statements. He said it was partly due to the fact that he's accustomed to having a drummer provide the beat as support rather than trying to improvise conducting a string quartet ("the fact that they're still touring with me..." he never quite finished that statement), on the spot with a metronome on his smartphone that didn't always agree with him.
This wound up being one of my favorite concert experiences, honestly. I haven't felt this alive in a long time.
(Above is from the Chicago concert, which conveys the gist of Manchester done by quartet + Kishi, although the quality obviously doesn't match seeing it live.)
Setlist.
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