Andrew Veeder on April 17th, 2014

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Just before his band began their second set on Wednesday night, Beck looked around the crowd in producer Bob Clearmountain’s Apogee Studio in Santa Monica and remarked, “With the lighting and the stage, I’m having flashbacks to open mic nights. Apogee Studio is like a coveted and elusive treehouse for music nerds, and with a capacity of 180, you’re one of the furthest away if you’re 25 feet from stage – and on this night, Beck and his first-class band played their first show in L.A. behind the new album “Morning Phase in this intimate setting for KCRW’s Apogee Sessions, which will be broadcast during “Morning Becomes Eclectic” next Wednesday, April 23.

They began with “The Golden Age,” the opening track of his seminal 2002 album “Sea Change,” which still plucks your heartstrings like a harp a dozen years later. Backed by Smokey Hormel, Roger Manning, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Gus Seyffert and Joey Waronker – most of whom have played with Beck for years – the band sounded masterful and tight, despite having only played the new material live a few times before. The whole performance shimmered in rich vocal harmony and a slow, textured groove, with stunners “Don’t Let It Go” and “Country Down,” and “Blue Moon” twinkling in folk majesty. Six of the eight songs were off of “Morning Phase,” with another “Sea Change” gem, “Lost Cause,” rounding out the set. At one point, Beck said, “I think I was a little out of tune,” to which a female voice from the audience boomed, “No.”

Beck seemed relaxed and playful, making numerous jokes throughout the evening. He noted that his band’s setup was divided into thirds, being “hatted, hairy, or mustached.” During his interview with KCRW music director Jason Bentley, he described performing at Coachella as “like trying to sing into a wind tunnel” and that playing their beloved early single “Loser” was part of the contract, but that the challenge of the festival setting is playing something for everybody and to “try to come up with something that makes sense in that environment” in his allotted 50 minutes.

He also gleaned insight into the recording of “Morning Phase” – how “Wave,” “Country Down” and “Blackbird Chain” emerged from a Nashville session, and felt like those songs needed to have a thread; how he learned on “Sea Change” to support an album’s tone; and that the album’s tone is “not yelling at you like the rest of the world is. And he shared some fun facts, such as Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” being huge to him as a kid because he’d “never heard synth like that,” that he met Thurston Moore at a barbeque in Culver City 23 years ago before going on to produce his solo record, and that he still believes in the importance of the “album,” and a thought-out order.

Bentley asked him about the rumors of another album to follow quickly and Beck confirmed, saying it will be “more representative of the live show” and that it would hopefully come out this year. “There’s no rules anymore,” Beck said, to which Bentley replied, “And that might not be a bad thing.”

Setlist: The Golden Age, Blackbird Chain, Say Goodbye, Don’t Let It Go, Waking Light, Country Down, Lost Cause, Blue Moon. Encore, Soldier Jane, Think I’m In Love into I Feel Love, Devil’s Haircut, Soul of a Man, Black Tambourine, Sissyneck into a Billie Jean interlude (!), E-Pro.

||| Live: Beck plays Coachella again this Sunday at 8:50 p.m. on the Main Stage.

||| Previously: Live at Coachella, Live at Disney Hall, Live at Santa Barbara Bowl

Photo by Larry Hirshowitz via KCRW