On a very warm summer night, a lone musician with a violin stepped up to Asbury Hall’s stage and began to whistle. Because this man was Andrew Bird, the crowd was silent as the whistle gradually evolved into a full song featuring violin (sometimes plucked, sometimes played with a bow) and vocals amidst a series of loose echoing effects. Roughly an hour and a half later, as that same man and a few of his bandmates left the stage, the crowd left the venue with smiles across their faces (I checked, everyone was smiling).

Andrew Bird has been to Buffalo many times, and it has always been a welcome visit. Bird is a skilled performer capable of telling the crowd that a song can play itself and then dashing off a tight and dexterous violin solo (much to the chagrin of my friend, himself a skilled songwriter, who was irked at Bird’s claim of it being so effortless). Drawing from an expansive catalog, Bird returned to Asbury Hall and played an excellent set.

Live, Mr. Bird is more spirited than on his more pensive studio albums, and fills out more sparse tracks with a fuller band. On Monday night, Bird favored having a band on stage the whole time, whereas in the past, it had been a back and forth between playing alone and with others. Mr. Bird’s use of violin is dynamic, and often adds a percussive element to his music. It certainly adds a unique dimension to his work, and I felt the songs utilizing violin were, overall, the most engaging. Bird’s songs also worked well, if not sometimes better than during previous shows I have seen, when he performed with a full band. The lusher instrumentation compliments his songwriting.

The performance covered a number of favorites and standout tracks from his recent album, Break It Yourself. There were great versions of “Danse Caribe” (probably my personal favorite point of the evening), “Lusitania,” “Eyeoneye,”  “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left,” and new “old timey songs” off of an album to be released this fall.

For those “old timey” songs, Bird was joined by two of his bandmates playing acoustic guitar and violin around a single microphone. While, they didn’t stray too far from Bird’s normal songwriting style, these new tracks, including “Three White Horses,” and “Railroad Bill,” were great in their own right, and I am eager to see what this new album is like come October.

Andrew Bird’s performance was a welcome soundtrack to a very warm evening. Asbury Hall is a criminally underused venue and the sound was excellent. The subtle lighting effects added nicely to the overall atmosphere. I was slightly reserved about this show going in. I had seen Bird in Rochester at the very beginning of his most recent tour, and it was not as enjoyable. However, he seems to have tightened up and this show was excellent. Only Andrew Bird could make an audience this enthused about whistling.

(Thank you to Julia Conte for the photo of Bird and his band on stage.)