(My one and only regular contributor, Mr. Chad Jones, checks in with this review of Andrew Bird at the Fillmore. I’ve included a couple of Bird shots from Coachella, taken by photog Rollie Blue.)

Chad’s review:
Bird watching at the Fillmore has its rewards, especially if the bird
in question is Andrew Bird, one of pop music’s mavericks.

Few singer-songwriters multi-task the way Bird does in concert. He
sings and plays the guitar. Nothing unusual there. He also plays the
violin like a mad genius, whistles with the clarity and purity of a
flute and _ here’s the real distinction _ plays the glockenspiel.

Bird’s sold-out Fillmore show Tuesday follows buzz-worthy appearances
at the big music festivals: South by Southwest in Texas and last
weekend’s Coachella in the southern part of the state.

Tuesday’s hour and 45-minute show featured Bird _ sort of the
thinking person’s James Blunt _ ably supported by bassist Jeremy
Ylvisake and percussionist and electronics whiz Martin Dosh.

Here’s how a typical Bird song _ let’s choose “Fiery Crash,” a
cheery number about fear of flying _ goes in concert. Bird lays down
a musical foundation using a multi-track loop. He’ll record a few
interesting measures on his violin and, using his feet to control the
buttons, play them back and add some whistling and/or glock.

The resulting sound can make Bird’s violin sound like a chamber
orchestra. Combine that with his Silvertone electric guitar and the
other sounds, and he’s a one-man marching band.

Pulling primarily from 2005’s “Andrew Bird and the Mysterious
Production of Eggs” and this year’s “Armchair Apocrypha,” Bird and
his band turned what are, on record, three- and four-minute gems into
protracted loops of sound that push, pull and swirl into musical
tornadoes.

Not every tune got the full-on, multi-layered treatment. “Heretics”
provided a welcome oasis of straightforward, no-frills pop (that
called to mind the Belle & Sebastian sound), but for the most party,
Bird concentrated on turning songs like “Masterfade,”
“Plasticities” and “Dark Matter” into jams that _ as jams often
do _ began to sound alike.

Sometimes the bombast worked in a song’s favor, as on the epic
“Scythian Empires,” which blossomed under Bird’s symphonic
treatment.

But other tunes, like “Fake Palindromes” and “Armchairs,” grew
wearying, and though the likable Bird is capable of a sort of dry,
intellectual humor _ he paused Tuesday night to introduce the
audience to a fan-created sock monkey dressed in a suit and carrying
a violin case _ his musical approach is deadly serious, and he often
seemed lost in a sonic world of his own creation.

Such commitment to the creation of interesting sounds is one of the
reasons Bird’s albums are so rich and fulfilling. But in concert,
Bird tends to fly off in loop-the-loops and leaves his audience
behind, entertained but not quite satisfied.

For a guy who used to play with the retro-swing band the Squirrel Nut
Zippers, you hold out hope that he’ll lighten up some, or at least
lay off the special effects. Whistling is great and so is a
glockenspiel, but do we need to hear them on song after song?

Andrew Bird is what you might call an NPR rocker. He’s got talent and
gusto and brains to spare, but there comes a point in his live show
when you want less challenge, less complexity and more simple beauty,
which is already there _ it’s just a little overwhelmed.