Watch Beck’s Trippy, Disorienting Performance Of “Uneventful Days” On Kimmel
A week and a half ago, Beck released Hyperspace, the glimmering and melancholy pop album that he largely recorded with Pharrell Williams. Beck is now making the promotional rounds, but he’s doing what he can to make those promotional rounds interesting. For instance, for his big late-night performance of the moody synthpop single “Uneventful Days,” he essentially deconstructed the entire idea of a late-night performance, staging it as a one-take music video instead.
Earlier this week, Beck did musical-guest duties on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (The performance aired on Tuesday night’s episode, but for whatever reason, the Kimmel people didn’t post it until late last night.) At the beginning of the performance, Beck was on a set made up to look like a drag office cubicle. But as he began singing, the set fell away, and strange things started happening.
I’m not quite sure how they staged the performance; my best guess is that Beck was on a slowly rotating platform. But there are all sorts of tricks involved: Backdrops, severe quick-cuts, a backing band that floats by in the background. It’s a strange and disorienting version of a late-night performance, and you can watch it below.
Hyperspace is out now on Capitol.