#heartisadrum

circling around your iron will

“Heart Is A Drum” was a pretty solid regular song on the Morning Phase tour of 2014, and then the tours of 2015-2017, as well. However, as they moved into the Colors tour in 2017 & 2018, the song sort of fell out of the lineup. It was done just 13 times of the 59 main Colors shows, and most of those were front-loaded -- it was performed at 10 of the first 18 shows, but then just 3 of the last 41.

Colors tour lineup: Beck Hansen - acoustic guitar, vocals Jason Falkner - acoustic guitar, backing vocals Roger Joseph Manning Jr. - piano, backing vocals Dwayne Moore - bass, backing vocals Chris Coleman - drums (except once, they went drumless) Alex Lilly - keyboards, backing vocals Cecilia Della Perutti - percussion, backing vocals Jake Sinclair - ukulele, backing vocals On the Morning Phase tour, Beck tended to play a slightly sped up version of “Heart Is A Drum,” compared to the record. For the versions I listened to here from 2017-2018, the song seems to have drifted back to its usual pace and leisurely flow. Chris Coleman shows his lighter touch on drums, and Roger Joseph Manning’s delicate piano is always a joy to hear. 

You can hear that here, at this version from Dallas in March:

After this, the song was played far less, as I said above. I did not hear all the versions but I think most were like this.  We did get one the song one time in Boston, the final time on the tour, and the only time on the tour after June. In that instance, Beck played the song in his ‘acoustic’ set, where he had his band crowd around him, creating a more intimate moment. During this set, Beck most frequently did “Blue Moon” and “Lost Cause,” but this one time, he subbed in “Heart Is A Drum.” It remains fairly similar, just that his band is all standing closer to him -- except Roger, whose piano doesn’t travel as well as the ukulele and guitars, and Chris on drums, who sits the song out entirely.  It is nice to hear the song done differently, but I think the drums give the song a pulse it needs, and I miss them here. Anyway, here is that one: