Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

Beck performing at Union Station during the Los Angeles stop of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

Beck performing at Union Station during the Los Angeles stop of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

The Union Station audience at the Los Angeles stop of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

A nomadic art structure with work by Kenneth Anger.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

Levi's Makers sew inside a yurt at Union Station, a stop on Station to Station, Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

Union Station is fitted with a stage for the Los Angeles stop of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

The Station to Station train, part of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

The Station to Station train, part of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

The Station to Station train, part of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

The Station to Station train, part of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

A typewriter abroad the Station to Station train, part of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

The Station to Station train, part of Doug Aitken's roving art project.

Photo courtesy of Levi’s

Editors' Notes

Doug Aitken's Station to Station map.

“I used to come down to the train station when I was a kid and read books in the lounge until security kicked me out,” said Beck Hansen on Thursday, September 26, at the Los Angeles stop of Station to Station, the roving train tour dreamed up by L.A.-based multimedia artist Doug Aitken. Beck played at Union Station, the penultimate leg of the public art project that moved from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Coast over the past month. After starting the journey in Brooklyn, with stops in such cities as Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Santa Fe, the train arrived at track 13 in L.A. where Aitken’s friends, including photographer Catherine Opie, boarded the parked railroad cars to see the living quarters of artists, writers, musicians, photographers and designers onboard. One train car was outfitted with recording equipment and a soundboard, and there was also a bank of computers in another where Aitken could edit video footage.

The 10-stop tour, sponsored by Levi’s, included yurts constructed in the Union Station courtyard to display work by artists Liz Glynn, Kenneth Anger, Urs Fisher and Ernesto Neto. Canvas structures also housed clothes and accessories made by local artisans including downtown L.A.’s Temple. Proceeds from tickets and donations went to a nonprofit cultural fund benefiting a host of partner organizations including SFMOMA, the Sundance Institute, and LACMA. Throughout the evening, gentle Santa Ana winds blew, reminding viewers of Mojave Desert destinations including Lancaster and Barstow (another stop on the tour) listed beside track entrances. And Beck himself played up the Great Basin vibe, with a look that was part Johnny Cash (black jeans, coat, and hat) and part Bob Dylan (hands-free harmonica holder). But the Peter Pan collar on his black and white shirt was all Beck.

By Elizabeth Varnell

Setlist:
“The Golden Age”
“Lonesome Tears”
“Wake Up”
“One Foot in the Grave”
“Fourteen Rivers Fourteen Floods”
“Everlasting Nothing”
“Free Me”
“Where It’s At”

Pictured: Beck at Union Station in Los Angeles.
Photo courtesy of Levi’s