Inside Andrew Bird's Fever Year

By Michelle Meywes Kopeny in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 6, 2012 8:30PM

We’ve been hearing a lot about Andrew Bird lately in anticipation of his new album release in a few weeks (March 6 to be exact), and now he is in the midst of taking another medium by storm: film.

As a musician grows more popular, the more rigorous their touring schedule gets, as was the case with Bird in 2009 following the release of Noble Beast. Xan Aranda’s documentary Fever Year captures the last grueling months of that year culminating with those Gezelligheid homecoming shows where Bird was sporting a five o’clock shadow, a fever and crutches. The film’s namesake though, finds Bird questioning the fever that plagued him throughout most of the tour. Did his non-stop performance schedule leave him unable to fight an illness, or was he “turning into another type of animal?”

We first saw Fever Year at last fall’s Chicago International Film Festival, but now the film is running the festival circuit. Your next chance to see the documentary locally is March 9th at the Talking Pictures Film Festival in Evanston.