Illinois' most beloved indigenous Bird will migrate to Madison's Orpheum Theater this Saturday.

Singer-songwriter Andrew Bird will mix music and film at his concert, as the raison d'être of his Midwestern tour is to publicize the upcoming season of the Chicago Short Film Brigade, of which Bird is on the board of directors. But the tour also promotes Bird's new album, Armchair Apocrypha, which is set to be released sometime in spring '07.

Bird is a musical veteran in every sense of the word. Boasting a musical résumé that includes a B.A. from Northwestern in violin performance, the songwriter has been sharing his musical expertise with the indie world for more than a decade now. Though many fans only began following Bird after his 2005 masterpiece, The Mysterious Production of Eggs, the composer had already compiled a five-album repertoire prior to this.

Early in his career as a solo artist, Bird joined forces with several accomplished Chicago musicians to create a group that morphed into Bird's Bowl of Fire. The band's three works experimented with an acid-jazz-meets-neo-swing sound that was virtually unheard of in the contemporary scene. In other words, they were the types of albums that only reached the ears of Village Voice music critics and students at the Berklee College of Music.

2003's Weather Systems changed all that. After extinguishing the Bowl of Fire, Bird honed his sound, paring it down into an eclectic-but-accessible mixture of symphonic, violin-driven, whistle-laden indie rock (he's actually somewhat of a virtuoso whistler). The tunes were topped off with Bird's ultra-mellow singing of literate, black humor-laced lyrics — by the second or third track of any Bird album, it becomes exceedingly obvious he is a college graduate.

Weather Systems was fantastic in all of its evolutionary glory, but its follow-up, The Mysterious Production of Eggs, was simply breathtaking. Ubiquitous on "Best of 2005" lists, the album garnered praise from the most pretentious of sources, including a glowing review by Pitchfork Magazine.

But the Bird experience is not complete unless you see him stretch his musical wings onstage. The first time I attended a concert I imagined the curtains unveiling a three or four-piece band with an extensive string section. I was wrong. There would be no flock accompanying this Bird: The barren stage's only other inhabitant was a lonely drummer.

My heart sank as I thought, "Oh man, here comes a boring, grass-roots acoustic set." I was wrong again.

Bird's show put new meaning to the term do-it-yourself. With the help of a handy delay pedal that recorded and looped multiple tracks, the violinist strategically played lines and harmonized over them with each proceeding measure. One minute it sounded like my sister's fifth grade violin recital, the next I was in Carnegie Hall, enveloped in lush, intertwining violin lines.

As the first ballad neared its crescendo, the violin was suddenly gone and Bird revealed a guitar from behind his back as he sang, "Over-prescribed, under the mister/ we had survived to/ Turn on the History Channel/ and ask our esteemed panel/ Why are we alive? " For the rest of the show, Bird would alternate between guitar and violin, swinging the unused instrument behind him.

But don't worry, it gets weirder. Be prepared for impeccable whistling, which Bird reinforces by doubling the melody on glockenspiel. I might add that no drummer gets the gig unless he has a "can-play-keyboard-with-one-hand-while-drumming" entry on his résumé. This particular tour, however, is listed as "solo" on Bird's website, and reports from last week's gig in Dubuque confirm that he has done away with his drummer.

Because the tour's primary mission is to spread awareness of the Chicago Short Film Brigade, Saturday's concert will be a multimedia event. The opening band will be replaced by a movie screen, airing films by several of the Brigade's constituents. The CSFB itself is a non-profit film organization that seeks to pay homage to the lost art of short filmmaking. During the upcoming season, commencing January 2007, the group will play its shorts in what the Brigade's website describes as a "warm, social, non-academic, non-festival atmosphere."

While this is all fun and nice, Bird fans will be there for the music. It will be interesting to hear what direction Bird goes in with Armchair Apocrypha, as he will no doubt be previewing some of its contents. Though Weather Systems and Mysterious Production are both great albums, their sounds are so related that they could very well be part of the same double-disc album. If Armchair is as similar to them as they are to each other, Bird's new egg will seem repetitive no matter how good it is.

Regardless, Bird's performance isn't likely to disappoint. If you're a Pitchfork ally, Andrew Bird fanatic, violin geek, movie buff or chronic shower-whistler, you won't want to miss Andrew Bird live at the Orpheum this Saturday.