Somewhere, amid the strip malls, chain restaurants and manufactured musical fluff lies something bigger than this. A broken-down barrier, perhaps, between performer and listener, a bit of certainty among the hordes of simulated truths or, if nothing else, a feeling of unity. In the world of music, our generation is desperately searching for this – violin-playing Andrew Bird included.

“I think it becomes more and more appealing as music becomes more and more digitized and pitch is corrected. People are looking for flaws and evidence that there’s something more than, you know, strip malls and chain restaurants,” Bird said.

“I think people are looking for community.”

Bird, an innovative multi-instrumentalist hailing from Chicago, still believes in music’s ultimate purpose – bringing people together. And, thanks to the Internet’s version of a community, this phenomenon is only growing stronger.

“You see a lot of bands emerging that are kind of like collectives – everyone’s living in a big house and they’re in a band and that’s sort of like the spirit of creating almost a commune of sorts,” he said. “I think that’s what people are missing and that’s what they’re looking for through music. I think that’s the success of the widespread MySpace stuff. It’s like music becomes, for our generation, it can become a sort of markation or a conversation piece or a reason for people to get together. Which is what we really need.”

In his own live performances, the musician pushes himself to establish some sort of bond between performer and audience. It can become difficult, as he finds himself moving around from city to city, setting eyes on different faces each night. In his mind, however, the changing scenery is no reason to tear down a link between the person onstage and the audience.

“What you want to do is just make a situation that connects with the audience, and make it more than just a human jukebox on stage,” he said.

With one year past since the release of his widely praised album “The Mysterious Production of Eggs,” Bird is finally winding down from the whirlwind of 2005 and reflecting on the changes the year presented him.

“This last year was really intense. I mean I’ve been touring for eight or nine years now, but this last year was really pretty over the top,” he said. “But it’s been good because I’m playing the same places I’ve played for years, and finally they’re full of people. That’s what I notice and that’s OK with me.”

“The Mysterious Production of Eggs” was spotted on many “best of ’05” lists and Bird said he has noticed the effects the publicity can produce.

A significant difference has been seen not so much on album sales, but on radio play and concert attendance. Once performing for only 150 to 200 people, Bird now plays for crowds of 700 to 1,000.

“That all kind of happened in the span of six months,” he said. “So that’s taken me a little while to realize I need more help to pull it off. I used to ride around, like every time I’d come to Ames, I’d be driving by myself with all my stuff in my car and I’d just do everything myself, which was kind of nuts then, too. But I’m now finally getting more help.”

Bird’s current tour brings him back to Ames, this time accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Martin Dosh. Playing a variety of new songs each night, Bird compares the current tour to his “onstage live rehearsal for the next record.” At the moment, Bird said he has around 10 or 11 new songs that he is happy with onstage. However, he knows the difficult task of merging the live songs into studio tracks is readily awaiting him.

“A live show is great for taking risks and emoting and kind of freaking out on stage, but [a] record doesn’t always translate,” he said.

“Records tend to be a little more carefully crafted and sculpted and evened out. But I’m still trying to reconcile those few things.”

Although the audience will get a taste of fresh tracks, Bird is quick to point out that his songs are likely to go through extreme alterations before ending up on the final track list.

For example, the song “Measuring Cups” off of “The Mysterious Production of Eggs” was recorded six different times and went through “drastic” rewrites. But this isn’t unusual for Bird, who said many times one song will be engulfed by a better one, or he’ll throw out an entire song but keep the best line for use in another.

“There’s a whole long sort of painful distillation process that has to happen. I enjoy this period before making a record when you have all of these possibilities,” he said. “It’s cool when you’re playing a song for the first time in front of an audience. That’s the feeling I’m trying to recreate with the old songs, too. That moment of almost embarrassment. When you’re showing a new song to an audience, it’s one of the better feelings I can imagine.”

And for Bird, that moment of embarrassment may be the bond that forms the community his fans have been looking for.