About halfway through the first of her two sold-out dates at Brooklyn Steel on March 3rd, Natalie Laura Mering, known professionally as Weyes Blood, asked the crowd to guess the astrological makeup of her band. I guessed correctly that she, and most of her touring party, was made up of Geminis. I’m possibly biased as I am one myself (sorry!), but perhaps sharing the spatial twins is what drew me so deeply to Mering’s music in the first place. She added “I’m a Gemini, but I self-identify as a Scorpio, I just want to be more fucked up,” which, fair.
There is a deep vein of wry humor that runs through Weyes Blood’s musical catalog, which is lush and technicolor, often orchestral in delivery, but can also be plain-spoken and heartbreaking (the lyric “true love is making a comeback. For only half of us, the rest just feel bad” comes to mind). Throughout her career, but especially on her two most recent albums, 2019’s Titanic Rising (one of my favorite albums of all time) and 2022’s And In The Darkness, Hearts Algow, Mering has perfected this sound, making masterful songs and albums that are instantly recognizable as her own, but which also feel like they could have been unearthed, untouched since the late 60s, on reels in a Laurel Canyon attic.
Weyes Blood at Brooklyn Steel
Weyes Blood’s set consisted almost entirely of songs from these two albums, opening with “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” and “Children of the Empire” the first two tracks from And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow. Favorites from Titanic Rising which made thesetincluded “Andromeda,” “Movies,” and “A Lot’s Gonna Change,” and I must say, as someone who listens to that album compulsively (I will need to replace my vinyl copy soon), these cuts sounded fantastic live, as good or better than their recorded versions, credit to her incredible band and impeccable vocals.
We were allowed to shoot songs 8-10 of the set, a nice change of pace from the usual first three from pit, and especially special given my love of the songs “Everyday” and “Wild Time.” It admittedly made taking photos more difficult though as I could not help but sing along during these, and applaud at the end of each one (I have no chill) instead of switching lenses.
Weyes Blood closed the performance with Something to Believe and Bad Magic, the latter being the sole song not from her latest albums and one dedicated to Brooklyn, as she wrote it while completely miserable and living on Montrose Ave. I do hope Mering had a nicer time this visit, she sure deserves it considering how great of a performance this weekend’s show was.
Whistler Molly Lewis opened the show with a unique and interesting performance.
Scroll down for setlist, fan shot videos, pics of the show (photos by Emilio Herce)
Setlist: It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody, Children of the Empire, A Lot’s Gonna Change, God Turn Me Into a Flower, Andromeda, Grapevine, A Given Thing, Everyday, Wild Time, Twin Flame, Movies, Hearts Aglow Encore:
Something to Believe, Bad Magic
Big Thief performed a sold-out hometown show on March 1st at Brooklyn Steel, the penultimate show on their current tour. It’s always nice to roll up to Steel and not see a massive tour bus parked by the stage door, usually evidence of locals who’s done well for themselves. Even though members of Big Thief hail from all over the US (bassist Max Oleartchik is from Israel) the band is ostensibly a Brooklyn one, having formed and being currently based here. Their music has also had an indelible effect on the sound and songwriters that call the borough home. The pre-show energy was electric, like a city awaiting the return of its conquering heroes.
Big Thief, consisting of Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik, and James Krivchenia, has always been forward-thinking and willing to challenge themselves musically. They write songs that could be identified as an electrified indie-folk to the uninitiated, but the band is more than willing to play with form, and their idiosyncratic phrasings and melodies make their music instantly recognizable as their own. The opened with one such number, “Ruined,” an unreleased song and sweet meditation of a love song that featured Lenker’s breathy vocals and Meek’s masterful guitar swirls. It’s telling that they opened with this, one of four unreleased songs they performed that night, as they are clearly in a very productive phase. The band usually averages an album every two years, though they released two in 2019, the acclaimed U.F.O.F and Two Hands, and their latest, the wonderful Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is adouble album they released in 2022.
After “Ruined” the first half of the band’s set focused on this latest release, including the songs “Flower of Blood,” “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You,” “Blurred View,” and “Simulation Swarm.” These renditions breathed electricity into the live-in, sun-bleached album versions, giving me a new appreciation for them. This energy carried on into earlier album cuts. Older songs, “Masterpiece” for example, have become sharper, both tighter and more jagged, careening before regaining composure and falling back on four wheels, like a stunt driver making a well-worn corner. “Cattails” bounced along merrily before also speeding up in the second half, not quite taking off, but elevated and with added flourishes by Meek.
Big Thief at Brooklyn Steel
Matt Davidson, who performed pedal steel in Buck Meek’s opening set, also joined for a number of songs on the violin and flute, adding a new dimension to these tracks. He brought something else to the band as well: the rule that if you wrote a song on the road you had to play it live, cause for their performance of “Born For Loving You,” a song Lenker said was written in Florida, inspired by the pop-country songs blasting from out of beach parked pick-up truck (another rule that Davidson brought to the band was that anyone is allowed to flip a table at some point in their life, no questions asked. Lenker quickly assured the crowd that no one in the band had taken their free pass yet). Other highlights in the set were my (and Obama’s) favorite song “Not,” the new “Vampire Empire,” which Big Thief debuted on Colbert, and “Spud Infinity” (“that’s my Grandma!”) which featured a guest appearance by Adrienne’s brother Noah who joined the band on jaw harp (an instrument I’d never heard of before which makes a boing song and is “very country” according to my friend).
Overall, the band fulfilled their well-warranted excitement and no one went home disappointed (well, maybe the guy who kept shouting that the band play “Shark Smile.” Lenker politely told him they would not be, and he was also shouted down by someone who yelled, to applause, “play whatever you want!”). Based on the band’s continued creative output it remains a very exciting time to be a Big Thief fan.
Buck Meek of the band performed an electrifying, full band set to open the night.
Scroll down for setlist, fan shot videos, pics of the show (photos by Emilio Herce)
Setlist: Ruined, Flower for Blood, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, Blurred View, Simulation Swarm, Masterpiece, Cattails, Certainty, Happiness, Dried Roses, Vampire Empire, Not, Born For Loving You, Spud Infinity Encore: Change
On Wednesday, February 8th, Angel Olsen performed at Woodstock’s Bearsville Theatre, and you should not expect this to be an unbiased review. First of all, The Bearsville Theatre is a beautiful room, replete with chandeliers and a cathedral arched ceiling which makes it feel a lot larger than its 400-person capacity. It’s probably the smallest room she’ll play on her current tour, in support of her 2022 album Big Time, the excellent, country-tinged, cowboy’s lament on too much time wasted on the wrong person. It’s an album I’d fallen deeply in love with last summer when I spent a lot of time listening to it for reasons. Olsen is also one of my favorite artists, but I think it fair to say that last week’s show was objectively incredible, and the best I have ever seen her and her band perform.
Woodstock, a historically famous music town, has become something of a mecca for both working singer-songwriters and well-to-do creative professionals who want the amenities of the city without the associated smells and sounds. It’s close enough to Brooklyn that you can get there in a relatively short amount of time (I’m a real New Yorker, so I do not have a car and took the train), and while I would have traveled a lot further to see this tour (it was lacking a NYC/Brooklyn proper date, the closest play being Jersey City) my friends had thankfully moved close to the area.
I’d see Olsen on the last night of the Wild Hearts tour where she shared equal billing with Julien Baker and Sharon Van Etten (see FTA’s coverage). Her set that night was fantastic but seemed, perhaps, like it lost some of its saturation, sandwiched between two other great performances, and it felt akin to a long festival set. It felt different being surrounded by 400 (though I suspect more as the Bearsville Theatre gives a seated event vibe and this was standing room) of her fans last week, seeing her performing songs, now perfected by a year of touring them, on what felt like a victory lap. We also had the magic of an underplay working for us, where artists that are used to playing venues one or two tiers larger, return to a club or small theater and play a perfect show.
Angel Olsen at Bearsville Theater
Olsen’s set on Wednesday was Big Time heavy, opening with “Dream Thing,” “Big Time,” “Ghost On,” and ” Right Now” before a brief mid-set detour of older favorites, “Shut Up Kiss Me,” “Give It Up” and “All Mirrors,” before returning to the newer “This Is How It Works,” “Go Home,” and “All the Good Times.” Her songs take their time, settling in before turning on in the second half, revealing the song’s real motifs, which are visible neither in the first nor second halves alone, but the conversation and interaction between the two. These are usually my favorite parts of her songs, the subtle shift which you wait for on every listen and which kills you every time. In live settings, Olsen’s band stretches out for these, coming back under her control when she returns to a verse, before repeating the loud quiet dynamic again for greater effect.
Olsen placed the three songs that are prime examples of this dynamic (and are maybe my favorites on their respective records), “Lark” from 2019’s All Mirrors, “Sister” from 2016’s My Woman, and the current “Go Home” back-to-back at the tail end of her set. These are mostly longer songs, made even longer by her band who seemed to relish playing these songs, and devastating us in the audience with them. The room was quiet throughout the show, but especially during these moments, maybe most notably because of the rapturous applause that proceeded these songs.
After the show, my friend reminded me that I’d told her, the last time we’d seen each other, that Big Time was helping me through the final gasps of a breakup. I had totally forgotten this, and I don’t associate Big Time with heartbreak as I do other sadder, more dour records which I’ve had to set aside because of their now sorrowful associations. I think it’s because Olsen’s latest is not really a “break-up” record, it’s more a “getting over someone” record, reflective of feeling returning after the numbness of a bruise, and maybe even confidence after the skittishness of disappointment. Coming back stronger, but more careful, or maybe not careful, but intentional. Both the record and the Woodstock concert felt this way, deeply intentional performances, cathartic, but also strong-willed and resolute, knowing exactly what needs to be said, and maybe what I needed to hear.
Angel Olsen at Bearsville Theater
Olsen made a joke during her set about maybe doing a residency in Woodstock next time. I sincerely hope this wasn’t a joke and have already informed my friends that I’d be moving in if this were to be the case.
Singer-songwriter, Erin Rae, has been on the road with Olsen and opened the evening.
Scroll down for setlist, pics of the show (photos by Emilio Herce)
Setlist: Dream Thing, Big Time, Ghost On, Right Now, Shut Up Kiss Me, Give It Up, All Mirrors, This Is How It Works, Lark, Go Home, Sister, All the Good Times, Chance, Slowin’ Down Love (solo) (Tucker Zimmerman cover) Encore: Without You (Harry Nilsson cover)
Patti Smith is a living legend, and I came to love her art—as I suspect a good number in attendance of her December 29th Brooklyn Steels show did—through her writing, specifically, her much lauded memoir,Just Kids. The book chronicled her life with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in NYC in the later half of the 60s and early 70s as they both became generational talents we know them as today.
While these years were portrayed as hard scrabble in the book, it’s less of a Down & Out at the Chelsea Hotel and more of a celebration of the underground arts scene during that era. Just Kids brought Patti Smith to the attention of a new generation, which was clear by the audience made up of equal parts NY punk rock and hippie stalwarts who were there, man, and younger music fans who seemed every bit as excited.
Back to Smith being a living legend. That appellation might suggest, as I’ve had the experience with other mainstay acts from the 70s, that an artists best days are behind them. This was not the case at Smith’s show. She and her band played in perfect synchronicity, and the performance fell vital and invigorating. Smith opened the show with hits including “Dancing Barefoot,” “Redondo Beach,” and “Because The Night” and the set included a stirring cover of Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings.” Even though the two night stand was billed as a celebration of Smith’s 76th birthday, she exuded a youthful energy, her voice strong and exhuberant. It’s clear that Smith is not resting on her laurels, and seems to have no plans to slow down any time soon.
Scroll down for setlist, pics of the show (photos by Emilio Herce)
Setlist: Dancing Barefoot, Redondo Beach, Free Money, Ghost Dance, Because The Night, My Blakean Year, Nine, Pissing In A River | Band Interlude without PS- Time Won’t Let Me, If I Could Turn Back Time, Time Is On My Side | One Too Many Mornings, Peaceable Kingdom/People Have The Power, Summer Cannibals, Ain’t It Strange, Time Has Come Today, People Have The Power Encore: Happy Birthday to You, Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)
Wet Leg returned to NYC last week to perform four sold-out shows at Webster Hall, Bowery Ballroom, Elsewhere, and Music Hall of Williamsburg. I was lucky enough to catch the inaugural show on their four-night run, on December 13th at Webster, almost exactly a year since I had last seen them first on their initial US tour.
In a little over a year, from first hearing whispers of this buzzy UK band signed to Domino and catching them at a Baby’s All Right (a much smaller room than the ones they played on this run; see pics), the band has released their eponymous debut album (to critical acclaim) and made three visits to the states (each time playing increasingly larger venues to increasingly adoring crowds. See pics from Brooklyn Steel).
There were initial rumblings that the band was somehow an industry plant or somehow undeserving of its upward trajectory (these were based not a little on sexism imo), but I suspect that the band was always meant to play venues the size of Webster, and everything before this was course correction until they reached this level. It’s hard to make the case otherwise anyway, considering how swiftly they sold out all four venues on his run, and how they absolutely dominated their December 13th show.
Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers seemed like conquering heroes at the show, at least based on their reception. They played a blistering and confident set of songs from their self-titled debut, opening with “Being In Love,” “Wet Dream,” and “Supermarket.” It’s been a joy to see the band’s evolution, not that any of their previous performances were lacking, but the confidence and refusal to accept anything less than they deserve—themes central to their music—were on full display. Most of all the band seemed like they were having just the best time, which of course infected everyone in attendance.
A working theory I have about why the band exploded in popularity during the last two years is that these themes of dissatisfaction and feeling like you deserve better (coupled with a healthy dose of self-doubt and introspection) echo the feelings of an entire generation entering their mid to late 20s and feeling like the pandemic robbed them of something, but perhaps unable to verbalize what exactly that thing is. Wet Leg performed “Too Late Now” in the latter half of the set, my favorite song of theirs, and one which encapsulates this sentiment well, the sense that time is running out and that one is being propelled forward more by momentum than anything else. Still, the song resolves on a hopeful note, embracing self-care. “Everything is going wrong I think I changed my mind again / I just need a bubble bath / To set me on a higher path.”
Seeing their performance too felt like self-care, an empowering embrace, a rejuvenating bubble bath, and I cannot wait to see them again.
Domino label mate, Sasami, opened the show and had a short but powerhouse set of her own, perfectly setting the stage and kicking off an evening of captivating music.
Scroll down for setlist, fan shot videos, pics of the show (photos of Wet Leg by Emilio Herce; photos of Sasami by Kate Hoos)
Sasami setlist: The Greatest, Need It to Work, Skin a Rat, Not the Time, Toxicity (SOAD cover), Say It, Call Me Home
Wet Leg setlist: Being In Love, Wet Dream, Supermarket, Convincing, I Don’t Wanna Go Out, Obvious, Oh No, Ur Mum, Piece of Shit, Too Late Now, Angelica, Chaise Longue
