Adrianne Lenker enchanted the crowd at Shubert Theatre with her indie folk set.
Adrianne Lenker has been creating music since she was fourteen, and, after watching her perform live, this fact becomes incredibly apparent. Lenker returned to Boston for two nights at the Shubert Theatre on Tremont Street. Fans of Big Thief know she is a vital singer and songwriter in the band, but she is also a phenomenal solo artist. She studied music at Berklee College of Music, just down the street from where she performed last night. It adds a certain layer of nostalgia to her music to know that much of her lyricism and experiences come from the city of Boston.
The venue was pretty small, which really created an intimate concert setting. The night began with opener Suzanne Vallie, who somehow completely entranced the audience only using her voice and her keyboard. Her voice was like velvet, and her South Dakota accent slid along her vocals like honey. As soon as she walked onto the stage, the show felt like it transformed into an intimate and private show. She played tracks from her 2020 album, Love Lives Where Rules Die, and each melancholic track had the audience pining for more.
Adrianne Lenker stepped out onto the stage like she was greeting her friends. She was overwhelmingly gracious and responded to each “I love you!” the crowd threw at her. The set began with two unreleased tracks, which did nothing but make the audience more impatient for her new album. Her perfect balance between the genres of folk and indie made each song enchanting in a different way. Compared to her music with Big Thief, Lenker’s solo work is much more acoustic, raw, and devotional. “Womb,” from the 2018 album abysskiss, was her next track, and the audience was absolutely hypnotized. Somehow Lenker’s voice, both strong and angelic, is just as breathtaking live as it is on her recorded albums.
Between each song, she spoke to the audience very softly and talked about what Boston meant to her. Lenker commented throughout the show that she was feeling “off,” however with her incredible and raw performance, no one in the audience seemed to notice. She brought out Mary Remington, who she met in Jamaica Plain when she lived here. Together they performed one of Remington’s songs, and their voices melded together so beautifully.
In the second half of the set, she played two of her most popular tracks, “anything” and “not a lot just forever.” As soon as she started strumming her guitar at the beginning of “anything,” everyone gasped and knew exactly what it was. For many people, it was one of the first Adrienne Lenker songs they heard. The crowd swayed together in unity as she strummed her guitar, and it blended divinely with the piano and violin from her band. It was so special to get such a raw and emotional version of this song. Lenker closed out her show with “Real House,” a song from her new album Bright Future. It was an incredible way to end the show, and it gave the audience the perfect balance between her new and old work. Lenker received a standing ovation from the entire theatre while she left the stage, as everyone was left awestruck by her dynamic talent, emotional lyricism, and raw sound.