Two years ago, Lost in the Trees was here at the Museum of Fine Arts six-members strong, visually supporting their orchestral-folk sound with a tame light show and a pair of short white teepees. This time around, the band was stripped down to a quartet: the cellist and violinist gone, a diamond-shaped light structure matching their new album artwork, their bright outfits scrapped for blacks and darks.
Still, the group maintained elements of their (excuse the pun) “past life.” Their setup seemed to follow the calculated approach of an orchestra’s because their sound was appropriately balanced for the physical space at the MFA. With the two guitarists bodyguarding the drummer and the voices of Emma Nadeau and Ari Picker bouncing from one end of the auditorium to the other, the configuration rendered a well-crafted call and response.
Maybe it was the alternating flashing white lights and fading faint orange light, or Picker’s typical little two-step moonwalk dance, but as they moved into one of the first songs of the night, “Sun,” it felt like the live version was fuller, with a driving pace.
Though most of the tunes played were from their newest album, old fan favorites made their way into the set list. Some had more of a rock rendition, like “Red” and “Neither Here Nor There,” save for the encore song Picker played solo – requested by a shout from “the shadowy guy in the back” earlier in the show. “I’m gonna play a song I haven’t prepared for. I guess I shouldn’t tell you guys that” Picker said, before submerging the crowd into the calm that is “Walk Around the Lake“. Certainly, by now, the thick “invisible wall” Picker described as separating the band and the crowd that night had been punctured, because the band’s ability to adapt to the wishes of the audience and uncalculated spontaneity was exactly why we come to concerts.