In perhaps a strange offshoot from her prevailing North American tour, Adrianne Lenker stopped over in Northampton, Mass. for an intimate performance at the Academy of Music Theater on Nov. 11.
An indie-folk-country-rock–alternative-singer-songwriter-amalgamation of multitudes, Lenker has been steadily gaining popularity as a solo artist parallel to her career with beloved band Big Thief. In March 2024, she released her seventh full solo album, “Bright Future,” which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Simultaneously, several of her songs were swept up by social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, inviting new listeners to fall in stride with her wide base of long-time fans.
Lenker took the stage around 9 p.m. following a set by opener Suzanne Vallie. As anticipated, the house was bursting at the seams; students and other stragglers from the greater 5-college area could be found outside the theater bearing signs that read “EXTRA TICKET?” in a last-ditch attempt to infiltrate Lenker’s performance. Others settled around the periphery of the building, some even perching on fire escapes to press their ears to the brick and catch a stray song or two.
The setup was modest: two guitars, a standup piano, a patterned rug, and some blue lava lamps. With her, Lenker brought alt-R&B artist Nick Hakim as her piano accompaniment and harmony for the first batch of songs. She kicked off the evening with a gentle yet powerful performance of the first song off her most recent record: “Real House.”
“Do you remember running? / The purity of the air around / Braiding willow branches into a crown / That love is all I want,” she began, soft voice and softer piano chords billowing into the theater — a silent crowd welcoming it.
Nearly all original tracks from “Bright Future” were recorded and cut straight to tape. No edits, no post effects, but brushes against microphones, muffled creaks and bumps. Signs of simple humanity behind the veil of a streamed audio file.
Lenker’s live renditions felt similar; a casual yet treasured invitation into her world. These are her lyrics and this is her guitar, laid bare.
One song that caught a particularly large wave on social media was Big Thief’s then-unreleased song “Vampire Empire” which they performed in its early stages on a late night show. When the studio version was eventually released, there was a collective affront at several adjustments in the lyrics. In response to the criticism, the band posted on X:
“Recordings are records of us playing live, so you can look at it like this: the live version you may prefer exists and now another version exists […] Every time we play it, it is a different version.”
As is her nature, Lenker recorded yet another solo version for this record. Unapologetically adjusted lyrics, momentary forgetfulness of chords and improvisation are native to Lenker’s shows, encouraged all the more by a willing audience.
“I’m trying to decide what song I should play next,” she spoke up at one point mid-way through her set.
“Play ‘anything’!” an audience member shouted, to which she quipped:
“The song ‘anything’ or anything at all?”
Wrapped in the spell of her music, the theater welcomed any and every song that she decided to play. Lenker and Hakim made for an impressive duo during “Sadness as a Gift”, “Donut Seam”, and “Free Treasure”, though the pianist eventually ducked off stage to let Lenker proceed on her own. Her fingers danced across the fretboard during “forward reckon rebound” and “Simulation Swarm”, a powerful standalone act.
Lenker’s lyricism feels like trying to hold water in cupped hands — you can only linger so long on one line before slipping into the next, into something just as tender, if not more. You can’t hold onto all of it at once. She traverses her childhood in segmented crescendos, walking with us through changing seasons, aging bodies and environmental disintegration. “This whole world is dying / Don’t it seem like a good time for swimming? / Before all the water disappears.”
Now, a confession: it is impossible for me to separate my review of this show without acknowledging my own history with Lenker’s catalog. Towards the end of the night, Lenker brought out one of her old friends and fellow musicians — Mary Elizabeth Remington — for a duet. I can only extrapolate that Remington is the namesake and inspiration for Lenker’s song “Mary”, released with Big Thief on their album “Capacity” back in 2017.
A love letter to the cinnamon smell of her grandparents’ house and her lifelong college friend, I wrote about this song in my supplemental admission essay to Smith College. To see this relationship actualized onstage was a moment I will never forget — provoking watery eyes and a lump in my throat.
I was not alone in this sentiment, as Lenker ended the night with some of her most revered songs: “zombie girl”, “not a lot, just forever”, and an encore featuring “anything”. She invited the crowd to join her in singing along, and we obliged; powerful lyrics made even more so by a swell of voices, old and young.
“You sound so beautiful,” she told us, a glowing and static smile. No goodbyes were exchanged, but rather: “I hope to see you all soon.”
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Nov. 11 2024 Setlist:
- Real House
- Sadness as a Gift
- Donut Seam
- heavy focus
- Free Treasure
- No Machine
- forwards beckon rebound
- Simulation Swarm (Big Thief song)
- my angel
- The Only Place (Big Thief song)
- Time Escaping (Big Thief song)
- Steamboat
- Tuesday (Mary Elizabeth Remington cover)
- Incomprehensible (Big Thief song)
- Once A Bunch
- zombie girl
- not a lot, just forever
Encore:
- anything
