I was almost willing to accept my newly vapid relationship with music. A friend invited me to the Jenny Lewis concert this week. (Shame on me for not even keeping up with her tour schedules). I agreed, but I wasn�t that excited. I had barely heard her second album, and her debut album was all but an old memory by now. Also, �Under the Blacklight� was hardly the Rilo Kiley that I knew and loved. To prepare, I listened to both her albums a few times. I began to remember how much I adored her first album, and those songs really carried me through some hard times. Her second album had a different sound, but her voice was still strong and defiant.
So yesterday, we went to concert around 7:30 and made ourselves comfortable in the bar lounge area. Every time I step into a concert venue, I always reminisce about the times when my high school friends and I would arrive hours early to a concert just so we could stand in the very front. Perhaps I have chilled out a bit since then, or maybe I just care less about music because we even skipped the opening band. The HoustonPress came up to us and asked for our picture, probably because we looked so mature and chill. Anyways, here�s a duplicate of what the picture might look like. (Did I forget to mention I was also third wheeling?)
So the concert starts, and we found comfortable spot towards the back. I wish I knew years ago that by standing further back, you can actually see the band better, as long as proximity is not your goal. Jenny Lewis comes on stage, and everyone is cheering. Much like her �Under the Blacklight� days, she is dressed in a loose blouse and provocative shorts. �Her legs are amazing�, gushes a nearby fan. I guess I am just not used to this new Jenny Lewis.
She began her set, and immediately, I was blown away by her confident and soulful voice. She sounded better live than the studio recordings. Her band included about five others, and without Blake right next to her, she was a star. She would play her guitar and sing, sing without and guitar, and then move to the piano for a few songs. After 30 minutes, the rest of the band left the stage, and there was just Jenny, another thin female with a guitar, and the drummer who looked like a 14 year old, awkward, curly headed boy with glasses. They began their acoustic segment of the show. I didn�t really notice, but apparently there was a lot of talking going on in the audience. My friends and I were debating as to the gender o f that drummer, and we finally agreed that she was a female, and not 14 years old.
Right around this time, Jenny abruptly stopped singing, and asked us to stop talking. Of course this led to even more noise in the audience, and she appeared upset and just stopped. The rest of the band came back onstage, and the audience was left confused. I have felt awkward in many situations � college parties, hipster bars, medical school interviews, but a Jenny Lewis concert was not supposed to be one of them. Lewis tried to alleviate the tension by saying something along the lines of �sometimes it just doesn�t feel right so let�s just play some other songs�.
Lewis then asks what the audience wanted to hear. I kept hearing �Big Guns�, and she started humming a tune, and said, �I want you to hum this tune after me�. I didn�t recognize the melody at all and neither did the rest of the audience. So what followed was a soft and uncertain humming from the rest of us. Somehow, this prelude led directly to �Silver Lining�, which is a Rilo Kiley song. The audience went wild and sang along to every word. I wonder if she enjoys that fact that people love Rilo Kiley or is she bothered by the fact that her fans prefer it over her new stuff. After that, the crowd grew more excited. People were cheering loudly after each song, and by the time she performed the eight minute long �The Next Messiah�, I had re-fallen in love with Jenny Lewis.
After this song, she left the stage. We were complaining about how unnecessary encores are because they are predictable and expected at every concert at this point. We clapped and wait for about five minutes, and all of a sudden, I saw Jenny Lewis walking down into the crowd from a side door. I wanted to get a glimpse of her, and somehow I effortlessly maneuvered my way toward her. When I was just a row behind her, I saw her telling everyone to hush. I realized she was holding a guitar and was about to sing a song in the midst of a crowd and without a microphone. I was standing so close to her, and my legs were trembling. She began to sing �Acid Tongue�, and surrounding her, we all sang along. I was kind of quivering because I was standing two feet from her and I could hear my own voice combining with the audience and her own voice. I took a few pictures and a short video. You can barely see her except from the flash of other people�s cameras. She is definitely breathtaking up close.
So after that, Jenny Lewis bowed and somehow managed her way back on stage. She performed one more song on her guitar before switching to her keyboard. Since I pushed my way during her impromptu performance, I was now very close to the stage. I finally remembered why it was so important to my teenage heart to be so close up. It definitely is a more intimate performance this way. Jenny Lewis introduced her finale song, �I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, near some slot machines somewhere, but most importantly, I was Born Secular�. Everyone began cheering, and she started to play. For some reason, the keyboard was just not in tune with her, and she joked that tonight is just not her night. Then, the drummer who I thought was a boy suggested that she just sing it acappella. So, Jenny, the drummer lady, and the skinny lady finally gave us the acoustic performance that we were too chatty to listen to earlier in the concert, except this time it was acappella. The performance was brilliant, Jenny got up at the end, held up her red stripe to the audience, bowed, and left the stage chugging her bottle. The two other ladies continued to jam for a while, and that was the end. I have most of the final song videotaped below.
The show was a rollercoaster ride. I think that Jenny Lewis has a lot of conflicting desires. She wants to play at large venues yet maintain an intimate and loyal audience. She wants to pay tribute to her band, Rilo Kiley, while she strives to become an established solo artist. She wants to be taken seriously as a country/rock/folksy singer, yet her undeniable beauty makes her an unsuspecting sex symbol. At any rate, Jenny Lewis definitely is an interesting artist, and I can�t wait to see her next show. Until then, I will be listening more to music that has substance for once in a long while.
-g1