Concert Review
Big Thief Stole Our Hearts On 4/27/22 Isaac Crown-Manesis
Big Thief returned to Minnesota for their Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You tour Wednesday, April 27th 2022. Led by Adrianne Lenker (10 year resident of Plymouth, MN), Big Thief has had a whirlwind several years. With exceptional lyricallity, and a distinctly strong and beautiful voice, Lenker has skyrocketed through the indie scene, bouying Big Thief with her. Releasing their first album as “Big Thief ” to rave reviews in 2016, Lenker alongside Buck Meek (her now ex-husband), Max Oleartchik, and James Krivchenia articulated a vision of indie folk rock that was at once generic and yet promisingly fresh. Throughout their discography, each album has remained fresh and elaborated thematic and formal elements upon which the band tends to fixate. The air surrounding the band is electrically charged, their careers are only just beginning. Everyone seems to have a different Big Thief song. Their discography is expansive, encompassing five full band albums and six solo albums from lead singer Adrianne Lenker (two of which are joint albums with Buck Meek). Surely, each album brings with it a new indie chart topper, yet a room of Carleton Students I polled provided vastly different answers to the “favorite song” question. Her work is expansive stylistically, ranging from sparsely acoustic folk to careening electrified rock. Throughout her oeuvre, Lenker’s songwriting has explored her world, returning to themes of love and loss as they have manifested for her throughout the years. Her vulnerable writing has lent itself to her sharing of life milestones as they occur. When she and Meek found themselves at a terminal point in their marriage, the band played on. In a New Yorker profile, Lenker shares that their divorce only strengthened their friendship and artistic bond, but that the pain of separation was not an emotion they hid. With radical honesty, Big Thief lives through and alongside their music and performances. Lenker’s music crafting process often involves improvisation and an experiential approach. The Photo: Isaac Crown Manesis original version of Shark Smile begins with a brief passage from an hour-long guitar riff Lenker played during a session for the song. Her bandmates have spoken in interviews about her almost magical connection to Music (presented as almost a platonic ideal) through her use of the guitar, describing her as touched by the muse as she pieces together notes and lyrics. During their recent St. Paul show, Lenker performed several improvised solos as her bandmates looked towards her with wide-eyed awe as she played. After countless hours on the road with one another, and an apparent bond that NF011 | 7
