On the Line with Jenny Lewis
Photo courtesy of the Jenny Lewis Facebook page
In concert, it’s easy to see that Jenny Lewis is approaching a quarter century of performing. She carries herself in a fashion that just oozes cool. Her style and musical direction never seems to stay in one place. This is what keeps her fresh and interesting. She brought her On the Line Tour to Boston on October 25th, playing in front of a packed House of Blues.
Lewis appeared in a disco-ball-like long-sleeve gown that shimmered whatever color the lighting dictated. This sort of bedazzled outfit choice has become her signature on the back of her On The Line album, as can be seen in her performance on The Tonight Show two nights before she was in Boston. She opened with the same song her album does, “Heads Gonna Roll”, which sets the tone for the breakup concept of the work. Live, it functioned as the announcement of her presence. “Heads Gonna Roll” is lyrically brilliant and features nothing but slow piano and guitar chords with Lewis’ voice for the entire build up to the first chorus. This song got the crowd in place - the bar emptied, movement stopped, and people were already entranced.
Throughout the show, the Watson Twins would join Lewis on stage and sing backup. The Watson Twins were a pleasant surprise as openers. Their music is definitely influenced by their Tennessee roots, as it has some strong country elements. The guitarist, Steven Cooper, was given the chance to play a few rockin solos that were fun to watch. When they played their song “When I Call to you,” Cooper’s ability stood out the most, as it was a somewhat boring song that built up to a slammin’ guitar solo. The best moment from their performance was their soft, sweet rendition of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” In 2006 Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins released an album together. This is a group that has been harmonizing now for nearly a decade and a half and that definitely shows on stage. Their songs together also have country elements, “Rise up with Fists!!” features an acoustic guitar doing very stereotypical country things and is heavily religious. The slight southern twang of the Watson Twins paired with Lewis’ voice creates something beautiful, and it’s nice to see that even though they don’t release new music together anymore, they are still close enough to tour and give audiences the chance to hear what they are capable of.
Aside from the handful of songs with the Watson Twins, the rest of the show was completely about Lewis. She gave the fans everything they could have possibly wanted. Of course she did most of the On The Line album, with my personal favorite song of the night being “Red Bull & Hennessy” - but she also played a few songs from her time as the frontwoman of Rilo Kiley, as well as her biggest hit from her 2014 album The Voyager, “Just One of the Guys.” The crowd was even given large soft color balloons to bop around for much of the latter half of the set.
Everything was done to make sure this show was as fun as possible for the audience, the median age of which probably being somewhere in the upper thirties. This was a lot of people with babysitters at home, and Jenny Lewis made sure that it was worth it. This of course means the final gift of the evening was an encore, which opened with “Dogwood,” which has lyrics that could make drywall kind of sad, but it was a beautiful experience in concert. Couples held each other and swayed as the (reminiscent of The Smith’s “Asleep,”) piano intro hit. A few more songs, including yet another Rilo Kiley throwback, and Lewis was out the door. The lights turned on to reveal a visibly exhausted crowd, which was absolutely justified after the show they had just taken in.
New England loves Jenny Lewis, as was made evident by her booking three concerts in the area at the end of the U.S. leg of the On the Line Tour. She followed the Boston show with a night in both Portland & Providence. She goes on next to the UK to pair up with the The National to wrap things up at the end of the year. After a short break, Lewis will then join Harry Styles for the U.S. portion of his “Love on Tour” next summer. They’ll be in Boston at the TD Garden on July 10th.