My Angel: Adrianne Lenker Concert Review

By Harriet Bernard

Music Journalist

I walked up the red carpeted stairs of the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Monday night. I was politely led to my seat where I would sit for the next three hours. With just about a perfect view in the middle of the mezzanine I could see three chairs, two guitars and a mic basking in a blue light on the stage. I could hear everyone around me talking about various anecdotes of their lives as well as the creak of footsteps grazing the stairs with soft “excuse me’s” and “I’m sorry’s.” A few minutes later, the lights completely dimmed, and the first act walked on stage.

East Texan singer Steve Fisher walked out in silence, but with a loud cheer from the crowd. He sat down in one of the chairs with his guitar like an old friend. With a brisk hello he started playing an original titled “Normal” which was a melancholic tune about how there isn’t a checklist of what is normal in the world. After a couple more songs he spoke a little about the ones he felt were the most nostalgic for him to perform such as “Give My Love To The Trees” and “Where Most Anything Goes”. He declared that the Paramount Theatre is the best venue he ever played, which you could tell the audience appreciated that as much as he did. He also told us how proud and grateful he was to be performing with Lenker on her tour. With a humble goodbye after an immensely intimate set, the crowd roared with wooing and clapping, and Fisher walked off the stage as the lights bloomed on again for a brief intermission.

I remember looking up to admire the, now, 109-year-old theatre that showcased a large portrait of an angel with a harp painted on the casted ceiling. It was in a perfect vision from where I sat, dimly lit, as I waited for the next set to start. As all the remaining seats were filled up with anticipating fans, Adrianne Lenker walked across the stage and sat in the middle chair and hitched her legs up with her guitar. The crowd clapped until the moment she was about to start, and then the noises ceased. Just like Fisher, she went into tuning and strumming a delicate melody before I could even comprehend that I was looking at her in real time.

Her first song was a new and unreleased track supposedly titled “Sweeter Skin”. I adored this one and had no idea it was brand new. So, looking back it feels quite special. Following was “Donut Seam” from her latest album release, Bright Future, “Spud Infinity” and “Time Escaping” from Big Thief’s 2022 album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. She mustered a quiet “hi” in between songs which had the crowd giggling in awe. She started out reserved but as time went by you could tell she was opening up and bantering seamlessly with each transition of songs.

I wanted to be present as I listened, and I recall a moment where she sung “my angel” and I looked up and observed the colors and age of the painting on the ceiling I noticed earlier. Lenker was most definitely my angel of that night.

About halfway through, she paused to thank Fisher for his impact on her in an intense period of her life and requested that the lights on the crowd be raised so she could see our faces which I thought was meaning full way to engulf the crowd into the concert experience. During “Free Treasure” she told us it was inspired by her love, under the alias Texas River Queen. “You got the crystally clear, green hill country rivers. With apple trees and raspberries. That’s what loves like,” she laughed. As she played, she paused after a couple verses and said a silly anecdote about a special feeling, such as having a “little guy” on your shoulder telling you what to think. As she humored the audience and we laughed with her, I became more enamored and grateful of the opportunity that I got to see her live.

She mentioned that her tour travels will lead her to Minnesota, where she grew up, to see her grandparents. I felt a warmness in my heart as she said this because my grandparents live in Minnesota and their house happens to be my favorite place on earth; and somewhere that Lenker’s music reminds me of. With statements about how much cinnamon and coffee she’ll drink she asked the audience to sing along to the next song as she began to perform “anything.” Hearing the crowd join along and her lower her voice at times to hear us was something so magical.

An encore proceeded after she finished, and we gave a standing ovation in the dark for two long and loud minutes. She walked back out with a friendly wave and said thank you. The last two songs of the night were “Vampire Empire”, a classic, and “Terminal Paradise” off her 2018 album abysskiss. She wished everyone a good night and then it was over. She treated us to 18 songs that night which is incredible and the most generous number of songs played at any show I have attended. I walked away; my spirits elated and a concert experience I know I won’t find again.