Big Thief w/ Mind Maintenance at Liberty Hall, Lawrence KS (2021-09-12)

Big Thief just stopped by Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS for a rousing set that showed some actual good has come out of a long pandemic. 

The evening began with a mood-setting opening set from Chicago duo Mind Maintenance, in support of their self-titled album (on Drag City Records) and its lead single “Glow & Glitter”.   Chad Taylor and Joshua Abrams are music veterans and this experimental instrumental music comes from just two instruments, from the opposite sides of Africa.  

Taylor, known mostly as a drummer, plays a mbira: a thumb piano from Zimbabwe held in both hands that consists of a series of metal tines attached to a wooden-sounding board. Abrams, who’s primarily a bassist, plays a guembri: a three-stringed Moroccan lute carved from a log and covered with camel hide. The result is something beyond ambient jazz or world music, and encourages meditation, introspection, and a sense of harmonic convergence.  Aside from a late burst of mystery feedback, seeing these different instruments played together was a unique experience. 

We’ve covered Brooklyn’s Big Thief since their initial humble beginnings in 2015, then on the road for the first time opening (sometimes third on the bill) at some of the smallest venues in town.  Persistence, hard work, and quietly confident music soon paid off, as just over five years later, everyone now seems “in” on the secret, and shows playing to a thousand or more, are quick to sell out. 

The band (Adrianne Lenker-guitar, vocals; Buck Meek -guitar; Max Oleartchik -bass; James Krivchenia- drums) seemed to stay very productive as we all huddled at home, releasing two records in 2019 (U.F.O.F. and Two Hands, on 4AD Records) and has managed to follow that up with a live album, and three new songs including new single “Certainty”. 

Their ninety-minute live set was a slow burning, covertly incendiary performance that longtime fans and newcomers audibly relished. Despite their growing fame, singer Lenker still remains inertly shy and somewhat uncomfortable with all the attention, preferring to play head down to concentrate on her guitar chords, but was visibly loosening up as the set carried on, her twisting ankles carrying her from stage left, to musically interact with the other band members. 

“ingydar”, composed solo (actually named after a horse) began the set quietly, with tempo quickly accelerating on new song, “Simulation Swarm” its content showing their development and added confidence as musical artists. 

The crowd sang along with the chorus on 2017’s “Black Diamonds” and the lyrics of 2016’s “Masterpiece” added some extra resonance over these last eighteen months, being about the passage of time and people’s lives, with the band “ready to walk you through the night” and through the rest of the set. “Thank you for coming” was about the most the shy Lenker could muster before brand new song, “Certainty” with Lenker declaring her own wanderlust is “wild and weaving”. 

The set really seemed to catch fire as it progressed, with some exceptional guitar work by Lenker and Meek on 2019’s “Not” and a killer groove anchoring yet another brand new song (live debuted just the night before at Pitchfork in Chicago), “Dragon” which is, as its lyrics state “a little bit magic” and probably the highlight of the main set. 

After ending with 2017’s “Mary” and its very Midwest-identifiable verses, the band returned to the stage for a two-song encore, starting with “Shoulders” and its violent lyrics punctuated with sharp guitar riffs and then changed gears to end the evening with 2019’s “Terminal Paradise” and Lenker’s ending sentence, “I will blossom in your sail, every dream and waking hour”, sending the loyal crowd back out into the night.

Despite all the negative of a global pandemic and having to hunker down for over a year, Big Thief has shown that some positive results have come out of their collectively focused efforts: namely, a live album, three…make that four new strong songs, and performances that confidently show they deserve all the additional recent attention they’ve been getting.

(click any picture to open in a new window and enlarge)