Adrianne Lenker Setlist

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You *
UFOF *
Cattails *
symbol
Simulation Swarm *
The Only Place *
my angel
(New song)
Happiness *
two reverse
Minneapolis (Lucinda Williams cover)
Sadness as a Gift
zombie girl
Time Escaping *
Vampire Empire *
Forgotten Eyes *
Spud Infinity *
fangs lungs ankles
not a lot, just forever
— Encore —

It was an interesting collection of colors in downtown Minneapolis with some wearing the multi colorful outfits of the Pride flag walking amongst the red, white and blue heading to and from the US Olympic Gymnastics Team Trials at the Target Center. Even inside the State Theatre, it would have been difficult to find a targeted demographic.

Based on the people around me it looked like Adrianne Lenker has a fan base that ranges from ten to eighty. Even a four-year-old sat next to me. He snuck his tow trucks past security and had a box of M&M’s which I thought he should have shared. He told me his favorite Lenker song was “Ruined.”

Singer-songwriter Staci Foster opened with an acoustic guitar in hand and a wide-brimmed Stetson. From Texas Hill Country her Facebook page states her music as “Simple, barefoot folk rock with roots in Kerrville, Texas.”

It was her first time in the Twin Cities, and she sang songs about life along the Guadalupe River, her grandpa in West Virginia and strawberries or pie “… or whatever you want it to be.” The audience was familiar with the latter song for they jumped in with “So Sweet!” as if needing no cue.

Adrianne Lenker next took the stage with an acoustic guitar in hand and wearing Doc Martins. Although much of her childhood was spent moving from town to town, you could say her two-night stint at the State Theatre is a homecoming, spending much of her young in the Minnesota towns of Coon Rapids, Nisswa, Bloomington and Plymouth.

“A lot of feelings coming back here,” Lenker noted. “Going in different directions.”

Mostly Lenker was quiet between songs, fretting, tuning her guitar, which she handled with the care of a classically trained musician.

For her fifth solo album, Bright Future, Lenker made a conscious effort to capture a sound as close to the source by recording with a close-knit group of musicians at the rural New England studio.

Long walks through the forest, communal dinners, living on site, letting the surroundings seep into the music. “Quiet can also be powerful and intense,” Lenker said in a New York Times interview. “I like that feeling of not having to push at all.”

So there were moments of silence between songs as if Lenker was trying to bring what she uncovered in the studio into the theater.

Even with a new solo album, Lenker played a good portion of songs from her band Big Thief. Even with reinterpretations of fan favorites like “Cattails” and “Vampire Empire” the audience was drawn in, knowing well that Lenker will continue to explore even if she may stumble, which happened with “Happiness” when she said laughing midway through, “I forgot the chords.”