Over the past thirty years, the Indigo Girls have been a constant presence on the touring circuit, often logging close to 100 shows annually. This commitment to bringing their music to all parts of the United States (and more infrequently Europe and Australia) has galvanized a deep connection between the Girls and their many fans, so while an Indigo Girls show may be somewhat standard fare, it’s never anything short of joyous.
This fall, the Indigo Girls are touring behind their excellent fourteenth studio album, Beauty Queen Sister (2011). While they’ve road-tested a handful of songs from the record, the majority of the material has yet to be debuted. Beginning the tour just days after the album release, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers (the two members of the Indigo Girls) are backed by Chris Tull and Luke Bulla who are new bandmates, so in pretty much every way these dates feature new blood and new sounds, injecting a certain vitality to the process that can ebb after months and months of pushing an album.
The Girls brought their four-piece band to the beautiful Strathmore Music Centre in N. Bethesda, MD last week, where they merged together fan favorites, old gems and brand new songs into a cohesive and utterly enjoyable two hour-long set. Surprisingly, they opened with “Damo,” one of the closing tracks on Beauty Queen Sister. It is an urgent, charged Celtic-inspired work that on record features Irish flute and Damien Dempsey’s full-throated descant. This re-worked version had Ray and Saliers split Dempsey’s vocal line into melody and harmony, fleshing out the arrangement with their razor-sharp tuning and resonance. It was an awkward beginning, though, because for the most part the Girls open their concerts with sing-a-long major key power pop pieces. “Damo,” in a way, referenced their 2004/2005 tours when they started with electric guitar forward “Tether,” but even so it seemed a somewhat odd choice to open the evening.
They followed with Saliers’ catchy, ebullient uptempo ballad “Feed and Water the Horses,” another new cut from Beauty Queen Sister. While Chris Tull’s piano was out of sync for the first verse and chorus, they pulled it together and really delivered. “Horses” eloquently reminisces on mid-career Indigo Girls work, like “Collecting You,” “Leeds” and “Peace Tonight.” They then launched into two well-weathered and beloved tracks, “Become You” and “Power of Two.” The former was stripped and given a pep that is regrettably lacking on record. Without Carol Isaacs’ usual accordion accompaniment, the song takes on a more sinister tone, as indicated in the lyrics, but still maintains a soulful pop sensibility. “Power of Two” is one of the Girls’ biggest hits and most accessible work, and their willingness to let the audience sing an entire verse creates an easy-going and close bond between the stage and the crowd. It’s also somewhat impossible to avoid grinning throughout, as everyone joins Saliers in chronicling the bliss of enduring love.
Sadly, most of the new material which fails to engage on Beauty Queen Sister gained little in their live incarnations. “Making Promises” continues to feel half-baked and underdone and “War Rugs” is even more apparently uninspired and tedious. The addition of backup singers (and opening act) The Shadowboxers, however, really kicked the title track into full gear, which masked the somewhat stale melody and arrangement and made for quite an entertaining ride. Also, Amy Ray has rarely sounded better than she did during this show, so while some of her new songs lack the power of Saliers’, Ray’s presence and spirited playing signaled her vocal robustness and conviction.
Interestingly, Ray and Saliers dug deep into their back catalogue to flesh out the set, offering work from the earliest part of their career with fervor and intensity. “Land of Canaan,” from their debut independent release Strange Fire (1987) continues to mature and strengthen, and 1989’s “Kid Fears,” from their brilliant eponymous album, was stripped down to just the two of them, and was more pleading and visceral than usual. When Michael Stipe’s third harmony comes in two-thirds of the way through, the audience picked up the cue to join in to cover Stipe’s role, lending an organic passion to the whole performance. Usually, the Girls are joined onstage by a member of the opening act to sing this part, so this rare solo take on “Kid Fears” was delightful. While it was disappointing that they ignored their last two records, Despite Our Differences (2006) and Poseidon and the Bitter Bug, their dedication to the new work helped introduce the audience, most of whom hadn’t heard the Beauty Queen Sister songs to the material.
Rounding out with cherished singles “Galileo,” “Shame on You,” “Yield” and “Closer to Fine,” Ray and Saliers yet again proved that with the growth of their career and the deepening of their oeuvre, they deserve the respect and acclaim of their peers and the two generations of American pop/folk musicians that have followed the Girls’ initial impact on the music industry back in the late 1980s. Leading the entire audience in singing along to the work, it was a jubilant and rapturous ending to a solid show. And when they added in the new Saliers’ ballad “Birthday Song” off of Beauty Queen Sister, it yet again demonstrated how compelling and well-crafted their new material is. To maintain such a level of excellence over thirty years is rivaled by few of their contemporaries, and the fact that crowds continue to sell out venues across the country to come and see the Indigo Girls as they mature and develop their craft is heartwarming and indicative of their success. While it’s still early in the tour and they have quite a few kinks to work out, their overall performance was nothing short of classy and sensational.
Setlist:
Damo
Feed and Water the Horses
Become You
Power of Two
Making Promises
Fill It Up Again
Ozilline
We Get To Feel It All
Beauty Queen Sister
Get Out The Map
Share The Moon
Gone
Land of Canaan
Watershed
War Rugs
Able To Sing
[Amy Solo]
John
Kid Fears
Galileo
Shame on You
Encore:
Birthday Song
Yield
Closer To Fine
