Singer-songwriter Amos Lee hit Orlando’s Plaza Theatre on May 1st on the last stop of the 2025 tour for a night of jams and sing-alongs. Half of the Washington duo Sway Wild opened the night. With Dave McGraw at home recovering from kidney stones, Mandy Fer played the set as a solo act. “Dave says he wishes he was here with you, and also drink lots of water,” she joked.
With a Stratocaster in hand, Fer played a brief set of twangy folk songs without the help of McGraw’s drums or vocal harmonies. Before playing the Spanish-language “Aquí Conmigo,” Fer, who majored in Spanish and Music, joked, “This will make my mom happy, because I’m finally using my major.” She debuted a new song, “Offer a Rose,” which will drop in July, and covered Eurythmics’s “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” before closing the set with the instrumental song “Trainwreck.” It is on that song that McGraw’s percussion was missed the most, with no beat to drive Fer’s prog-rock soloing. But even without her bandmate, Fer showed some chops as a vocalist and guitarist. “I hope you get to see our full group sometime,” she said.
Amos Lee’s set celebrated his twenty years of music, especially the anniversary of his 2005 eponymous debut album. Backed by a five-piece band, plus Fer on guitar for a few songs, the set showcased his deft songwriting and one of the best voices in the genre. On past tours, Lee often played streamlined songs similar to the album versions, but this time, he and the band relied heavily on improvisation and jamming. Standards like “Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight” and “Flower” were extended to allow for guitar, bass, keyboard solos and the occasional spoken-verse poetry. Medleys were also employed regularly, with the band slipping lines from The Cranberries, Fleetwood Mac, Radiohead, and more into their songs.
Lee’s soulful vocals and smooth vibrato are always the focal point of his music, but true to the show’s improvisational spirit, he often sang the lines differently than on the recordings. He increased and slowed his cadence, shifted keys, and added falsetto where appropriate.
Midway through the show, Lee performed a hushed solo version of “Colors” and then was joined by bassist Solomon Dorsey for a duet on “Violin.” Surprisingly, Dorsey’s voice is just as good as Lee’s. The whole band can sing, and at different times, Lee gave most of them opportunities to show off.
In the intimate venue, Lee usually responded to the fans’ shouts with a joke. When one woman called him sexy, he replied, “I get less sexy as the show goes on.” Though Lee mostly kept things light, he also made political statements, including a speech about how “this is a terrifying time to be alive” and a spoken-word call to “rise up.”
After a crowd-pleasing rendition of the ballad “Arms of a Woman,” Lee and company returned for an encore with the soft, soulful “Black River,” one of two songs that VIP fans had requested. And then for the final song, the tone took an abrupt turn. “Are you ready to rock?” Lee asked as he strapped on an electric guitar. The band then ripped through a fiery intricate rock rendition of “Street Corner Preacher,” the album version of which is pretty tame, and filled the venue with scorching guitar solos and walls of feedback. The song was then turned into the last medley of the night. After warning a child in the front row to cover his years, Lee and the band transitioned into the outro of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name,” with Lee and his bandmates repeatedly shouting “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.”
It was tonal whiplash to go from a set of Lee’s crooners to Rage, but the crowd enjoyed the defiant spirit. In terrifying times, sometimes some cathartic f-bombs are just what’s needed.
