With a Capital L
Concert Review
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
(and Vietnam, Michael Runion)
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
The Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee WI
or "You are what you love, and not what loves you back."
Just when I thought I was incapable of falling in Love, with a capital L, I go and find the girl of my dreams.
Yes, we're talking about settling down, picket fence, weekends in the Hamptons, and ten or eleven little red-headed babies. We just have to work the wedding into her touring schedule. And I have to like, actually meet her and everything. But that's all just details.
It's true love. It knows no bounds. �like time, and circumstance, and reality.
Yes Jenny Lewis has agreed to become the loving and doting Mrs. Heydomsar -- the wife of my dreams. Or was that, "the wife in my dreams"? No matter. I've decided it's meant to be. No other little indie pixie could ever be quite so adorable to me, as she was in her little glittering mini-jumper last Tuesday night. Who would've known, all this time I've been wandering around the country, looking for love and candybars and 3 blocks down the road from my apartment at my local hangout, the Pabst Theatre, Jenny was waiting for me with the Watson Twins in tow -- ready to sing backup harmony for our happily-ever-after.
It may seem like we're rushing things, but I feel like I've known her all my life. I remember her from her child-acting days in Troop Beverly Hills and the girl from Fred Savage's The Wizard. Then in recent years, she's proved herself one of my absolute favorite acts as the lead singer of Rilo Kiley. Really making a name for herself on Rilo's last release More Adventurous, Jenny crafted her songs as little narrative tales -- little stories you might tell your friend over coffee or your lover over the pillow. Quite a few of her Rilo Kiley tunes were little ruminations on death and dying, but somehow, never in a morbid way. Just as a simple fact of life -- an essential part of understanding life. And if anyone could make the topic of death "cute", it was her.
Along the road she attracted major indie attention as the voice of the genre, as well as setting trends and winning style awards for just being so darn cute. Gen Gibbard picked her up and had her sing the female lead for the Postal Service album. And somewhere in all of that, she captured my attention and devotion. Songs like "Does He Love You" (listen) made me stop and see the world from a point of view with which I would never have previously allowed myself to relate. Thrown into the little story of that song, I suddenly understand shades of grey. "Portions For Foxes" became a hit on college radio, in indie circles, and then even on Grey's Anatomy. "I Never" really proved Lewis' vocal chops. In fact, I couldn't find a song of hers that didn't draw me in. But it was musical. And music is platonic.
And then last Tuesday, I saw her in concert.
Now supporting her solo album, "Rabbit Fur Coat", with a full band and a new Vegas-twang styled soul n' blues act, Lewis captured my heart. She jumped around on the stage like the girl-next-door of your youth. But she swung her hips in her little skirts with all the sophistication and seduction of the temptress in your nightly dreams.
The Watson Twins, although adding a somewhat creepy 'The Shining' vibe, accompanied Lewis with beautiful gospel-inspired harmonies and demure identical poses, which fit well with the Vegas-y indie-rock's Dolly Parton flavor of the night. But the gospel soul punctuated a contrast against Lewis' distinctly anti-God lyrics. Her devout atheism, as discussed in interviews and songs like "Absence of God" and "Born Secular", seemed contradictory to the many references on the new album to God working against her in her life. But the fearless broaching of the subject gives her a depth from which to write and inspire contemplation and confession that you just wont find in most acts out there today. In the closing song of her act, "Born Secular" (listen), we hear her apologetic regret of finding herself unable to believe:
I was born secular
and inconsolable
I heard that he walked
he walked the earth
God goes
where he wants
and who knows
where he is not
Not in me
It's the way
mothers greet their sons
when it's a moment too late
It's the law of the land
But sometimes the dam just breaks
God works in mysterious ways
And God gives
and then he takes away
From me
The pained repetition calls out to us, as each member of the band slowly fades away and leaves the stage. And by now I regret what I've known all along� that I want to hear that voice forever. I want to console her crisis of faith. I want hold her tiny hands. I want to tell her she's converted me to alt-country and that's the greatest sin of all.
But alas, our love affair had to end. Wrapped arm-in-arm, the concert came to a close and we never said "I do." But she's changed me and I'm better for it. She whispers to me still, "You are what you love, and not what loves you back." (listen / watch) And now I understand that even unrequited love is still Love with a capital L.
Posted by heydomsar
2006-10-05
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
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The cold wind was the reason - 2009-03-02
The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase - 2009-02-15
All's well that ends well. - 2009-01-07
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - 2008-10-04
