I went and saw Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins this evening with Johnathon Rice and Whispertown 2000 at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis. Simply amazing.
We walked in on Whispertown 2000 doing an a cappella with snapping and all. Then they went into a cover of Gillian Welch’s “Look at Miss Ohio”. Though the rest of their set seemed to be out of key, I think that was there edge. I am looking forward to obtaining one of their albums.
Johnathon Rice came out with a slide guitar accompaniment (I think his name is Dave.) with his version of “Who Do You Love”. He has this wonderful way of strumming a guitar, very forceful. His songs were simple but effective. He seemed so timid when addressing the crowd, but in actuality he was very open to conversing with the crowd and ended up being really funny in that “awww, how cute” sort of way.
Finally Jenny Lewis came out in all her glory with her full backing of troubadours. While in Rilo Kiley she usually plays the sexy indie rocker (which she pulls off so well), but in her solo outfit she had a real simple dress on and I am not sure if she was wearing shoes or not. Johnathon Rice strummed his guitar and the Watson Twins exercised those vocal chords so majestically. Dave? from above was there and a bassist and drummer.
It was like a church revival. We could feel the spirituality in the performance, though I am not sure if those songs about god were in the right place. Though Jenny was not very talkative between songs, her voice can carry her into heaven just fine. They put together a great performance. Pre-Encore closing was a new song called “Joe Killed Mom” (or something like that) that was bubbling with energy. It saw Jenny on the keyboards, a nice aside from Johnathon Rice and as each member left stage in turn, it ended with a brilliant drum solo as the lights faded. It was very well done. The encore saw a solo song dedicated to Jenny’s father who apparently was there. Jenny and the Watsons also did a short a cappella which I think was a cover but I am unsure. Then to close it off they did a Jesus song which I would think was a traditional song of some sort but I am not familiar with this area. Still it ended it all well.
Thanks for the good times guys and gals.