Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (February 11, 2022) Album • Page 60

Nick Hakim finished at 845. “Happen” is such a great tune.

honestly can’t believe the turnout for a Wednesday night. Huge crowd at the Egyptian Room. They played the Hifi annex last time they were in town and I’d guess the crowd here is in the double to triple range.

 

In front of and behind me.

 

45 min sound check so far lol.

 

What’s the capacity at that venue? 2,000? They sold out the 2,500 Riviera Theatre last year and then headlined Pitchfork so I imagine they’ll play the 3,600 Chicago Theatre next time or 5,000 Aragon Ballroom.

 

2,000 so Aragon is quite a bit bigger. But 3,600 at Chicago Theater seems like a no brainer. Especially on a Fri or Sat.

 

Incredible set. This isn’t in the exact order but I think it’s everything that was played in some semblance of an order. “Indiana” opener was great. “Mythological Beauty” was a really subdued version. “Real House” was what Adrianne described as an extension of “Mythological Beauty”. Set was constructed perfectly tonight, started pretty similar to P4K, thought we were gonna get something more subdued but then they really cranked it up. “Contact” is a monster. “Vampire Empire” definitely got the biggest response of the night. This was imo the youngest crowd I’ve ever seen at one of their shows, which made for a slightly different experience (but also much easier to see over small people lol). They’ve gotten so much bigger, we’ll deserved. The selfish part of me wants to have my Big Thief show back at the HiFi, but those days are long gone. “Born For Loving You” could end up being a bigger indie hit than “Vampire Empire”, crowd loved it.


Indiana
Mythological Beauty
Real House
Flower of Blood
Not
Contact
UFOF
Simulation Swarm
Vampire Empire
Certainty
Dragon New Warm Mountain
Born For Loving You
Words
Masterpiece
Spud Infinity

Change
Paul (impromptu crowd singalong)
Cattails

 

I think it’s cool when a band starts to blow up and you can say that you were there from the start. I imagine this is how it felt when the Billie Eilish fans who saw her in 100-1,000 capacity venues felt after she blew the fuck up and began playing arenas. Or even to a lesser degree how JBREKKIE fans felt after she finally blew up after her latest album. It’s how I felt after Phoebe blew up and I was like “I saw her play to maybe 100 people in small town Iowa when no one really knew who she was”.

On another note, I know the Pitchfork set wasn’t exactly what everyone was hoping for, but is it fair to say Big Thief are the best contemporary/modern band going right now? (Both in terms of studio recordings and live performances)

 

Oh absolutely. It’s definitely so cool. It’s more of a yearning for those really intimate shows with your favorite band and realization that will probably never happen again. So happy for them.

 

Gotta say: I never listened to the Colbert version so the studio version is the first time I heard Vampire Empire, and listening to the Colbert performance I think it is extremely inferior and really don’t get why anyone would prefer it outside of it just being the one that they grew accustomed to

The Colbert performance feels pretty sloppy, which is one sense can be fun for a live version. But the extra lyrics in the pre-chorus make the transition to her shouting “Falling” much more awkward, and the guitar being much more prominent throughout also really dampens the explosiveness of that same transition. The screaming vocals on the last verse of the studio version are also *much* better

 

yea just sought out the Colbert version (the studio release has snapped me out of 6-8 months of feeling big thief'd out and ignoring most of what they were doing) and it's fine. but unless you really, really dig the flute part I think it's hard to see it as better, nor even all that much more different than one would normally expect a song to sound live vs. studio.

that said, Bloodbuzz Ohio is still one of my least favorite National songs because of how much I preferred the live version with horns so I'm not not a weirdo about this stuff when I want to be

 

I found a 2018 bootleg on my phone (this one from u/dc9396) and listened to it yesterday. That wasn't even early in their timeline but it was crazy to hear how engaged the audience was and how much more talkative Adrianne was in a small room. I never got to see them like that but really wish I had

So nice that you guys got "Real House" last night and that it now has a proper title. Here's a recording of it

also Nick Hakim's "Happen" is incredible. So hypnotic. I can't believe it's not more popular

 

forgot to ask, did they say any random phrases on stage that may be a future album title, similar to what happened with dnwmibiy?

 

Nothing really caught my ear. Similar banter from Pitchfork about everyone looking and sounding beautiful. I love that she was born in Indianapolis so we basically get “Indiana” at every show and some small talk about being from here, makes it feel special.

I’d say from “Flower of Blood” on they seemed to be having a great time, they had to pause a third of the way through “Not” for a medical emergency, and Adrianne seemed a little frustrated with herself during the solo but once she hit the climatic screams on “Contact” the band seems to really snap into form and the place was buzzing until the end.


She also referred to “Words” as a baby song, and she said she “wasn’t sure how it would grow”. So if the record is in the can I wouldn’t expect that one on there. Obviously “Vampire Empire” and “Born for Loving You” are out/coming out but those are clearly done and fully formed compositions compared to some of the smaller things they’ve been tinkering with.

and I’ll echo what’s been said in here. The studio “Vampire Empire” is superior to the Colbert version. Absolutely.

 

Good to know about "Words", I had been thinking it might be on her next solo album. Was it the electric version or acoustic? Watching the festival stream, my partner said it sounded like it could be a Pearl Jam song

I go back and forth on whether I think a record is on the way but my current view is yes. If they weren't planning to release the 2020 material, I think they probably would have been back to the studio again by now to record a new album. My guess is that they delayed in order to not oversaturate fans and avoid any b-sides/Amnesiac type of discussion. Based on the tour dates that Buck just announced yesterday, there's a gap in Nov-Dec and then his tour ends in early Feb. I'm hoping that during one of those times we'll start to get some new album news. Otherwise it's gonna be a while

 

Speaking of Words, I ripped this from Adrianne’s Instagram story from earlier today.

 

“Words” was acoustic

 

If anyone finds a tape of Red Rocks from
Yesterday, please share in here. I heard the set was really jammy with some unique renditions.

 

finally cracked and decided to listen to all the live stuff they'll probably never release. Once a Buncha Times is absolutely wonderful and would've been perfect on this

 

Haven’t seen any full Red Rocks recordings but there are a number of songs on youtube

Here’s a Michael Hurley cover from Nelsonville Music Festival

Also the bands ig stories include Adrianne playing Chris Smither’s “Leave the Light On” backstage at Red Rocks, guitar and kick drum

 

This BBC radio show finally starts next week. Two weeks, Monday through Thursday @ 9pm UK

BBC Radio 6 Music - 6 Music Artist in Residence, Big Thief

Here's the breakdown of the episodes:

 

cool mellow solo start to Dragon. also James' vocoder or whatever is so ridiculous haha

 

Cover of Lucinda Williams’ “People Talkin”

 

Lucinda came out on stage last night to sing with them!

 

That's crazy. I remember hearing the Bright Eyes cover of this song maybe 20 years ago while obsessively searching for any and all unreleased/rare Bright Eyes music. I absolutely loved the song but didn't know it was a Lucinda Williams cover and never looked into it further. Now my current favorite band is playing the same song and with the original artist. Feels like some sort of circle has closed in my life

 

(nearly) full audio recording of last night's show from reddit. Contact is missing because the person stopped to take a video

I haven't listened to the full thing but Buck mentioned that it was their last show for a year. Not sure if that means they already have stuff lined up in a year or if they are just off for a year at the very least. Either way, I'm excited for whatever they do in that time and can't wait for the two solo albums