Weyes Blood & Julie Byrne played Music Hall of Williamsburg (pics, review)
Before Weyes Blood took the stage at the Music Hall of Williamsburg stop of her tour last night (3/30), a cloaked man came out and lit the dark room with two candelabras. It had been a few years since I last saw Weyes Blood, but this spooky setting made it clear from the get-go that her stage show had advanced since then, and the rest of the night continued to prove this. Main Weyes Blood member Natalie Mering is increasingly a star performer, and last night she had so much command over the room. She was dressed in a light, silver-ish suit while the rest of her ace band (which included Jack Ladder on guitar) were in black. The outfits (and the candelabras) added a lot visually, and really reinforced the spotlight being on Natalie. She played a lot of last year’s gorgeous Front Row Seat to Earth, and some older cuts too which fit right in.
Before Weyes Blood was an excellent opening set from Julie Byrne, who released Not Even Happiness earlier this year. On record, Julie and Weyes Blood are quite similar. Both make quiet, Joni Mitchell-esque folk, but their live shows were very different. Weyes Blood hardly comes off as “folk music” in a live setting, while Julie is as traditionally folk as it gets. Most of her set was just her on acoustic guitar (she switched to electric for the last song), joined by a violinist. Her songs sounded as beautiful live as they do on record.
You have plenty of other chances to catch Julie Byrne, including tonight (3/31) at Jersey City’s Monty Hall with Waxahatchee and Kevin Morby (sold out).
Jack Ladder plays a solo set at Baby’s All Right on Saturday (4/1), opening for Middle Kids (sold out).
Pictures of last night’s show are in the gallery above.
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photos by Amanda Hatfield
