Review | The Somersault Slide 360 Tour with Big Thief

In my last year of college, I spent the year abroad studying in London. I listen to concerts often because of my job, and abroad it was no different. I would take the train to each place, listening to my favorite songs by each artist as I looked out the window. I’d see other venues, look them up and try to see a show at ones that looked extra pretty or quaint.

And the best show, by far, and the only show that made me buy another ticket to their next show immediately after the first one ended, was Big Thief. Headed by legendary singer-songwriter Adrianne Lenker, the indie folk band consists of  Buck Meek on guitar, James Krivchenia on drums, and, on tour, Joshua Crumbly on bass guitar. Lenker’s lyrics are at once introspective, thoughtful, and full of endless curiosity. In a songwriting class I took from her, she said she’d never seen a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, like Garageband or Pro Tools) and just knew they had an engineer, so, presumably, they record live in one take. After the show they played in London, I can see why. Somehow better than the recording by a landslide, the band (at the time including bassist Max Oleartchik) played so tightly and in sync, it felt like one person playing. I dragged my boyfriend there with me to see them the next night, and knew I had to see them again this year.

Seeing them at the Rady Shell in San Diego, right on the water, didn’t disappoint. They started off the night with a Lenker solo release, “Terminal Paradise.” The song was gentle and hypnotizing, and the band looked relaxed as they sank into playing together (they confirmed later in the show that they were, in fact, actually very relaxed from skipping soundcheck to go to the beach before the show. The band and crowd laughed as they apologized). 

They also played fan favorite “Simulation Swarm,” which highlighted Crumbly’s incredible ability on bass guitar. “I remember building an energy shield in your room, like a temple … from the 31st floor of the simulation swarm with the drone of fluorescence flicker, fever, fill the form. With a warm gush, now I wanna touch like we never could before. I’d fly to you tomorrow, I’m not fighting in this war. I wanna drop my arms and take your arms and walk you to the shore.” 

They went on to play a trio of heavy hitters, “Time Escaping,” “Vampire Empire” and “Not.” “Time Escaping” was a highlight, complete with a double clap moment during the line: “Each dimension breaks in two, like the two hands clapping.” Within the last year, “Vampire Empire” gave the band a huge bump in visibility, going viral and even causing a bit of controversy when the studio release didn’t match the live version. Everybody’s phone went up, as the audience screamed “You give me chills, I’ve had it with the drills. I’m nothing, you are nothing, we are nothing with the pills. I am empty ’til she fills, alive until she kills, in her vampire empire, I am falling, yeah.” 

They then played their recent release “Los Angeles,” as well as a personal favorite “Spud Infinity,” which sees playful lines such as, “When I say heart I mean finish, the last one there is a potato knish, baking too long in the sun of spud infinity. When I say infinity, I mean now, kiss the one you are right now. Kiss your body up and down other than your elbows.” In true Adrianne Lenker fashion, during a guitar solo, she put on a pair of sunglasses. The crowd giggled, and she beamed.

The band left and came back in a classic encore, and a fan threw a white cowboy hat onstage similar to the one Lenker wears in the latest solo record. She put it on, and the crowd cheered. The gifter screamed, “That’s my hat!” Lenker worriedly asked, “Do you want me to throw it back?” The thrower said, “No, it’s a gift!” and Lenker smiled and thanked her sweetly. The band ended the night on a poster request for Lenker’s most popular solo release “anything” and a new song of theirs, “Beautiful World.” During the latter, the band’s sound was cut off the venue speakers from the 10 p.m. curfew, but finished the song with their monitors on. The last words of the night were the lines, “This world … it’s so beautiful, and I’m riding to the center of it.” It was a beautiful sentiment to end a beautiful night. 

I am honored to have seen them three times, but I still want more and hope to see them again soon. Soon isn’t soon enough.