Review | Big Thief Scores Big at the Libbey Bowl

As this summer came to a close, my boyfriend and I took a trip to Ojai to see one of our favorite bands, Big Thief. We saw them in San Diego last year, and I had seen them a few times while living in London. The band — with lead singer-songwriter Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek on guitar, James Krivchenia on drums, and, on tour, Joshua Crumbly on bass guitar — champions themes of togetherness, introspection, and empathy, and has acted as an emotional centerpoint for me and countless others. For example, this past year, I told my friend that in some ways, I felt like I was finally happy with my life and ready to start living. She said I sounded like an Adrianne Lenker song. 

We walked through a pitch-black (very spooky) road to the venue, which was in the middle of a park. Every seat was full, and the tennis court outside had a few groups of friends who sat nearby, hoping to hear the music from outside. 

We walked to the front right as Lenker started to walk out, with the rest of the members close behind. She smiled as the audience cheered them on, and they started playing “Real House,” a song from her solo project that explores dissociation, emotional avoidance and the memories of her inner child. “Do you remember running? The purity of the air around, braiding willow branches into a crown. That love is all I want.” A green dinosaur toy sat behind Crumbly, popping in and out of view as he swayed to each song.

The band also played Lenker’s solo songs “Bright Future” and “Sadness as a Gift,” as Lenker sang, “You could write me someday, and I bet you will … you and I could see into the same eternity,” with an air of certainty and acceptance. 

One of my favorite things about seeing the band live is the sheer joy they each have when playing their instruments, bouncing off of each other while Lenker rocks back and forth into the orbit of each member. The band became one as they played an array of fan favorites in the first half of the set, including “Not,” “Simulation Swarm,” “Shark Smile,” and “Vampire Empire.” During the latter, the audience screamed along to “You say you wanna be alone and you want children, you wanna be with me, you wanna be with him.” Lenker also sweetly asked her brother, Noah Lenker, to join them and play the jaw harp on “Spud Infinity.”

Lenker then brought the show’s opening act Iris DeMent to the stage, introducing her with a heartfelt speech about how she couldn’t believe that one of her biggest songwriting inspirations would open for her. DeMent beamed and supported Lenker on backing vocals during the second half of the set, where the band played unreleased tracks like “Gift Pleasure Joy, “Highway,” “Beautiful World,” and “Spatchcock Chickenshit Bingo.” 

“Any dancers out there? I’m looking for a dance to this song…. I can’t do a backflip,” Lenker joked during “Spatchcock Chickenshit Bingo.” The audience laughed as she started singing, “Jump up, backflip, triple kick, somersault, slide, 360. Jumping jack, drop down, spin around, one foot hop, 180. Slide to the left, slide to the right….”

Lenker then gave a rare personal anecdote on stage, sharing that their new track “6-7-8-9 She’s Fine” was a song she wrote about how she sees her girlfriend, and as the song played, it revealed itself to be a wonderful way to be seen. “Has a twinkle in her eye, knows she’s pretty. When she looks at you, boy, do you feel pretty too. She doesn’t talk too much, she says what she means … slow dance in the kitchеn, she’ll just start. When she says ‘I lovе you,’ you know it’s true.”

The band played an encore of songs off of their most recent release Double Infinity, “Los Angeles” and “Incomprehensible.” “Incomprehensible” was the highlight of the show for me, seeing Lenker at her emotional peak as she wailed “I’m afraid of getting older … how can beauty that is living be anything but true?”

Lenker jumped with her eyes closed, with an unbridled outpour of feeling. It was a fitting line to end the show, one where the words sung find pulsing life and beauty outside of the world’s rules.