Indie/folk rock band Big Thief wowed Oxford crowds for the first time in the Lyric on Thursday, Feb. 9. The performance was the beginning of the end to their world tour that has taken the band to places like South Korea, Japan and Australia.
“I’m very excited for the show tonight,” principal songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Adrianne Lenker said. “I had no preconceptions (about Oxford and Ole Miss). I came into it without any idea what it was going to be like, but it’s been beautiful here.”
To hear that Lenker believes Oxford is beautiful is no small comment. Lenker’s songwriting is known for observant appreciation of natural beauty.
The opener for the band was Buck Meek, a guitarist and songwriter for Big Thief. Meek is also Lenker’s ex-husband. The two split in 2018 but remained in the band as “deep friends.”
Big Thief greeted Oxford with “Simulation swarm,” the lead single off of their 2022 album “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You.” The song has amassed over 14 million listens on Spotify.
Lenker plucked on the guitar strings and gave the song a haunting and airy feeling that drove the song forward. Contributions from the bass and drums created a fuller atmosphere and grounded the song.
The crowd was ecstatic to hear the band open with this song, and it felt as if Big Thief was addressing the elephant in the room by playing it first.
The band also played tracks from older albums, such as the title track “Masterpiece” off of their 2016 debut album, and the track “Shoulders” from their 2019 album “Two Hands.” Both are heavier tracks laden with electric guitar and soft distortion and showed the shift in Big Thief’s songwriting towards gentler and more acoustic avenues.
The band then played “Certainty,” another popular single from the new album and a heartfelt confession on fluctuating emotions and the sometimes fickle yet inevitably consistent nature of love.
Lenker angled the microphone towards the audience and sang this lyric in harmony with the crowd in an electrifying moment.
“Thank you for singing with us,” Lenker said.
The band also played a few unreleased tracks that the group is workshopping, such as the bittersweet “Sadness as a gift,” which features Lenker’s acoustic guitar and “Vampire Empire.”
The audience was explosively energetic at the end of the night, chanting in anticipation for the closing song “Spud Infinity.”
The band delivered, with Lenker belting a tour-specific and heartfelt version of the baked potato ballad and the intro to the song was at a slower tempo.
The slower tempo rendition brought out a wonderful harmony between band members’ instruments, leaving Oxford with a powerful farewell that fans of the band are sure to remember.
Though it has been said about the band before, the truth in this statement seems obvious after seeing them live: Big Thief imbues everything they create with love, giving their listeners a big, warm hug.
