It’s November 5th, and the fervor of the audience’s cheering does not match the quiet humility with which Big Thief takes the stage at Moody Amphitheater. They don’t run to their spotlights and bask, nobody asks Austin, Texas how we’re feeling, and yet, the crowd erupts. For those of us familiar with the Big Thief concert format, it comes from the excitement that anything could happen, and regardless of what is played, we’re leaving changed.
The band launches into their 2023 standalone hit, “Vampire Empire.” Big Thief and lead singer and guitarist Adrianne Lenker have reimagined this song in a few ways, but tonight it’s a powerful folk-rock single that establishes the flow of energy for the night.
They coast through the next couple of songs, “Shark Smile” and “Masterpiece,” with the same earnestness of their original recordings in 2017 and 2016, respectively. The band was formed in Brooklyn, New York, in 2015, and they found their early footing in indie-rock ballads that gained them both a cult following and widespread appreciation.
On this night, each member of the band seems to carry with them a different piece of the band’s evolution. Lenker, as well as drummer James Krivchenia, don a T-shirt and casual pants, bringing their vibes back to the focused thunder of an indie-rock outfit. Guitarist Buck Meek, another primary creative force of the band, wears his Sunday best with a twinge of Americana; it harkens to the folk instrumentation and imagery that colors much of their later music, especially on the album Dragon New Warm Mountain, I Believe in You. Bassist Joshua Crumbly is new to the picture, being taken on as a touring bassist after the departure of previous bassist, Max Oleartchik, in 2024. Dressed in a crisp, draping linen shirt and pants, he flows as effortlessly as the otherworldly sound that filters their songs via chimes and reverb.
This tour is their first after the release of album Double Infinity, and “Incomprehensible” is the first song they play off of the album. It’s fitting: before any of the singles were released, this was an unreleased song Big Thief demoed during festival appearances. It’s followed by “Words,” a jangly song about the futility of conversation that spins and dances with life.
Adrianne Lenker becomes the music that she plays. There are moments during the show where her guitar lines are so enthralling that she almost floats in time with their rises and falls. Her power opposes her moments of spoken context (or banter with Meek). Lenker is soft-spoken and seems humbled by the crowd before her.
There’s one beautiful moment during a speech where she notices the full moon against the Austin skyline. We all turn around to share in the beat of quiet appreciation, and at some point, Lenker asks us to howl. Obviously, we howl.
Finally, it’s the moment we’ve been holding our breath for. A song is introduced… as unreleased. It’s a staple of Big Thief’s concerts that holds endless promise. This one is called “Muscle Memory.”I confess, I was too invested in the moment to take a video for reference. However, in my Notes app, there are four words: “whirlwind. personal. wanting. asking.” Maybe soon, you’ll know what that means.
An unreleased song is exciting, but the steady opening guitar of “Not” brings in the crest of excitement for the night. It’s what I was secretly praying on hearing while I sat in line for an hour before doors (if I was going to hear that song, it was going to be up close). “Not” is a powerful six-minute indie-rock declaration of what something (left up to interpretation) is not.
“It’s not the energy reeling /
nor the lines in your face /
nor the clouds on the ceiling /
nor the clouds in space”
Only a few verses into the performance, Lenker trips over a line. The band vamps a line as she tries to regain footing, but she stops to tell us that she’d like to restart and get it right because she loves this song. We cheer as she repeats the lines into the microphone until it clicks into place, and the song starts again. By the final crescendo, all is forgotten. The song ends with an extended guitar solo; again, Lenker is drawn into the power of her playing as she plays against bassist Crumbly until they expend all of the music inside of them. The audience roars.
Big Thief gently brings us back to the ground with a spoken, improvised bit they titled “Sure Thing.” They banter, shout out Austin, and remind us of the warmth and humor it takes to create music as cohesively as they do.
The closing song of the main set, “Spud Infinity,” is a personal highlight. This song is pure fun- musically and lyrically; It’s the band’s love for their craft combined with wild, celestial abandon. With a heartfelt bluegrass swing (we’re invited to the party through fiddle, and they keep time with a hilariously springy mouth harp), Lenker asks thought-provoking questions like “ash to ask / and dust to dusk / a dime a dozen aren’t we just?” immediately followed by truths like “but a dozen dimes will buy a crust of garlic bread.” This song demands you to dance, to feel joined as one with the strangers next to you, and to not feel daunted by the infinite world we live in, but to feel energized by its mysteries.
By the end of the show, I feel fulfilled. There are concerts where an encore guarantees a couple of big hits to check off from everyone’s lists. This isn’t one of those concerts. If the lights had gone up and we were all cleared out after “Spud Infinity,” I would have still skipped and sang the entire way back to West Campus. Thankfully, though, they returned in all their graciousness and left us with two more songs: “Time Escaping” and “Change”.
Both songs address passing time and hold a mirror up to our faces, asking us to accept and reflect on the changing seasons and the things they take from us. They represent why Big Thief is so beloved: not just because of musical accomplishment, but because they view the world with a gratitude that is hard to eke out of ourselves. The world is tumultuous, loved ones leave, and even our own memories can hurt us. Big Thief tells us that when reality is painful, we are capable of accepting the truth and finding a way to work through it.