Live Review: Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins Throw Down 'Hee-Haw'-Style in NYC

Tweet

Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis traded indie-rock for alt-country when she skiffled onto the stage at New York's Town Hall last night. Joined by oddball collaborators the Watson Twins, she treated fans to a unique hodgepodge of country variety show gentility and heel-stomping rock & roll. Scheduled openers the Little Willies, Norah Jones' countrified side-project, didn't show — allegedly a "family issue" prevented them from playing — so the college-aged crowd got to enjoy the main event earlier than expected. Just after nine, Lewis and the Twins took to the stage with a four-piece band dressed in black-tie regalia. The buzz of rabid-fan chatter died down the second Lewis's candied country croon began an a cappella rendition of "Run Devil Run." From then on, the club was quiet as a tomb, allowing Lewis and Co. to sweep through pretty much every tune from 2006's Rabbit Fur Coat (including a goose-bump-inducing rendition of the harmonic "Melt Your Heart.")

About halfway through, Lewis and the Twins left the stage for a costume change, returning in sparkly, translucent mini-dresses for a decidedly amped-up Act Two. By the time the band had finished the strutting blues rarity, "Jack Killed Mom" and the Bo Didley-tinged "Fernando," the lap-steel guitar was in danger of bursting into flames.

For the encore, Lewis appeared solo for the hauntingly stark title track from Rabbit, before summoning the band on stage with a whistle for a feel good cover of the Traveling Wilbury's twangy "Handle with Care." It was a fitting end to a real rock hootenany, New York-style.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES The 10 Best Zombie Movie Scenes
• 
  TV The Most WTF? Moments of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”

The Joy Formidable | 2011

The opener off the Welsh group’s The Big Roar album was an epic one, but the band was worried that track had polarized fans. “The first song is eight minutes long,” Rhydian Dafydd, the Joy Formidable bassist, said. “If you did that in the Seventies people would be, ‘Whatever.’ You do it now, people think, ‘Holy s---!’ Some people think it’s the f---ing greatest track on the entire album, and some people think it’s f---ing boring. It’s that element of needing to challenge people.” The band concluded through the song’s lyrics that love was the “everchanging spectrum of a lie.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter