I stg these p***stars

was at the big thief show at radio city a few weeks ago and midway through realized i don’t love their music as much as i thought i did/used to

was strange

Let’s squash the beef

Man i was there and felt the exact same way. Theres definitely an endearing quality to the growth they’re displaying but it Doesn’t reaffirm why I began loving the band in the first place

who and who

I had the opposite experience, but I got a weird show that was 100% their rock tracks and rock versions of folk tracks so it was special

setlist.fm/setlist/big-thief/2022/wiltern-theatre-los-angeles-ca-33b7ccf1.html

Forgotten Eyes, Not, the new version of Dragon and Flower of Blood absolutely smoked

Adrianne clears very easily

laura so underrated on here

thank god— i thought i was going insane hahaha. i left right before spud infinity. i’d seen them on rail at govball in 2021 and in brooklyn in 2022- both killer shows.
but i don’t know… something about this show felt different. almost like a going through the motions feel. which kinda rubbed me the wrong way, being it was the last night of the tour and their biggest ever show… in the city they started out in.
14 songs? i got 20 in brooklyn last year lmao.
and the new songs feel a bit formulaic. when artists try to “change it up” most of them just redecorate the same old tree. the successful changes are reinventions… you’re planting a whole new tree. pretentious metaphor but whatever. does that make sense?

yeah I went to the 2 shows @ king's last year and they both cleared.

I wouldn't say formulaic though...they've locked into a style that works for them as a unit and are running with it. its clear that they've done a lot of emotional work as a unit to get to where there at, and Adrianne's pen is still commendable, so I wouldn't discount either of those things. People don't call Laraaji formulaic ykwim?

From Masterpiece to Two Hands, they fostered such a great blend of subtlety and punctuality that made big songs like The Toy and Not so much more of a proclamation than the sum of their parts.

DNWMIBIY was them saying: we dont want to be concerned with whether or not a song that we create sounds "on brand", which is commendable if we're going to talk about the human element of things, though its worth noting that their ultimate message has only become less clear since then, with the exception of "The Only Place", which isn't even a band track (easily top 5 Adrianne solo, though).

They've endured an extremely long and strenuous path to get to the level they're at on their terms, I just hope that they're still searching to return to the self like the rest of us are, and that this victory lap isn't indicative of their path from here being full of hippie platitudes and a more generalized sound designed to scale

i ain’t reading allat

jk i totally agree with you and you summed up how i feel. at the show i was like… what do these songs mean, really? it’s hard to articulate but there doesn’t really seem to be much of a strong message as you said. compare “ufof” or “forgotten eyes” to “sparrow” or “spud infinity”, a song i realized as i was leaving that i really don’t like hahahaha

also during “sparrow”, a song that has pretty harmonies but melodically goes absolutely f***ing nowhere… a guy in front of me simulated picking apples during that part of the song. would he put his arms up in a triangle while frank sang pyramids? lmao

recently it’s felt a bit as if they’re writing songs and performing them before fleshing them out and fully understanding what they mean. idk.

that first night in brooklyn last year was spellbinding and magical at times. 4/15/22. radio city felt dull.

i think going forward they could benefit from a more deliberate and structured setlist. work out songs that sequence well together and feel thematic. play the new album, the best cuts from the early stuff, one or two unreleased songs, a deep cut or two, and leave a couple slots to rotate songs in and out so you don’t get bored night to night.

U in NY bruce or u still in NJ? Keep in touch

NY hbu?

message me brotha

Lauri Markkanen been hooping this season

never heard of that other bum

won't let me message you for some reason. try hitting me or lmk if you just want my ig

dm'd