Photo courtesy of KLRU/Scott Newton
Last night’s Austin City Limits Taping kicks off Jenny Lewis’s tour of Texas. In addition to her ACL Live show, you can find her at Stubb’s on Friday at her official Austin City Limits Festival Late Night Show along with The Belle Brigade. This weekend, Lewis will perform at the Austin Ventures stage at ACL Fest at 5pm on Sunday, October 5th and then the following weekend on Sunday, October 12th. In between her two ACL Fest sets, Lewis will tour all over, playing shows in Dallas, TX; New Orleans, LA; New Braunfels, TX; Houston, TX; and Iztacalco, Mexico.
Photo courtesy of KLRU/Scott Newton
This whirlwind schedule is indicative of the buzz surrounding the release of Jenny Lewis’s latest solo album, The Voyager. Announced in May of this year and released in late July, the album has been met with critical acclaim. Ever since, Lewis has been on a non-stop tour of late night talk shows, music festivals, and concerts. Jenny Lewis’ performance at the Moody Theater is part of Austin City Limits’ 40th season and marks ten years since her first ACL Live debut with Rilo Kiley.
The night comes completely on Jenny Lewis’s own terms right down to the Lisa Frankesque ambiance. Rainbows cover the keyboards, Lewis’s acoustic and electric guitar, and other various items around the stage, all signs of the flamboyantly colored Voyager tour. As soon as the lights come up, her band members stride across the stage dressed in white and black and Jenny Lewis quickly follows in her signature rainbow suit and rainbow, seventies-styled high-heeled boots.
Photo courtesy of KLRU/Scott Newton
Right away, Lewis launches into arguably one of Rilo Kiley’s greatest hits, “Silver Lining” and couples it with, “Rise Up with Fists!!” from her solo album Rabbit Fur Coat. As the course of the evening unfolds, I am pleasantly surprised that only half of the fifteen-song set consists of songs from Lewis’s new Voyager album. Although I believe The Voyager is arguably Jenny Lewis’s greatest solo work to date, it is always a delight to hear someone with such a catalog of music to dig deep into their older work. After the two opening numbers, Lewis quickly powers through “Head Underwater” and “Slippery Slopes” from her latest record.
Then, the performance undergoes a complete shift in tone. Lewis steps away from the keyboard, puts down the guitar, and stands back to belt out “The Moneymaker.” At the front of the stage a rainbow painted box exists for the sole purpose of allowing 5’1” Jenny Lewis to stand on top of it and sing directly to the crowd. In her mostly white with rainbow accents suit and boots, Lewis reminds me of a seventies-style, evangelist talk show host, in the best way possible. At this point, Lewis won me over. Her charisma shines during “The Next Messiah” and “Bad Man’s World” in which she shares vocals with her boyfriend and longtime collaborator, Johnathan Rice. After the collection of more bluesy sounding songs, Lewis takes a breath to say, “We’re cookin’ now… it’s all that queso man, it sticks to you.”
Photo courtesy of KLRU/Scott Newton
The second half of the show passes like a dream. Mostly made up of songs from her new album, Lewis lets her band members shine with guitar and vocal solos. Towards the end of the set the band plays “Love U Forever” and “She’s Not Me,” two of my favorite singles off of The Voyager. “She’s Not Me” is a treat to watch live. Jenny Lewis, in all her talk show glory and iconic red hair, stands on her rainbow colored soapbox to break down “She’s Not Me” directly to the audience. For the last planned song of the set, each band member sets down their instruments in favor of standing in a line behind Lewis with their arms wrapped around each other’s waists in front of a single microphone. Lewis led the song with her rainbow imprinted guitar and sang an acoustic rendition of “Acid Tongue” with her band mates backing her up on melody. In moments like these, Jenny Lewis’s powerful voice truly, truly shines. The song ends with a standing ovation and the band quickly exits the stage.
Lewis, her keyboardist, and female guitarist came on for one last song. Her guitarist strums the opening chords to the acoustic version of “With Arms Outstretched” from Rilo Kiley’s album The Execution of All Things. It represents a truly a magical moment at the end of perhaps one of the greatest sets I have ever seen at an Austin City Limits taping. Texas has many opportunities to see Lewis over the next week and a half; seize one.
