Adrianne Lenker Encapsulates All Emotions Within "Live at Revolution Hall"

by Gabrielle White

“Promise is a pendulum,” off Lenker’s band project, Big Thief, and their album “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You” showcases Lender's ability to even in public moments, make it feel like it’s an intimate private space. Even if you’ve never been to a concert, or maybe you’ve been to hundreds, the album makes you feel like you were there experiencing it, though you're living your own life. The “Live at Revolution Hall” track of “promise is a pendulum” swiftly transitions from soundcheck seamlessly to the live concert for an audience, though no matter the difference between the two, still feeling like the raw emotion that is emphasized is clearly represented.  

A large amount of the tracks recorded for the live album were unreleased, bringing in that sense of excitement for what could be next in release of new music. Lenker tends to play unreleased tracks at her shows, even years before they are released on an album, but the sheer amount of tracks that were either played live or recorded at soundcheck were insane. Tracks like “oldest,” “no limit,” “happiness,” “i do love you,” and “ripples” certainly made fans in great anticipation of all the more music that is to be released.

Lenker even includes tracks like “oso,” “- happy birthday everyone -,” and “- drawing a star -” that aren’t exactly music, but rather are just Lenker and other’s talking or simply having a conversation. “- happy birthday everyone -” is literally just comprised of Lenker and the crowd singing happy birthday to someone, which is something you would never see any sort of big artists doing, just tying in Lenker’s genuine love for the people she plays music for, and especially for how it’s brought her to where she is now. Something that is so apparent within the playing of these unreleased tracks is that Lenker is just going along with her love for music, and has no intentions of keeping that a secret. 

“Anything,” a fan favorite of Lenker's, includes the crowd singing along with her, just as at the start of the song she encourages them to “sing it if you know it,” said Lenker. The amount of love that the song receives is incredibly justified, as every lyric and plucking of her acoustic guitar feels authentic and tender, as Lenker spills her feelings out. The end of the song there's a slight pause of the music and is just sheerly acapella, and then slowly kicks back up to the instrumentals again. 

If there’s anything that certain in life, it’s that Lenker will never lack to push out music, whether it be live or recorded in a studio, that lacks depth. Through all 43 songs we see every side of Lenker - cheerful in “spud infinity,” emotional in “ruined,” grateful in “sadness as a gift,” and finally, her last track of the album, content within “wake me up to drive (outside).”