Music review: Big Thief, Barrowland, Glasgow

The capacity crowd at this show were treated to almost off-the-cuff creativity, including the debut of a new song, writes Fiona Shepherd

Big Thief PIC: Alexa Viscius

Big Thief, Barrowland, Glasgow ****

Prior to Covid lockdown, Brooklyn-based quartet Big Thief were going great guns, releasing two albums in 2019.

Meanwhile, their talented, prolific frontwoman Adrianne Lenker had two solo albums all ready to go – one of them songs, one of them consisting of instrumentals – during the pandemic and enough pieces left over to make up Big Thief’s sprawling but satisfying new album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, comprising 20 diverse tracks moving between folk, roots and country-based minstrelsy.

The capacity crowd at this show were treated to that almost off-the-cuff creativity, with the debut of a new song, a rickety lo-fi indie catharsis which, at a guess, is called Happy With You, then later in the set a jolly little jam. “Maybe that will be something,” Lenker shrugged.

Lenker ploughs a traditional furrow in her music but her quavery vocals are distinctive, with a yelp rather than a cry in her voice, which lends itself to a certain scratchy front porch intimacy.

There is an old soul quality to ballads such as 12,000 Lines which sounds like a folk song from another time.

Despite cutting a somewhat insular figure on stage in her casual hoodie, her solo performance of opening number Promise Is A Pendulum demanded the audience lean in to partake.

Guitarist Buck Meek, bassist Max Oleartchik and drummer James Krivchenia huddled close in an intimate stage set-up, but undulating acoustic guitar was soon replaced by the controlled storm of burnished electric guitar.

The howling, almost metallic distortion of one epic, electrified Neil Young-esque work out sounded like the natural end to the set but, as visceral as this was, the greater pleasure was in Lenker’s most tuneful offerings such as jaunty country rock canter Red Moon, the playful, upbeat Spud Infinity and Blue Lightning, the catchy downhome ditty with which they rounded off their encore.

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