.julien baker

I bought my tickets for this concert towards the very end of January. It ended up being a sold out show. The thing that made me nervous was the timing of it all (especially on a week day); hauling ass from work to the train station, heading into Penn Station and connecting to the A and finally the J to the Bowery! What a crazy adventure that was! Arriving at the venue maybe an hour before the doors opened was a smart move. About 20th in line I did nab a spot towards the left side of the stage. I must say this show was an excellent line-up of bands / artists. Petal and Phoebe Bridgers, fan of both now. Before Julien Baker came out there was a massive pedal board placed in front of her mic. I mean it was quadruple the size of what I've normally seen. To navigate through all of that?@! Of course the waterworks happened listening to her play the first song. She ended with "Something" before her encore but the song that really knocked it out of the park was "Vessels." There was something so beautiful about how she plucked away at those chords, something in my heart reverberated to feeling joy and beauty intertwined. Her first encore "Good News" had Sharon Van Etten join her on stage. Julien also covered an Elliot Smith song.

After the show I hung out for a little bit. At the merch table all of her vinyl sold out for the past 2 weeks so a CD had to suffice. I ended up going back to the merch table to pick up another copy. Bob Boilen's book talk was a few days later and I was hoping to meet Carrie Brownstein. Wouldn't it be awesome to give her a copy of Julien's cd? I know she would LOVE her music. A few minutes later Julien came out. She was very tiny in person but seemed grander on stage. I wanted to see if she wouldn't mind signing my cd. I politely waited for her to finish conversations and hugs with friends / fans. My turn came and she graciously accepted. I told her to come to Philly and she said she was there earlier in the year. To this I replied "Damn it! I missed it!" and she told me she'd be back. "I played at Boot and Saddle. I LOOOOOVE Philly! Philly is awesome!" That made my night. On the subway home I watched my video footage as tears almost streamed down my eyes. People probably thought a) I was going through an existential crisis or b) had a very bad day. Actually it's c) "Nooooo....I'm just listening to Julien Baker's music punch me in the heart right now." Here's her set list....

BLACKTOP
SPRAINED ANKLE
VESSELS
EVERYBODY DOES
REJOICE
BALLAD OF BIG NOTHING
FUNERAL PYRE
BRITTLE BONED
SOMETHING

ENCORE:
GOOD NEWS
GO HOME