It's rare that you get to be a part of such a special moment, and one where the entire audience was 100% captivated by the entire concert. That may have been due to the fact that at the band's request, we had to put our phones in magnetically locked pouches but I'm glad they did and wish it happened more often.
Chicago's Whitney kicked off their tour last night in Portland, OR at Revolution Hall with support from the Lafayette, Louisiana raised Renée Reed opening the show with dreamlike ethereal folk reminiscent of Jessica Pratt and an overlooked Danger Mouse project, Joker's Daughter. The entire time she was performing I was trying to think of the name of that project and it was driving me nuts, mostly because I wasn't able to quickly look it up and move on. I had to sit there and wallow in my thoughts like a peasant but it didn't distract too much from her captivating sound.
What followed was completely unexpected as I was under the impression that Whitney would be performing their 2020 covers album Candid in full. The show listing had the bio only mentioning Candid so in preparation, I listened to the album in full, alongside all of the unique covers they tackled. What we got instead
was truly something incredible and this is why we had our phones tucked away. We got to hear almost exclusively all new material from four of the members of Whitney, on keys, guitar and some horns peppered in. It's unclear if the new recorded work will have drums on it or it's possible they were doing a lighter tour (There's normally 8 of them).
We got all the normal beginning of the tour charming awkwardness, which I'm
sure was especially accentuated by the long Pandemic hiatus. The boys brought it though. I was brought to tears multiple times, almost exclusively from their older work which hit especially hard in the wake of a break-up ("It's a shame I can't get it together now"). I wish I could describe what their new sound was like, but I can say it's unlike anything Whitney has ever done. All I can say is to expect some more experimentation, and hopefully catch them on this special tour at one of the upcoming dates.
10/01 — Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
10/04 — Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up
10/07 — Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
10/08 — Palm Springs, CA @ The Alibi
10/10 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Lobero Theatre
10/11 — San Luis Obispo, CA @ SLO Brew Concert Hall
10/12 — Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre
10/18 — Ft. Collins, CO @ The Coast
10/19 — Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
10/21 — Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
10/22 — Aspen, CO @ Belly Up Aspen
10/27 — Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
10/28 — Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
10/29 — Washington, DC @ Capital Turnaround
10/30 — Providence, RI @ Columbus Theatre
10/31 — Kingston, NY @ Old Dutch Church
11/02 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made
11/03 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made
11/04 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made
11/06 — Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
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