Review: The Lone Bellow at The Orange Peel
Who's that dancing through the crowd on The Orange Peel floor while The Lone Bellow is about to take the stage, acting like they're the center of attention?
Oh, wait. That's... shoot. Yeah, my bad. That's The Lone Bellow. Yep, that’s definitely guitarist/vocalist Brian Elmquist leading the charge and frontman Zach Williams holding an acoustic guitar aloft. Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Kanene Pipkin is probably somewhere in the sea of fans, too, encouraging an unplugged singalong of “Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold” before climbing on stage to finish the jam with their bassist Tyler James Geertsma and drummer Jon Truman, who’ve been keeping the beat the entire time.
With a start that energetic and friendly, the Oct. 12 crowd couldn't help but respond in kind throughout the band’s opening night of its 10th anniversary tour, adding their own vocals throughout the evening-length celebratory performance of the group’s self-titled debut album — much to the delight of the core trio. Moments like ceding the repeated chorus of “Tree to Grow” to the fans visibly moved the very musicians who’d written those words and have sung them for years, creating a strong sense of community on both sides of the photo pit.
Though Williams acknowledged that the setlist might sound weird because he, Pipkin, and Elmquist “didn’t know what [they] were doing” a decade ago, the 11 songs proved just as well-sequenced for the live setting as they have in studio form. Only once did choices made in 2013 come back to haunt the artists — and had Pipkin not joked after “You Never Need Nobody” that every bridge has “the highest note possible,” and Williams not retorted that he “should write easier songs,” the audience wouldn’t have guessed that the tune was anything close to challenging.
As the band worked its way through The Lone Bellow, Williams also demonstrated his gift of banter. After praising attendees for smelling like a combination of peppermint spice lattes and free bread from O’Charley’s, he then served up such anecdotes as the “ba pa da” sections of “Bleeding Out” arising as a Plan B when they couldn't afford a brass section, and “Looking for You” having the distinct honor of playing on Grey’s Anatomy while a character died.
Pipkin’s own revelation that her parents stopped fighting around her after they heard “You Don’t Love Me Like You Used To” was likewise memorable, but not as much as when she went full soul siren on “Cost of Living” during the post-album encore, slinking across the stage with wholly deserved confidence. Loosed from the night’s assignment, Elmquist also showed a new side, rocking so hard during his guitar solo on “Count on Me” that his in-ear monitors flew out.
The party atmosphere was an especially welcome change of pace after Gregory Alan Isakov’s static performance at Rabbit Rabbit two nights prior, raising the possibility that the acts should have switched venues. Wherever The Lone Bellow wind up playing next, and whether they’re feting another record’s anniversary, testing out new material, or playing whatever the hell they want, they’re welcome back in town whenever they’d like. Maybe I’ll even join them in the middle of the floor.
(Photos by Bryce Lafoon)
