Brandi Carlile puts on heartfelt, powerful show at Xcel
by Darby Ottoson and Tony Nelson
August 01, 2022
Brandi Carlile beamed as soon as she saw the Xcel Energy Center audience on Saturday night. “This is the stuff of rock and roll dreams,” the singer-songwriter said while holding a hand to her heart and looking out at the sold-out arena. “I never thought it’d be me up here.”
To fans, the upgrade is really no surprise. The Twin Cities music community has championed Washington-bred Carlile from the start. One year after her debut album dropped in 2005, Carlile played her first headlining show at Minneapolis’ 400 Bar to a packed room of 275 people. Fifteen years and countless Minnesota shows later, she was back again with a wife, two kids, and a Billboard-chart-topping seventh album in tow, playing for more than 12,000 thrilled faces in downtown St. Paul.
The evening kicked off with the blues-y stylings of Celisse, a powerhouse singer and multi-instrumentalist sporting a pink velvet suit. Watching her dynamic guitar skills and infectious energy play out on stage, it was easy to see why she has such a long and impressive list of accolades, including a recent stint as Lizzo’s lead guitarist on Saturday Night Live.
Lake Street Dive rolled in next, smooth and syncopated as ever with a sound that falls somewhere in a Venn diagram of Vulfpeck and ABBA. The band traded harmonies and passed around solos like friends tossing a frisbee in a field. Even with the recent departure of Matt Olsen, the Minnesotan guitarist who gave the Brooklyn-based band its familiar name, their set oozed an effortless joy. That feeling was emphasized by a slow groovy cover of Shania Twain’s “Still the One.”
As latecomers awkwardly shuffled against strangers' knees to get to their seats, the fluorescent flood lights dimmed for the final performance of the night. Tim and Phil Hanseroth, the twins who have lived and toured alongside Carlile for 20-plus years, strutted onstage first, ripping guitar riffs and building anticipation for a few minutes with their signature “Twintro.” A four-piece string section and two percussionists came next, followed by Carlile, wearing a white silk tuxedo and a huge smile. She took a moment to wave excitedly at the audience before striking the opening chords of “Broken Horses,” the raucous, full-throttle first track of her latest album, In These Silent Days.
The album title alludes to the early pandemic era, when Carlile did whatever she could to keep her mind and hands busy, from writing a bestselling memoir to building a garden in the backyard. It was while working in the garden, she explained before launching into the song, that she found the words for “You and Me On the Rock.” Musically, it mimics the bright airy stylings of Joni Mitchell, with whom Carlile has developed a close friendship since they met in 2018. (It was on full display during their recent Newport Folk Festival performance). Lyrically, like much of the new album, the song focuses on the rock-solid foundation of friends and family that Carlile has built for herself on which to lean.
The setlist danced around her lengthy discography, featuring classics like “The Story” — the most satisfying ballad to belt in a fast-moving vehicle — and “The Eye,” delivered in a stripped-down mesmerizing three-part harmony. The crowd also completely lost it halfway through Carlile’s thunderous cover of “Creep” by Radiohead.
But most of the two-hour set explored the territory of In These Silent Days and revealed to me a new side of Carlile as an artist. When I was 12, my mother brought me along to watch Carlile play the Minnesota State Fair in 2010, where I first heard her force-of-nature voice bellowing about hurt, euphoria, and identity crises. That rawness resonated with my pre-teen angst, and I still turn to those songs when I need a teary-eyed emotional release.
This time around, her music still feels fiery but burns more like a powerful smolder than a lit match. On this tour and new album, she is in command of her stories, showing up as an imperfect messenger of encouragement and hard lessons learned. She directly dedicated a few songs to her young daughters, who were both in attendance. “The Mother,” a single from 2018’s By The Way, I Forgive You, is a tribute to her firstborn and to the tribulations of motherhood in general. “This Time Tomorrow,” touches on the proximity of grief and love, and “Mama Werewolf” finds Carlile witnessing herself passing along generational dysfunction and attempting to stem the flow.
I walked into the Xcel a bit worried that Carlile’s vulnerable messages wouldn’t pack the same personalized punch in a stadium setting. But I only had to hear “The Joke” performed to realize that no venue is too large for a voice that could surely carry across a mountain range. Of course, all of the musicians on-stage contributed to the far-reaching wall of sound. Drummer Brian Griffin and percussionist Jeff Haynes, both legendary in their own right, laid down a lush backdrop together. Filling in the details of the soundscape were four talented people comprising Carlile’s iconic string section which she correctly noted, “Sounds like 97 people.”
More like a generous extension of the show, the encore was a mosaic of collaborations, starting with Carlile bringing Celisse back up to play as a service to those unfortunate folks who missed her set at the start. Lake Street Dive returned as well with a dreamy cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “Nick of Time.” Carlile remarked that a setting as grand as the Xcel necessitated a Joni tribute. So she leaped into a layered winding interpretation of “Woodstock” before drawing the show to a close with her own “Stay Gentle.”
In a recent interview, Carlile told Hrishikesh Hirway a story about how, rediscovering Joni’s “Little Green” some years ago redefined her entire concept of toughness, showing her that “vulnerability is in fact tougher than anything I had been able to understand prior to that experience.”
Ever the master of earnest but not corny lyricism, Carlile bid the crowd goodnight with these instructions: “Don't let 'em lower your shoulders
Love 'em more when they try
Grow younger while you'rе growing older
Be amazed by the sky
Stay gentle, stay gentle,
The most powerful thing you can do
Oh gentle, unbreakable you.”
Setlist
Twintro
Broken Horses
Mainstream Kid
You and me on the Rock
The Story
The Eye
The Mother
Mama Werewolf
Space Oddity (David Bowie)
Creep (Radiohead)
This Time Tomorrow
Right on Time
Sinner, Saints and Fools
The Joke
Party of One
Encore:
Freedom (Celisse Henderson)
Woodstock (Joni Mitchell)
Nick of Time (Bonnie Raitt)
Hold Out Your Hand
Stay Gentle
Over the Rainbow (Harold Arlen)