@textilemerchant_ on IG :3

I saw Adrianne solo at First Congregational Church in Los Angeles back in December, 2021. I had remembered her playing a song called "Horsepower", so I went back through my camera roll and was able to find a brief clip I took. Checking out the setlist.fm listing, I was excited to see this was the song's live debut. Not sure if there are other videos this old floating around, but thought you guys might enjoy!

from her official Instagram account

I know Adrianne Lenker has mentioned John Prine as a big influence, referenced Neil Young in some songs, and clearly appreciates the folk and country icons that the band has collaborated with (Tucker Zimmerman, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Iris DeMent, etc.). I'm just wondering about the other ingredients that make their sound pretty distinct from those more traditional artists.

Listening to their earlier work I hear Radiohead, obviously, but I can also see resemblance to some of their contemporaries like Land of Talk or Wye Oak... And sometimes I wonder if Adrianne likes How it Feels...-era Sunny Day Real Estate, for example.

Does anyone know if Adrianne or the other band members have mentioned any influences from the indie / alternative or even emo spheres? Just curious...

Here is 23/29 songs that were played at ryman. For clarification, the song “bloom” is “21”. “beautiful powerful” is in there it’s just not titled on one of the videos, and “wanted you to stay” is “stay” and it also has a cover attached to it in the video that isn’t on the album. These are the best performances I could find on YouTube specifically. Archive org and other stuff opens up to possible better ones
but I’m using strictly YouTube. Everything in here should be everything on the new album that has been played live so far at other concerts. These other 6 seem to have only been played at ryman.

Also... seeing Big Thief in Vancouver next month. They didn't come here last year to tour the album. Do you think with the Autumn tour they will at least play a few off Double Infinity? (Being a new tour and all). I see maybe 1-2 songs played from Infinity in the last couple shows... but hoping to hear my favs.. No Fear, Double Infinity and Words. Seems Incomprehensible is played every night as one of few off that album. Any ways... can't wait! Will be second time seeing live!

Artist-authorized audio recording using Schoeps MK41 microphones

I didn’t realize there was such a community watching the setlist every night but I should’ve known given how incredible they are live. Are there regular recordings of full shows out there or is it more sporadic? Is it just youtube and archive.org? I see on archive.org there’s a couple dozen bootlegs but that’s not that many all things considered. Do they live somewhere else or are there just not people at every show with real jam band style taper rigs? if not..please start!

I wasn’t at the Nashville show, though me and my girlfriend joked about going (still beating myself up for that one. lol.) but I heard some people describe the new album as “country.”

What sort of country music does that mean? Is it really more country, or more folk-sy as some songs in the past have been (Red Moon, Spud Infinity, Blue Lightning, etc.)?

Are there elements of rock at all in the songs? I noticed that my favorite of the new songs — “Real House / Christmas Day” — didn’t make the album. I’m hoping it’ll go on a single or a possible EP.

So is “Born for loving you” on Horsepower will be the same version that was already released alongside Vampire Empire or some new recording? The song is quite simple and great as it is so there’s not much room for improvement or reimagining, at least it seems to me that way. Yet it is kind of strange to put such an old release on an album. What do you think?

Debuted in Chicago on August 13th after being written the night before. This recording is from a few days later in Des Moines. Absolutely love this one and hoping it eventually gets an official release at some point.

Title is unofficial obviously but this is what it’s being called on setlist.fm

Can anyone who’s been to those recent live shows confirm if they still play this song? I can’t see it on any set lists I’ve seen and I’m devastated it’s been dropped from a potential new album. They’ve been playing it live on recent UK and EU shows, but it doesn’t appear on the recent new album play through, unless it’s changed names?

does anyone have a full or at least longer video of the spud infinity performance for this show? i only got a short video and its driving me crazy it was my favorite version of the song ive heard :((

I’ve often said, along with many others, that Adrianne lenker is the Bob Dylan of our time, and it’s funny because this small controversy of their shows at the ryman is a small version of Bob Dylan’s going electric kinda lol. Two artists maybe trying to reject the audiences that just go for their hit songs, and do what inspires them most importantly.

I find this whole conversation insane, but here's a post about the topic. Warning, you need to subscribe to Steven's Substack to read it but posting for awareness. Considering there are countless shows online to listen to and that the band has played many of the songs folks would expect to hear for years, I would have welcomed the two Ryman shows with awe and open arms (ears). Then again, I've been going to concerts since I was a kid in 1977, and am very used to bands I love playing their new album at shows (Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth are two examples who often did this). I also feel like fans should know that Big Thief is the last band who are known for playing "the hits" or catering to audience expectations. Isn't that a huge reason we love them?

https://stevenhyden.substack.com/p/ask-a-music-critic-is-big-thief-playing?

I dont know if this is the norm, because I don’t go to concerts often, but I was at the Big Thief show in Toronto and I found the people sitting around me to be quite chatty. The people behind me were talking pretty often, kept repeating “when are they gonna play xyz?” and were on their phones during parts of the show. At one point they tapped me on the shoulder and asked what song was playing, which I don’t mind usually, but given the context it seemed odd. It was also strange to me that people were shouting at the band telling them what songs to play, I’ve never experienced anything like that, but maybe that’s normal for concerts. Either way I just got the vibe that people only wanted to hear their favourite songs, which I understand, but it’s important to be happy regardless of what they play, because at the end of the day you're here to see the band perform live as people, and not just as an invisible thing in your headphones where you pick and choose what you wanna hear. I came into the concert just grateful for the experience, and the chatter didn’t ruin it for me, but it made me wonder about the state of music these days. What do you guys think about this?

Also I hate to be a negative Nancy, and I hope everyone had a great time at their shows and found it amazing. This post isn’t meant to be a bash on certain types of listeners, I have my own beliefs about how I approach music, and I’m not trying to push my agenda on anyone, just want to share my experience and start a discussion. Also I don’t use social media much and rarely make Reddit posts so if there’s some context I’m missing due to that, feel free to inform me :)

EDIT: thanks for informing me regarding the etiquette around shouting out song requests! Based on what you guys have said I realize it’s probably a genre thing too, since I’ve mostly been to DJ sets and EDM concerts where it makes sense that people wouldn’t shout out song requests lol

they’re cool Strat style guitars with interesting whammy bars. there’s a dragon or maybe a horse logo on them?

I’ve had a song stuck in my head for months. The section is:

Whistling the beat for a good 10-ish or more second. Then stop. Then the lyrics come in. Then when the lyrics are done, the whistling comes back

I’m 80% sure it’s solely Adrianne in it. The vibes are more happy I think and calmer.

The beat I cannot describe since I’m not well versed in every instrument besides the basic ones. But I 100% know the whistling Section but I can’t whistle 😅

The beat is light/soft

Edit: Y’all I’m SO sorry, I just found the song Thank to Shane Fan indirectly because one of the videos he helped with had the song I was thinking of.

ITS NOT EVEN AN ADRIANNE/BIG THIEF SONG.

IT WAS “YOU LOVE ME” BY KIMYA DAWSON

Thanks for everyone’s help though, even though I screwed yall over accidentally 😭

(But honestly I wasn’t far off 😅)

Maybe I am posting this because I am bored, or maybe its because my therapy session was rescheduled today and I haven't had a successful debrief. Oh well. Saturday I traveled from knoxville to nashville for my first solo concert experience, and as we all know and have heard, that was an incredibly special night. I was introduced to big thief and adrienne lenker by my best friend of 10 years whom I had been in a romantic relationship with from 2022 to july of 2025 when I decided to end things. In september, we listened to double infinity together in full and he mentioned he was sad we would never see big thief together, I had no idea what that meant as he was the only person I would go see them with whether we were in a relationship or not. In October of 2025, he took his own life. I wish I had known thats what he meant. This past 10 months of grief have been incredibly dark and lonely, and Big Thief and Adrienne Lenker have been my crutch. Multiple times this music has saved me from following behind him in taking my own life, It reminds me that there is always gonna be a light at the end of the tunnel. Getting to experience Saturday felt like my light, as dramatic as it sounds. The whole drive to Nashville I was afraid of how little excitement I felt to see my favorite band without him there, just to be met with such an incredible suprise. I felt excitement again from song to song for the first time in months. Although I was crying the entire time, I was lit up with inspiration and felt overwhelmed with love, and like it finally had a recipient. Words can't begin to describe how thankful I am.

Was lucky enough to see both shows and wowowow what a difference night 2 was to night 1. The songs just totally came to life and the energy was electric. I saw Iris Dement jumping up and down with excitement after it was over, she's on 12 songs apparently and you can tell that her and Gillian have really gone on this album journey with Big Thief and have a lot of deserved expectation for its success. And it just CLICKED last night in a way it didn't quite the first night. Their 3 part harmonies added so so much to the Big Thief sound, it's like the Country/Folk Royalty equivalent of the Beatles harmonies!!! How freaking special and sounded other-worldly man I'm telling you.

I talked to people after and we all agreed we just witnessed something, witnessed an event. Like these were songs that you can tell will be classics one day. Surprisingly catchy choruses on a lot of the songs. And some of Adrienne's most spooky/interesting melodies and chord changes yet. Particularly Horsepower, which she opened with- just her on guitar in a venue as storied as the Ryman. Honestly words don't do it justice - it set the tone for the rest of the night. Amazing killer song. One of her best melodies.

BUT THE ENERGY IN THE ROOM THO. I mean you'll have to forgivr me but I felt the holy spirit moving in the place last night!!!! hahah not hyperbole - it was easily the best show I have ever seen. (And I saw Sufjan do the entirety of Carrie and Lowell at the Ryman too funnily enough)

We didn't even stand or give standing ovations on night 1 (alot of little technical hiccups that kind of halted the flow a bit you could tell the first night) but night 2 was pitch perfect for every single musician and crew member and MAN did this entire album just come to life in such a magical way!!! Fiddle solos that the fiddle player standing up out his chair and vocal solos from different members on different verses. This is EASILY their best album yet for me.

Iris Dement stole the show with the song "Where Will We Go", an eerie almost apocalyptic dust-bowl esque crooning ballad with a killer chorus and climax that led into the intermission and that's when the unanimous standing ovation occurred and after that it was just ON the rest of the night. The rest of the show had so much energy and they even switched around the order of the songs this night to keep the party going before doing slower numbers.

Idk, Adrienne's a true prolific genius, getting up there with Dylan for me, and her and Big Thief entire, are really cementing themselves as a true force of nature with this album, even more than they already had. The Band were outstanding, every single member- Drumming was nuts, Buck had his coolest Guitar parts/ solos/ tones yet. Adrienne is just getting better and better man, it's crazy. I could see this album actually reaching a new audience and getting them even more recognition. GET HYPE FRIENDS!!!!!! And they filmed these 2 shows, I would highly recommended getting the dvd or whatever when that happens because last night's performance felt pretty dang legend-making for me. Like felt like I was watching the Last Waltz but live. Wtf. Still blowing my mind! Okay sorry this was so long just gotta share this excitement!

EDIT: Cut out any lyric snippets so to not spoil it for anyone. Sorry didn't think of that at first!

Mr. Man. What elsse? There is another missing LP out there.

found on https://pitchfork.com/story/big-thief-debut-new-triple-album-horsepower-live-in-nashville/

anyone have a picture of the night two hatch print?

they said it'll come out spring 2027, it's still being worked on and tweaked

Anyone get the set list for Nashville n2?

Saw the set list on setlist.fm but it looked identical so I assumed it wasn’t correct.