What a cold, dreary day. I was up near the venue early to watch my beloved Chelsea FC win the league at some random sports bar in a strip mall because I knew I would never make it to Merriweather in time for Jenny Lewis’ opening act if I watched at a good soccer bar in DC. Jenny was still sound checking when they opened the gates, so I got four bonus songs. Score.
Thankfully I had seats under the pavilion. I’ve never seen the lawn so empty. Staff said that they upgraded as many lawn people as they could to get folks out of the cold rain (and it was really cold) and most people that didn’t get upgraded seem to abandon the concert all together. I can’t blame them. Sitting out there would have been miserable.
The crowd was only half full for Jenny Lewis, presumably because of traffic. Her set was sadly pretty short (less than an hour). She basically got in one song each from her bands, one song off her first two solo albums, and several off of her latest. She also played three new songs from a record that she is currently recording with Ryan (he joined on guitar for one of them). So get hype for some new, awesome Jenny Lewis music. I love that she is continuing to rock the Gram Parsons bedazzled suit part of her career. Her outfits crack me up.
Jenny’s set was short so as to accommodate a very long set from Ryan, whose one-song encore (a duet of “Come Pick Me Up” with Jenny) ended right at the Merriweather curfew time. I’d never seen him live and he was awesome. He opened strong with “Do You Still Love Me” and “To Be Young.” The highlights for me were twofold: early in the set he busted out my favorite (“Two”) and midway through the 25-song set he did an epic version of “Magnolia Mountain.” The king of covers, he busted out a good solo version of “Wonderwall.”
Ryan was a great entertainer and his stage banter was hilarious and endearing. The only thing that could have been better was if he and Jenny did more songs together. But it was a pretty perfect concert.
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