“Jenny, I’ve got your number / I need to make you mine / Jenny don’t change your number / 8675309,” Tommy Tutone’s 1981 hit filled the room as the lights dimmed and Jenny Lewis was preparing to take the stage at Kings Theatre Thursday night. It was perfectly coordinated between the matching piano, mini platform and banners hanging from the wall, fringe hanging from the keyboards on stage right and transparent old-school dial telephones sprinkled about.
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
After 5 years of fans patiently waiting, Jenny released On the Line this past spring – an album full of inconspicuous yet prominent dark poetry and some of the most beautiful storytelling I’ve heard.
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Her set, like her album, floated between moments of calmness and moments of celebration. During “Hollywood Lawn,” I took a moment to sit and just soak in the feeling – staring up at the ornate gold ceiling and taking a deep breath in to the sound of Jenny singing, “’Cause your demons got reason to fight / And you keep dreamin’, yeah, yeah.” While during “Little White Dove,” big colorful balloons descended on top of the crowd, creating a wave of people jumping up tap and interact with them.
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Towards the middle of her set, she performed a little telephone skit with opening act of the evening, The Watson Twins, who then came out on stage to accompany Jenny in performing “Rise Up with Fists” and “Melt Your Heart.”
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny closed her set with Rilo Kiley favorite, “Silver Lining” and also threw in the emotional “I Never” into the encore. I would have been completely satisfied leaving the theater that night full of chills from her performance of “I Never” and the overwhelming high school nostalgia it brought to me but Jenny had other plans.
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
She ended her encore on “Rabbit Hole” – a metaphoric tune about not wanting to back down the same path with the wrong person again. The performance played up the Alice in Wonderland metaphor as a person dressed in a bunny costume came out and started dressing band members up on stage as the mad hatter and Jenny as the Queen of Hearts. As she sang the final line – “I am gonna go down the rabbit hole / Without you, without you” – the rabbit picked her up in a carry-over-the-threshold lift and they glided off stage to the sound of a cheering crowd.
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Full Set-list:
Heads Gonna Roll
Wasted Youth
Head Underwater
Happy
Voyager
Do Si Do
She’s Not Me
Rise Up with Fists
Melt Your Heart
Hollywood Lawn
Redbull & Hennessey
Just One of the Guys
Little White Dove
Born Secular
Standing in the Doorway
Silver Lining
Encore:
Taffy
Party Clown
I Never
Rabbit Hole
Article: Merissa Blitz
