Live Review: Sixpence None Sixpence None the Richer at City Winery • Chicago
Sixpence None the Richer
City Winery
Chicago, IL
Friday, October 25, 2024
Review and photos by Jeff Elbel
Sixpence None the Richer’s We Are Love tour is the band’s first extended road trip in over 20 years. The ambitious 50-date run stopped on Friday at Chicago’s City Winery for a sold-out show. The band’s hallmarks were undiminished, including Leigh Nash’s winsome soprano and Matt Slocum’s spacious guitar textures. The show began with rocker “Angeltread” and the evocative pop of “Within a Room Somewhere,” both drawn from the 1995 album This Beautiful Mess. The lineup featured drummer Dale Baker and bassist Justin Cary, rounding out the core band that made 2002’s Divine Discontent. The inclusion of Choir drummer Steve Hindalong added depth on percussion, acoustic rhythm guitar, and harmony vocals.
Nash paused to introduce the “very grown-up version of Sixpence” and greet the audience. “This is the fullest I’ve ever seen this room, and I’m very sweaty about it,” she joked, remarking on the dubious choice to wear a black sweater under stage lights. “Sweating down my face always makes me feel like more of a rock star,” she added with a laugh.
The band then performed “Thread the Needle,” a jangling uptempo rocker and the first of several songs from the band’s new Hindalong-produced EP Rosemary Hill. Slocum answered Nash’s youthful vocal with watery guitar lines. Baker propelled the song with a sturdy beat, hitting hard and providing a powerful sound for a band often typecast as a pop group rather than adventurous alternative rockers. The group performed its dreamy cover of “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House, who performed at Ravinia in September.
“The Tide” offered reassurance to a troubled friend. The title track, “Rosemary Hill,” unfolded as a mid-tempo rumination colored by thick clouds and washes of treated guitar reminiscent of the Catherine Wheel circa Chrome. The song offered picturesque memories of the street on which Slocum grew up in Texas.
A surprising addition was “Midnight Sun,” a standout track from the Choir’s 2010 album Burning Like the Midnight Sun. Hindalong has explained at Choir concerts that the song’s imagery has roots in the friendship between Slocum and himself. Cary’s prominent bass line featured swooping glissando notes and limber countermelody. Afterward, Nash poured her heart into “Don’t Let Me Die in Dallas,” a song about her father documenting a season of strengthening bonds despite personal frailty.
Sixpence foreshadowed the enhanced reissue of its Christmas album with Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas” and Joni Mitchell’s “River.” The latter was a match for the band’s undercurrent of melancholy. “I wish I had a river I could skate away on,” sang Nash in a song about a longing to leave sorrows behind as the holiday season approaches.
“Oh well, back to October,” said Nash as the band visited Divine Discontent with “Melody of You” and “Down and Out of Time.” Nash explained that Rosemary Hill’s “Julia” was written to encourage a young girl going through hard times while shuttled between parents in Chicago and Boston.
Slocum donned a 12-string guitar to play the chiming riffs and arpeggios of “There She Goes” by the La’s. The cartwheeling, romantic pop of “Kiss Me” prompted a singalong and stolen smooches throughout the crowd, at least among those who weren’t focused on capturing video of the Billboard Hot 100 #2 single on their phones.
Before winding down the main set, Nash pleaded for kindness during a contentious climate due to the forthcoming election. “Remember that we are human beings and not opinions. It would be really nice if we were left with no option but to love each other.” The main set concluded with the tour’s namesake song, “We Are Love,” from the Rosemary Hill EP. The song’s captivating mood and rhythm echoed the Choir’s Circle Slide, and Slocum’s sparkling guitar borrowed a snatch of Johnny Marr’s curlicue riff from the Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want.”
The band encored with a beautiful version of Divine Discontent’s “Tension is a Passing Note” that invoked additional kinship with Cincinnati’s emotive dream-pop band Over the Rhine. The band took its bows following the reverent and grateful “Breathe Your Name.” Despite the long spell away, Nash promised the band’s return. “This anniversary tour sounds like a farewell, but it really is a hello,” she said.
Category: IE Photo Gallery, Live Reviews
