Venue: Moore Theatre - Seattle, WA
Date: 10/19/05
Highlights:
"So Close to My Heart"
"Beauty of the Rain"
"Empire"
"Two Sides of a River"
"Iowa"
REVIEW
Dar Williams' career is defined by her outstanding performances, and her October 19th show at Seattle’s Moore Theatre was no exception.
The show began with Dar standing alone on a darkened stage, singing her cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” Sometime toward the end of the first verse, her band trickled onto their instruments and joined in for the chorus. Her band is so tight and intuitive, that if you close your eyes, you may even forget they’re there.
It’s always nice to see a singer/songwriter not get overshadowed by their backup players, and Dar seems to have carefully chosen a great group of players. Experienced folks like drummer Steve Holley and keyboardist Julie Wolf added their welcomed accompaniment skillfully.
Perhaps even more than her insightful, poetic lyrics and melodic vocals, Dar is well-known for her between-song banter. On this night, her commentary covered everything from wondering aloud about the American attachment to fashion and gentrification, to her Kathie Lee Gifford impression and witty commentary likening the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to a love life (paraphrasing: “Love life is under sea level … you never know when the levee’s gonna break, and then you’ll be under-funded”).
Unlike some performers, who always appear to be on auto-pilot, Williams tends to look so concerned when she sings, as if she’s worried her point may not be getting across. This quality makes her so worth seeing live, because it’s clear how much the music means to her.
Still, her songs aren’t as much about some greater message as they are about how people relate to one another, and how Dar, perhaps, wishes they would relate to one another.
On this tour, she’s taking extra strides (via her "Echoes Initiative") to promote community activist networks and organizations local to the towns in which she performs. Seattle’s organization of choice was Seattle Youth Garden Works, an organization that teaches skills to at-risk youth, including work ethic, organic farming, and the importance of nature. Dar introduced the organization, endorsed it, then stepped aside to let representatives from the organization speak to the audience for a few minutes.
Her activism is not of the fist-pumping sort, however. It’s more earnest, and in that way, possibly even more effective. Her newer, more overtly political songs like “Empire” and “Echoes” were very well-received by the enthusiastic audience.
Despite the adeptness of her band, the best moments of the night were when they stepped away, and Dar performed on her own, or when she was joined only by keyboardist Julie Wolf. Songs like “The One Who Knows,” and “The Sea” were given silencingly lovely performances. “The End of the Summer,” which was the only song she performed entirely alone, met the most appreciative response of the night.
The entire show ended with a two-song encore, which capped off with a fabulous sing-along to what seems to be her biggest “hit” song, “Iowa.” She prompted the audience to wave their cell phones in the air, in lieu of lighters, and this Seattle audience of high-tech computer geeks showcased all their shiny gadgets as they sang along ironically to a song about love and the natural beauty of Iowa.
