Three days after her 43rd birthday, Griffin takes the stage to considerable applause. She's been at this for years, and she strides onstage with a confidence that can only come from earning such a reception.
Griffin's handful of albums demonstrate a soulful instrospection, and her latest, Children Running Throuh is no exception. The songs she performs from that album—"Stay On the Ride," "Burgundy Shoes," "Up To the Mountains," and "Heavenly Day," to name a few—elicit sniffles from all over the old theater.
She bows her head and stomps her foot defiantly as her inner teenager emerges, whipping her hair around, on "No Bad News," and the crowd eats it up. After Griffin has just announced how laid-back the audience is, they prove her wrong when, half way through "No Bad News," they're clapping and hooting to the rhythm. When the song ends and the final strum sends echoes into the second balcony, the crowd is on their feet, hands in the air, cheering from the tops of their lungs.
If Griffin had any question as to whether the crowd was awake or not, surely that question was answered.
Breaking into one of the best songs from Children, she announces that she wrote this love song—"Heavenly Day"—for her dog. With almost no visible effort, Griffin's voice swells from the low, easy melody to a chorus as big as the sky. For an audience that braved the late-winter weather (the Vernal Equinox is still two days away), Griffin's ability to transport them to such a heavenly day is highly appreciated.
Other highlights come from her older tunes, like "Useless Desires," and "Love Throw a Line," which groove and rock the audience back from tears.
After three encores, the audience finally lets her go. She closes the whole night, once and for all, with a song in French that she wrote for her grandmother. Once she's sealed the evening with a final sad song, her fans are sent emerging back into the wet streets of Seattle, realizing Patty Griffin sang the rain away.
