BIG THIEF at Magnolia: the beauty of standing on the edge of the precipice

Article by Simona Ventrella | Photo by Claudia Mazza

There are concerts that entertain you. Others that impress you. And then there are those gods Big Thiefwhich just seem to happen on you. Sunday night at the Circolo Magnolia there were no special effects, giant screens or arena-rock gimmicks. Only four musicians, some discreet lights and a handful of songs capable of opening up emotional chasms. Nevertheless, Adrianne Lenker and companions took the stage and did what they do best: transform fragility into a physical phenomenon, keeping hundreds of people suspended in that fragile and mysterious space that separates intimacy from collective communion.

What is striking is how the new songs never try to impose themselves on the classics. They enter the repertoire as if they had always existed. The evening opens with “Carry”, a song by Adrianne Lenker that seems to come from another room, from another life. It's a perfect choice: instead of exploding, i Big Thief they start by whispering. Then come “Shoulders” and a surprising “Real Love”, and Magnolia immediately understands that it will not witness a simple performance of songs but a collective conversation. “Simulation Swarm” unleashes one of the first collective chills of the evening. Magnolia welcomes it as a classic already carved in the stone of contemporary indie. When Buck Meek attacks that famous solo, the air seems to bend. Nobody really sings: everyone holds their breath and you can feel that rare magic that distinguishes a great band Double Infinity“Incomprehensible” and the title track, show a band that has long stopped chasing the idea of “growth”. THE Big Thief they don't evolve in a straight line: they mutate. Each album is a skin left behind. Each concert is a new version of the same creature.

Big Thief in concert at the Circolo Magnolia in Segrate photo by Claudia Mazza

THE Big Thief they don't perform the songs. They cross them. If “Masterpiece” triggers the first real ovation of the evening, it is “Not” that represents the black heart of the concert. That long electric burn remains their most devastating piece to this day. A slow, nervous, almost unsustainable escalation. Halfway through the song the band stops everything to help a person in the audience who felt ill. No nervousness. No rush. Just attention and respect. When the concert restarts, the accumulated tension finally finds an outlet and the ending of the song becomes even more powerful. As if the humanity of the moment had added specific weight to each note. From then on the concert takes on an almost liquid quality. “Vampire Empire” is hailed as a generational anthem. “Words” and “Incomprehensible” bring everything back to an almost meditative dimension. “Shark Smile” rekindles the audience's energy, while “Mr. Man” and “Pterodactyl” take the set back towards stranger and more unpredictable territories, confirming a now evident truth: the Big Thief they are one of the few contemporary bands that still manages to surprise without having to artificially reinvent themselves with each album.

Yet no one on stage seems interested in perfection. On the contrary. THE Big Thief they continue to look for the unexpected. To leave room for error, for instinct, for continuous interaction between musicians. It is this precariousness that makes them so alive. The encore is a final caress. It begins with “Born For Loving You”, passes through the sweet melancholy of “Certainty” and ends with “Paul”, loudly requested by the public. At that point Magnolia became a choir. Not the festival choir, the one that sings for fun. Rather the chorus of people who look for something in a song and for a few minutes believe they have found it. The greatness of Big Thief it lies not in technical precision, despite being extraordinary musicians, but in their ability to make each performance unstable, open, vulnerable. Every song seems on the verge of falling apart. It never collapses. And this is precisely why it excites. In an era in which much indie music has become an exercise in emotional branding, Adrianne Lenker and co continue to seem like a band that plays because it knows no other way to be in the world. Perhaps this is why, as the lights come on and the audience slowly disperses towards the Idroscalo car park, the feeling remains of having witnessed something rare. In an era that rewards control, the Big Thief they continue to celebrate uncertainty. And it is right there, on the edge of the precipice, that they find their most beautiful form.

Click here to see photos of Big Thief in Milan or browse the gallery below