Great Show
by Tim on 3/19/23Bowery Ballroom - New YorkShow was great. Aoife is a gem. To see her at one of the best music venues made it even better.
Venue
The Guild Theatre - CA
Lineup
Venue
Groton Hill Music Center
Grammy award-winning artist Aoife O’Donovan operates in a thrilling musical world beyond genre. Deemed “a vocalist of unerring instinct” by the New York Times, she has released three critically-acclaimed and boundary-blurring solo albums including her most recent record, 2022’s boldly orchestrated and literarily crafted Age Of Apathy. Recorded and written over the course of Winter and Spring 2021 with acclaimed producer Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Rhiannon Giddens), Age Of Apathy is “stunning” (Rolling Stone) and “taps into the propulsion of prime Joni Mitchell” (Pitchfork).
A savvy and generous collaborator, Aoife is one third of the group I’m With Her with bandmates Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz. The trio’s debut album See You Around was hailed as “willfully open-hearted” by NPR Music. I’m With Her earned an Americana Music Association Award in 2019 for Duo/Group of the Year, and a Grammy-award in 2020 for Best American Roots Song.
O’Donovan spent the preceding decade as co-founder and front woman of the string band, Crooked Still and is the featured vocalist on The Goat Rodeo Sessions - the group with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. She has appeared as a featured vocalist with over a dozen symphonies including the National Symphony Orchestra, written for Alison Krauss, performed with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas, and spent a decade as a regular contributor to the radio variety shows “Live From Here” and “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Show was great. Aoife is a gem. To see her at one of the best music venues made it even better.
Ms. O'Donovan performed Nebraska front to back and she was riveting. Her ability to play and sing with such nuanced dynamics combined with her skilled vocal storytelling never disappoint. I saw the Age of Apathy tour last March, and this was equally wonderful. The opening act Hawktail joined her onstage for encores and this was an unexpected musical gift, only to be topped by the addition of The Westerlies...
Took a group of relatives to the show. Willie Watson put on a great show. He has a distinctive and powerful voice and a solid guitar and clawhammer banjo backup style. Aoife has written a bunch of great songs and has superb vocal delivery. Her band was very talented; we thought the guitar player in particular had some great sounds and technique. Unfortunately, we were fairly close to the stage and his amp was turned up so loud that whenever he was playing we could not really hear Aoife's vocals. There were a few times where he did not play and we were able to hear her beautiful voice clearly. A number of folks around us had the same experience.
Sound was great. Awesome show, packed house on a Wednesday night.
The sound was terrible. Way too loud for Aofie material. Guitar player was very annoying, adding only distorted outer space noise. Drums overwhelmed everything.
The Fletcher Theatre at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts is a great venue! It is a perfect place for an intimate performance, and Aoife O'Donovan's quiet but powerfully soulful style was awesome in that setting! I really enjoyed seeing her in concert here.
Aoife's voice alone could drown out the most severe personal storm, when accompanied with her own subtle guitar, Jake's teasing bass, and Robin's creative percussion, all the world's problems melt from view for a time. Beyond technically solid, well-mixed music, they left any of their own baggage backstage and gave a performance every member of the audience could find something personal in. If this was "...just another town along the road." (Browne), no one there will ever know. Thanks to all, for taking the time to learn their art, and share it with others.
Incredible concert. The acoustics were perfect. The sound level was just right, not too loud. The performance was great. Aiofe was so personable, and it was amazing how good just three instruments sounded with her beautiful vocals.
The Lincoln Theater is an intimate setting that was the perfect venue for O'Donovan and Pikelny. At times it felt like I had four friends over to the house for a concert. The music was great and overall the show was fantastic. I can't wait for them to come back next year!
I loved the show. It was nice to see them only one week into the tour. The show was fresh, Aoife's voice was clear and strong and Noam's banjo was amazing! If you are a fan of acoustic music, your really need to see them.