Dar Williams has achieved an almost cult-like following of adoring fans in the past few years - and it seemed like most of them showed up as she gave one of the biggest and most dynamic concerts of her career at the Orpheum last Sunday. The petite but powerful folk singer sang her heart out for two hours, and the crowd still wanted more. Williams - along with an impressive and talented back-up band - performed songs from her new album The Green World as well as songs from other albums, such as The Honesty Room and Mortal City.
The seedy but still glorious Orpheum was filled with Dar enthusiasts who knew the words to each and every one of her songs. The crowd, however, had to wait a bit before Dar came onto the stage. Barry Crimons, a political satirist, opened up the show and cracked numerous jokes about the election controversy as people wandered in and out of their seats. With this move, Dar seemed to be following in the footsteps of Aimee Mann and Micheal Penn's Acoustic Vaudeville tour, in which a stand-up comedian would make appearances during their performance.
Following Crimons' routine, Catie Curtis, a folk-rocker with a steadfast following of her own, took the stage. Curtis's warm, breathy voice was both mysterious and comforting. She captured the audience's attention and sang her heart out for a good eight or nine songs. Some of her songs were undeniably clever, such as "I'm a Slave to My Belly," a fun tune in which Curtis talks of how she hates having to deal with bodily needs when all she wants to do is play guitar all day. The lyrics to some of her songs seemed a bit forced and contrived, but she did have a couple of gems.
Curtis was grateful to Dar for having the chance to open for her and amused the crowd with antics about her. "Let me tell you something you all don't know about Dar," Curtis said with a huge grin on her face. "At my bachelor party, she did a strip show."
When Dar finally came on stage, the crowd was more than ready for her. Looking chic in a pink pleather tank-top and black pants, she seemed a far cry from the singer who used to wear long dresses and stand on a bare stage with an acoustic guitar. She opened with the song "Moon," the first track of her new album. This sweet and yearnful song was a great opener for the concert and got the crowd into her soothing and comforting music immediately.
One of the great things about seeing Dar in concert is that she is not just a singer. She's her own one-woman show. She kept the crowd amused with funny tales, anecdotes from her life, and the stories behind her songs. Even if you were not a hard-core Dar fan, you could still appreciate every song because Dar wanted you to understand the story behind it.
Even though her beautiful, warm voice seemed a bit tired at the beginning of the night - perhaps from the extensive touring she has been doing in the past couple of weeks - she kept her energy up and seemed energized by the contagious excitement of the crowd. As the DJ from a Boston radio station said when he introduced her, she could sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and it would sound beautiful.
The Green World was just released a few months ago, and Dar seemed excited to be singing her new material for the audience. Unlike some artists whose music seems to get more experimental and distant from their earlier work, Dar has built upon the strength of her former albums in this new work. The beautiful, lyrical tunes and introspective lyrics seem to signify that Dar has come to a sort of peace with herself. She was in her element with songs such as "Yoko Ono," a song that talks about John Lennon's wife and poses the question: would Yoko have been better off on her own as an artist rather than as a side-kick? Dar was also especially dynamic during her rendition of "Spring Street," a song in which she talks about how she came to resist "selling-out" and came to an understanding of herself.
Another wonderful moment was when Dar introduced the song, "God Descended," which she wrote after reading an Isaac Bashevis Singer story about an Eastern European community that fell for a fake Messiah. She explained that she felt the punishment dealt to these people was unfair as she felt she could easily have been one of those people who believed the world was coming to an end.
One of her most fun songs from the album was "What Do You Love More than Love?" which she described as her "Buddhist pop song." This hummable song could easily be the song that will be a radio hit from her album. Dar seemed a bit reluctant to enter into pop-star icon territory, but didn't seem to mind if the song actually became popular among the masses.
When one of her guitar strings broke during her rendition of the haunting song "Captain," Dar dealt with the incident in a professional manner. The crowd was disappointed and several fans asked her to start the song again. Dar declined and said, "The gods have spoken," noting that in all the concerts she's given, this is the first time that a guitar string has broken.
Dar showed her support of rising artists when she let her backup singer sing one of her own pieces. She didn't mind sharing the stage with this talented singer and singing back-up for her song - despite it obviously being Dar's own concert. She seemed to have a nice rapport with her band members and talked of the fun they had while on the tour bus, entertaining and exposing each other to new songs and singers. Dar mentioned that she was excited because her back-up singer was going to release her own CD on June 22.
And what would a Dar concert be without some of her old favorites? The crowd got to hear classics such as "Baby-sitter", "Are You Out There", "Alleluia", "The Ocean", and "The Christians and the Pagans".
"Don't worry, I'm not insulted that you like my old songs better," she said when the crowd screamed in excitement in the middle of the concert when she began to play the heart-achingly beautiful song, "If I Wrote You".
Dar seemed humbled and overwhelmed by the crowd members that were jumping off their seats. Her adoring fans didn't want to let her leave the stage and made her come out for three encores. During her last encore, she came out on the stage with just her and her guitar. After all, that is what she is essentially - a woman with a guitar who with her poetry and haunting music has managed to capture the hearts of folk enthusiasts worldwide.
