'The Great Glaspy' wows at the Sinclair

Riding off the waves of her debut success “Emotions and Math” (2016), Margaret Glaspy and her three-piece band rocked The Sinclair in Cambridge last Thursday, packed from the floor to the mezzanine with fans of the indie-folk songwriter. Within her set, which lasted about an hour and a half, she ventured into the popular and obscure off her latest album while experimenting with some new material and sprinkling in some covers as well.

It would be remiss to go without mentioning the sounds that filled the venue before her appearance on stage. Sidney Gish, a local talent currently studying at Northeastern, made the crowd laugh and dance with her quirky lyrics about college life. With her fun guitar licks and strong vocals, she held the growing crowd’s attention throughout her opening performance. Soon after, Simon Okely, better known by his stage name Slow Dancer, enchanted The Sinclair with his smooth, groovy and soulful cuts from his two albums “Surrender” (2014) and “In a Mood” (2017). He noted that this was his first time in Boston and was “falling in love” with the city in the few short hours he had been there.

At around 10:30 p.m., Glaspy took the warmed up stage and set it on fire, wasting no time before playing popular singles such as the eponymous “Emotions and Math” (2016). Her voice, sometimes delivered softly and sweetly, and other times delivered with her famous raw rasp, was consistently met with high praise from the crowd. The cheers only got louder as the night went on.

While her voice is what captures the most immediate attention from the crowd, as the night went on she demonstrated an array of talents, a big one being her heartfelt and honest lyricism. Reading her powerful lines on the internet is always a good time, but there is another dynamic that comes into play when hearing her softly express how she is “a little rock on a big mountain” during her performance of “Somebody to Anybody” (2016) with no backing instrumentation. But of course, when it was time to be a badass, Glaspy didn't shy away from shredding her guitar and jamming along with her bassist and drummer, which was always met with happy applause.

Twice throughout the night, she took the mic to speak rather than sing. The first time, she gave a monologue of love and caring to the victims of the recent tragedies involving the hurricanes that have devastated the Caribbean and some parts of the Americas. She proudly noted that $1 out of each ticket sold for the show will be donated directly to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

The second monologue was much more lighthearted, as she reminisced on the songs she was forced to listen to because of her sister in their shared room growing up. She noted artists and groups such as Lauryn Hill, No Doubt, Beck and Weezer as formative in her childhood musical experience. While mentioning Weezer, she made sure to emphasize that she was a “Pinkerton” (1996) girl, before surprising the crowd with a cover of “Across the Sea” from the classic album.

She spent some time towards the end of the show playing some new songs, presumably from an upcoming project. The songs, while fresh and original, definitely maintained the “Glaspy” feel to them, and the crowd was just as engaged as they were with songs they knew every note of.

To finish off the night, Glaspy spent some time with just her guitar, serenading the crowd sans her backing band. With her final bow, the crowd was satisfied with a show that displayed the best elements of rock, folk and indie from all of its performers. Glaspy has since embarked on the rest of her fall tour, but given this wave of success she has been riding on, she’ll probably find her way back to the Massachusetts Bay very soon.