Like a crimson-haired Emily Dickenson, Jenny Lewis, clad in an old wedding gown, descended the Cat’s Cradle stage from its stairs. Like an angel accompanied by a choir (The Watson Twins) she began to sing towering a cappella on “Run Devil Run.”
Then Scottish singer songwriter and Lewis’ current boyfriend Jonathan Rice as well as a handful of other musicians soon joined the crowded stage. Lewis then launched into “The Big Guns,” a song that shows a jaded Lewis as she sings, “Have mercy, have mercy on me.”
Instead of continuing to play Rabbit Fur Coat in order or like the record was set on random, Lewis and Co. played a sundry set that included “Paradise” from the 7-inch Lewis did with openers Whispertown 2000, a cover of the The Shirelles “I Met Him On A Sunday” and two new tracks.
“I am have a new song I would like to play for you all,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t have a name yet, but if you have any suggestions, write it on a piece of paper and send it up to the stage.”
After the audience, boys and girls alike, stopped requesting the song be named “Jenny Loves [Insert Name Here]” Lewis began singing the twangy tune in her vulnerable alto, “Try as we might there’ll be no leavin’ tonight.”
The Watson Twins earn their co-credit on the bill throughout the night by way of their lively harmonies which brought depth to Lewis’ sometimes ailing timber as they mimicked each other’s moves in the background clanking quarters and wooden sticks together while they swayed.
As the guitar continued to decay through the peaceful atmosphere The Watson twins and band took their leave from the stage. Lewis then went unaccompanied as she delivered the title track from Rabbit Fur Coat, a semi-autobiographical dream-like lullaby.
The metronome began pulsating as Lewis took her place at the electric piano and begins to sing “Born Secular,” a tune full of striking harmonies and jaded spirituality. Lewis slides away from the piano, waves goodbye to the adoring crowd and leaves from whence she came while the band jams out and then slowly falls off one by one into a collage of noise until the drummer is left alone still beating the rhythm into the hearts of the Jenny Lewis faithful.
However this wasn’t the end of the night, as Lewis, with The Watson Twins and Rice in tow, returned to the stage for the wistful “It Wasn’t Me” and “Cold Jordan” a hymnal about how, “You better take Jesus with you, because he’s a true companion” ending the night with a hopeful, non-jaded view on spirituality.

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