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| The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The Lone Bellow - Zach Williams, Kanene Donehey Pipkin and Brian Elmquist - took the stage armed only with acoustic guitars, a mandolin and their terrific harmonies to take on a rowdy, spirited Saturday night crowd at The Independent. The opener, Jonny Fritz had been created by an already full club with initial indifference – ignored and nearly drowned out by conversation before he eventually won much of the crowd over with a combination of confrontation and charm. But, despite their Brooklyn-origin and current Nashville residence, the headlining trio were treated as homecoming heroes by the sold-out crowd that immediately switched into near library-quiet.
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| Zach Williams of The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The core members of the band proceeded to take The Independent on a two-hour tour of their catalog with a focus on their 2013 self-titled debut album – starting with a beautiful “You Never Need Nobody” that was begun acapella around a single, center microphone before it gained steam and backing. As it ended with Zach Williams singing the final refrain of “…and all I ever do is wrong,” an already perspiring Williams acknowledged the heat of the packed venue. “I always start off with a jacket and then take it off for dramatic effect,” he joked – revealing a Jonny Fritz t-shirt he would wear for the rest of the show.
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| The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
An upbeat “The One You Should’ve Let Go” followed, before Williams quipped “Moving on to the next slow song with ‘You Don’t Love Me Like You Used To” with the three trading off lyrics and the crowd singing along – many at the top of their lungs. “This is the first song we ever sang together; Williams told the crowd as they stayed to the initial album with “You Can Be All Kinds of Emotional.” Yet another song from The Lone Bellow followed with “Two Sides of Lonely” with Williams, Pipkin and Elmquist demonstrating their one-of-a-kind beautiful harmonizing.
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| The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The first deviation from the debut LP came with a cover of The National’s “Pink Rabbit” – perhaps in tribute to The National’s Aaron Dessner who produced their second and fourth albums. Though The Lone Bellow would only perform fifteen songs on this night – the band members were frequently engaging and even personally revealing with the audience – creating an intimate and extremely deep connection between the audience. Williams, in particular, was forthcoming with personal details about the origin of songs. He prefaced “Homesick” off their 2023 album Love Songs for Losers with the story that he had written the song on the day he first heard of the passing of Americana superhero John Prine. Williams' reveal brought new meaning to the song’s mesmerizing lyrics – including “It’s a long walk and a short life to live.”
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| The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Next, Elmquist told the story of his grandfather visiting him in New York in a visit that resulted in the first-time city visitor praying that everything would be ok outside of a subway station. “Heaven Don’t Call Me Home” off 2015’s Then Came the Morning gave the smiling Elmquist a moment in the shining spotlight on a night that he often hung left and behind of the stage’s brighter lights. Pipkin and Williams delighted in backing their lead guitarist with Williams going out front to cheer on the crowd’s participation. Williams then told the story of his great-grandmother who was known for grave robbing in South Carolina and had five husbands die of natural causes. He segued into the tale of his crazy, auto racing Uncle Dale buying a horse on the cheap that had been badly injured by a barbed wire encounter that led to a touching “Fire Red Horse.”
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| The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Pipkin’s turn for sharing came up next, but she opted for a different direction. “I’m from Virginia. I have a crazy family, but I don’t like to tell those stories in public. So, here we go…” She took the lead on a terrific version of “Button” – leaning into the lyrics:
“And I wanna’ love you, but you just want to lie.
Oh, you’ve got a button that’ll make you cry.”
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| The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
While there is no doubt that Williams provides The Lone Bellow’s greatest energy and charisma and Elmquist’s guitar fuels many of the songs’ drive, Pipkin serves as the secret weapon with her terrific singing, accented playing and head mistress of the boarding school oversight of her ever playful cohorts. Williams and Elmquist embraced this throughout the night and took joy in supporting every moment that Pipkin took center stage.
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| The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The band next performed a song to be released this week on the one-year anniversary of the horrific Nashville Covenant School Shooting. “Victory Garden” – dedicated to the victims – was performed live for only the second time and served as a powerful reminder of the senselessness of hate crimes. The three took turns on lead vocals as the crowd maintained near silence.
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| The Lone Bellow @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The band then cranked the energy back up for the last four songs. A cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” served to bridge the mood from tragedy to optimism. They then closed the set with a rousing version of 2023’s “Honey” and set the crowd singing and clapping along furiously with the debut album’s “Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold.” A thunderous ovation and stomping on the wood floor led to the band quickly retaking the stage for the encore. “We couldn’t leave San Francisco without singing this one,” Williams said as they finished with a soulful version of “Tree to Grow.”
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| Jonny Fritz@ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
As mentioned earlier, Jonny Fritz battled an uninterested crowd early on – first acknowledging their lack of attention during the second song as he remarked “Oh, you’re talking. You’re really talking” and the audience showed no sense of self-muzzling, Fritz went on the attack – ending the song with an adlibbed lyric of “Just shut up. Please shut up. Oh God just shut the f#*k up!” as sympathizers in the crowd cheered. Sporting gold sparkling shoes, Fritz further told the crowd, “Luckily, I rely on audiences for very little of my self-esteem. Very little.”
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| Jonny Fritz @ the Independent (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
By the fourth song, he decided to ditch his guitar and sing acapella and while the confrontation and going even quieter might easily have backfired, it worked on this night. Whether it was greater music fans coming in later or simply his awkward charm winning people over, applause and appreciation increased throughout his set. As his voice became more audible, there was a clear similarity to My Morning Jacket’s Jim James. In the end, he left to a warm welcome as the audience readied to welcome the headliners.
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