The Fleet Foxes can sell out the Ryman in a few hours, but few in the audience noticed Robin Pecknold tuning his own guitar during soundcheck. When lights dimmed and the band emerged, the supposed Pacific Northwest roadie actually was Pecknold.
Considering Pecknold scrapped a full album of songs before the sessions that became Helplessness Blues, it made sense that such a controlling fellow would tune his own guitar.
The band jumped into The Cascades, Helplessness' sole instrumental, and the virulently upbeat Grown Ocean.
The setlist mirrored what the Foxes played earlier on the tour, but it didn't matter. They took majors chunks of three releases then spun those songs into cohesive whole. The harmonies sizzled beneath the Ryman lights, and if ever there was an indoor venue for the Foxes, the Ryman fit the bill. I have heard Pecknold push his vocal range in smaller venues, and in Nashville's most famous, he never seemed to sweat the high notes.
From Sun Giant, the band cut through charges versions of the always emotional Drops in the River and the moodier Mykonos.
Most of the self-titled debut fit into the night. They couldn't avoid Blue Ridge Mountains in this venue, and Your Protector.
This night was about the new album, and it received its proper spotlight. The multi-movement The Shrine/An Argument survived its transition to the stage, while Battery Kinzie and Sim Sala Bim sounded tight and organic. For the first time, I heard clearly where Pecknold paraphrased the opening line of the Marine's Hymn in Montezuma.
The album closes with the hope of Grown Ocean, but the set shuttered on an encore of Pecknold going solo on Oliver James and the band reconvening for a spirited Helplessness Blues.
It's a little odd to hear a guy in his mid-Twenties spend so much time singing about growing old. Fortunately, Pecknold understands growing old doesn't mean growing stale, a slight no one would levy the night the Foxes headlined the Ryman.
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