Marissa Nadler
Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco
June 27, 2024
Photos by Geoffrey Smith
The last time that Marissa Nadler put out a record was three years ago, 2021’s magnificent The Path Of The Clouds. With no newly released material to promote, she announced a run of West Coast dates that promised “deep cuts, discog faves, and more,” and I knew that that was a set I couldn’t miss out on. Despite being a fan Nadler’s for nearly a decade, the only chance I’d had to see her live before was a short opening set close to the beginning of the pandemic. The music of Marissa Nadler is hard to put into one box. Her music technically falls within the confines of what you would call “singer/songwriter,” but her songs are tinged with an ethereal atmosphere a la Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins, and she delivers her lyrics in a singing voice that makes you hang on every word that comes out of her mouth. When I had seen her previously her set was delivered in a straight-forward acoustic fashion, so I was curious to see if that would be the same route that she would take on this run of shows.
Opening her set with the song “Storm” from her latest album, Marissa noted once she finished, “It’s the first song, I can play it a little loose.” Up next was the opening song from The Path Of The Clouds, the reverse murder ballad “Bessie, Did You Make It?” The song, and most of the set as a whole, was played by Marissa on an electric guitar as she finger-picked the notes, each one ringing out beautifully and clearly through the venue. The entire audience watched each and every song in rapturous silence, Marissa’s songs demanding the full concentration from the packed room.
For some songs, such as “All Out Of Catastrophes” from her 2018 album For My Crimes, Marissa would loop the rhythm guitar parts as well as live backing vocal parts before soloing overtop of it, faithfully recreating the dense atmospherics of that album live. The more distorted lead parts were played beautifully over her intricate finger-picking. I’ve seen artists use looping effects before in live settings, but this was one of the rare instances where it truly felt like there were multiple musicians onstage playing all of the various parts. She did it again a couple of more times throughout her set, all to the same effect.
One of the deep dives into her vast discography came towards the end of the set when she brought opener Scout Gillett onstage to sing backing vocals on the song “Leave The Light On.” One of the highlights from an EP comprised of material that didn’t make it onto her 2014 album July, it’s a song that I never thought I would see Marissa perform live. Before the song she mentioned that this was only the second time that the two had done the song together, but they performed it in a way that made it sound like they had been doing it for years. It was a highlight of the set.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Marissa’s aforementioned album July, which she played a few selections from, but perhaps more interestingly this year also marks the twentieth anniversary of her debut album Ballads Of Living And Dying. To mark the occasion, she closed her set with the first song on the album, “Fifty Five Falls.” Another song that I never thought I would see Marissa play (hell, I never thought I would see her play anything from the album at all), the song was another one that Marissa extended by looping her parts over and over and soloing overtop of the rhythm guitar parts. The song stretched on longer than the five-minute version on her debut album, as Marissa seemingly updated the atmosphere to more closely match her recent material. After a while, Marissa lowered the volume of her looped guitar and vocal parts until there was silence. With this celebration of her earliest material, the show came to a close, and the cheering from the audience made it clear to Nadler how fortunate they seemingly all felt to be able to witness it. I know that that’s how I felt.
Opening the show was Scout Gillett, a musician based out of Brooklyn and playing San Francisco for only the second time. Playing lead guitar and singing, and joined by Omar Schambacher on rhythm guitar, her songs had a hint of country as well as a hypnotic quality that kept me engaged throughout her extended opening set, and her music was a great complimentary appetizer to the main course of Marissa Nadler’s set. Hopefully she’s able to come back to the Bay Area soon as a headliner.
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