As the curtains finally opened and the deafening cheers of hundreds of teenage girls filled the venue, the screen lit up with an unexpected sight — a giant Minion, but with Faye Webster’s face, singing a rendition of her song “But Not Kids.” I turned to my friend, both of us wide-eyed and confused.
We found out it was an inside joke among fans due to Faye’s well-documented love for Minions and Yo-Yos — so this felt like a playful nod to her younger audience. I still don’t fully grasp the whole Minion obsession, but before the show even started, two things were already clear to me. The first being that Faye Webster is unapologetically silly, and the second that this was about to be the best show I’ve ever attended.
THE OPENER:
After Faye graced concert-goers with her sweet presence, Faye and her band entered the stage with “But Not Kiss,” one of her singles from the new album. When this single first came out, I truly was not a fan. Its odd jolts and incoherent bursts don’t have the iconic Webster sound that she has in her other songs. I was surprised to see it was her opener when I looked up her setlist a few days before her show because out of all of her poetically brilliant songs, why would she open with this one?
When the song started playing in the dimly lit hall, I started to realize exactly why she would choose this as an opener. The beat dropped and the arena filled with flashing lights and colorful spotlights and the audience screamed as if Faye was hosting some sort of Southern rave. The song was a perfect jumping-off point for the show, offering a mixture of quiet and loud moments where the crowd could cheer as much as they wanted.
THE SET:
About a half hour before the show, Faye’s crew was on stage to set up the backdrop to the show. The majority of the stage’s backdrop was a giant white tee shirt hanging on a giant blue hanger, being a tribute to the album cover of Underdressed at the Symphony. The stage itself is made up of racks of blue-hued jeans and tees and rows of industrial-sized washers, repurposed to correspond with the show’s lighting. To add to the laundry day design, there were bubble machines that blew into the crowd, and machines miraculously spun and lit throughout the show. It was an interesting but beautifully designed set that truly encapsulated the Webster atmosphere we all came to indulge in.
DISCOGRAPHY:
The crowd was filled with devoted fans, each one knowing Webster’s lyrics by heart with their focus entirely on the stage. I was worried it was going to be like one of those concerts where the crowd is roaring so loud you can’t even hear the artist, but boy was I wrong. The amphitheater was the ideal venue for her voice to truly shine. Her soft, twangy style blends beautifully in her genre of bluegrass folk and you can truly feel her sweetness infused within her discography.
Drenched in cold blue lights, Webster grooved through the jazzy constructs of “Kingston,” and a creamy sax solo in “Dream With a Baseball Player” took that style to another level. “In a Good Way” was a grand introduction of strings to these songs and it truly elicited deafening roars from start to finish. As “Right Side of My Neck” played, the stage came alive with bubbles, and the lighting transformed from the dark blue of the new album and a feeling of soft linen in the air.
The songs she chose to perform displayed her experimentalism and musical savviness, touching on a wide range of elements pulled from genres such as alternative, folk, R&B, and jazz. She’s a magician when it comes to composition and lyricism, and this brilliance was especially clear in a live setting. She reuses musical elements in the new album that listeners have heard before, adhering to her signature sound that has yet to lose its twangy sweetness.
THE BAND:
Faye herself switched from instruments between songs, truly highlighting her diverse musicality. She switched from electric guitar to keyboard to mic and back throughout the entire concert, really captivating her interdisciplinary talents to the world of music.
Throughout the set, the enduring highlight for me was the use of saxophone arrangements while playing in songs like “Johnny” or “Dream with a Baseball Player.” She had one bandmate in particular who was formerly playing keyboard, picked up a saxophone, then soon after, a violin. The band’s versatility, when it came to live performances, was jaw-dropping and left me starstruck for days afterward.
Webster would often close her eyes, genuinely lost in the music. She was unafraid to turn her back to the audience as she floated around the stage and exercised her vulnerability and trust with her bandmates. I haven’t seen many concerts in my lifetime, but wow did the instrumentation of Webster’s band blow me away.
COMPLAINTS
Even though she gave a deceptively short set, especially because an hour doesn’t quite feel like enough for the die-hard fans who’ve loved her since her 2013 debut with the album “Run and Tell,” she definitely made the time worthwhile.
My biggest complaint with the show was the lack of a few songs, one being “Undressed at the Symphony.” Because it’s the name of the tour itself, and being the best song on her new album (in my opinion), I was truly surprised it wasn’t played. Also, being one of her most popular songs, I was surprised he didn’t perform “I Know You,” which became increasingly popular in 2023 on TikTok, which led to a surge in popularity and streams across platforms.
OVERALL:
Atmospheric and melodic, Webster’s sound is uniquely lush and dreamy. She was an absolutely enchanting performer and her stage presence was nothing short of majestic. Her lyrical aptitude is both painfully real and humorously silly. Regardless of the concert length, Webster put on a remarkable performance that I would recommend to a die-hard fan or just some friends looking for a fun night out!