Melissa Etheridge and Indigo Girls brought their co-healine tour to the Mann in Philadelphia. 3 hours of amazing music and community. This was a true co-headline tour which is rare these days. Both artists played full 90-minute sets with no opener. I truly feel like every audience member got the best of both worlds. On this particular night Melissa opened the show and Indigo Girls closed it. The show kicked off at 7:30 PM and ended sharply at 11. During that time the nearly sold out crowd danced, sang, cheered and shouted their love to one another. The one thing about this tour is the sense of community. With two LGBTQ acts on the bill the audience was largely part of the family or an ally and mostly women. It was a completely safe space for everyone to be themselves without fear.
For myself both Melissa and Indigo Girls got me through my late teens and college years. Watching Melissa publicly come out during my high school years was a defining moment in my life, knowing that things would now be different, that things would be ok. As for Indigo Girls my freshmen college RA let me borrow her Swamp Ophelia cd and the rest was history. I first saw them in the fall of 1996 and have seen them nearly 100 times since all across the country.
Melissa Etheridge performed 12 songs during her set. Mostly classic guitar driven songs that everyone looks forward to and one new one from her documentary I'm Not Broken. She opened her set with "No Souvenirs" which I loved. It has so much energy, shows off her raspy vocals and her insane guitar chops. Her bandmates were absolutely flawless as well. Her next song was "Angels Would Fall" which is a personal favorite and then "Don't You Need" which she spent quite a bit of time just jammimg the hell out her guitar. Melissa is one of those artists that I feel is overlooked for her musicianship, she absolutey is one of the most talented guitar players around.
Melissa slowed it down a bit for a cover song on piano. To my surprise it was "The Weekness in Me" by Joan Armatrading. This is absolutely one of my all time favorite songs. I was a late comer to Joan's music as I discovered it from the 10 Things I Hate About You soundtrack but this song stood out so much that I had to listen to the rest of her music. Melissa did an incredible job with this song and I was simply happy to hear it.
Melissa Etheridge then performed her new song "The Shadow of a Black Crow" which appears in her documentary I'm Not Broken which was filmed at a womens penitentiary. The song is about her losing her son to opiods. It's extremely powerful and you can feel her pain and loss through the performance. I had seen Melissa perform her one woman show on Broadway and she went into so many details about her life and the loss of her son. Seeing her heal through her music is amazing.
The whole audience got a treat when Amy Ray and Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls) joined Melissa for her song "You Can Sleep While I Drive". I love to see when artists collaborate on stage, you could just see how joyful they were and how much they respected each other as artists.
Melissa Etheridge closed out the night with a bunch of her beloved hits including "Come to My Window", "Bring Me Some Water", "I'm the Only One" and "Like the Way I Do". What an amazing performace from an amazing artist. I will never get tired of seeing her perform, she just glowed the whole evening.
On this night in Philly Indigo Girls closed out the show. As I've mentioned I've seen Amy and Emily perform around a hundred shows since 1996 all across the country. I've seen them as an acoustic duo, with a full band and Amy Ray's solo shows. Every show is a unique experience. They always change their set lists and from time to time take requests from fans. Their catalogue is expansive and would probably take two solid days for them to perform all of their songs, this keeps the fans coming back for more. I was excited for this tour with a full band. Their touring band has the most talented musicians that I always look forward to seeing. Lyris Hung (violin), Clare Kenny (bass), Blair Cunningham (drums), Carol Issacs (accordian, keys, percussion, piccalo) have been backing Amy and Emily for many years. On this tour they added the ever fabulous Lucy Wainwright Roche on backing vocals, she's been opening their tours for many years so it was great to see her as part of the band. Also this time around Jeff Fielder (guitar) is making an appearance, he's been an intergral part of Amy's solo band.
Indigo Girls opened their night with one of their slower and more dramatic songs, "Kid Fears". Melissa Etheridge returned the favor and sang the song with them, it was fantastic. The girls then ramped up the energy with "Least Complicated" and "Joking". I cannot say enough how much joy this band brings to the stage and to the audience. Everyone is just plain happy.
Emily slowed it down with her song "Mystery". This song hits me every time. The unique thing about the Indigo Girls is that even though they are a duo each of them provide their own lead vocals to songs. They each write and cowrite for each other and then provide the most most glorious harmonies for their other half. They are probably the most unique band when it comes to that aspect.
They went back and forth between harder rock guitar based songs and acoustic songs. Some highlights were "Shame on You", "Trouble" and "Tether" and classic staples, "Galileo" and their closer "Closer to Fine". If you don't know Amy and Emily have builit their career around politcs and activism. They are anti war and pro people. I have some of their older guitar picks that say no nukes on them. Towards the latter part of their set a younger woman was walking through the audience with a Kamala Harris sign and the crowd cheered as she went by, I could see the girls smirking from stage. Like I said this was a show of safety for all.
What an incredible night this was. I didn't see anyone head out early to miss the traffic, everyone stayed to the last note to enjoy the most perfect evening. I would see this tour again and again.
I'd love to see Melissa! Amazing photos