Jenny Lewis performing at Shaky Knees Festival in 2014 (Photo by Robb D. Cohen\/Invision\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\nMuch anticipation led up to Jenny Lewis\u2019 May 6th stop at The Roxy. After touring with The Postal Service for most of 2013, Lewis has only granted her fans five solo shows, and Tuesday would mark her first\u00a0appearance at\u00a0\u00a0The Roxy in 2014. Long awaited, and much overdo, she returned with new material to\u00a0make audiences squeal.<\/p>\n
Having fallen hard for Jenny Lewis in my late teens, my first time at The Roxy (or in West Hollywood for that matter)\u00a0couldn’t have been more filled with excitement, as my adolescent dreams would coming to fruition in an instant. After perusing her setlists from the Bridge School Benefit and much earlier shows, there really was no predicting what Jenny was going to pull out of her hat. All anyone really knew was that she was on at 9:30, and her opener, described as magical, was on at 9:23.<\/p>\n
And magical he was! The rather cheeky magician performed a shrinking card act, a self-mending string trick, and ended with a cutout paper snowflake that eventually read The Voyager<\/em>, the title of Jenny Lewis\u2019 upcoming album. When the magic act ended, the curtain dropped suddenly and the real anxiety began.<\/p>\nIf there is anything that is certain about Jenny Lewis fans, it is that their love for her does not stray from the extreme. I found myself gushing with fellow fans moments before the curtain rose, the type of gushing where you are unknowingly blushing and clutching your heart in swoon. When the curtain rose, the crowd erupted and Jenny sat down at the keyboard for the first song. I couldn\u2019t help but notice that the performer had barely aged in the last\u00a0ten years and is as energetic and on point than ever.<\/p>\n
She opened with \u201cHead Under Water,\u201d a solid choice considering that the wonderfully upbeat piano ballad with a kick-drum rhythm got the crowd moving.\u00a0After her first song she couldn\u2019t help but crack an infectious smile; the crowd went nuts. She remarked \u00a0how long it had been and then busted out a Rilo Kiley classic, \u201cSilver Lining.\u201d Now, for me, the Rilo Kiley songs hit me hard, and by the gasp of the crowd, I could tell I was not alone. These were the most poignant moments of the night, and they warranted the best sing-alongs.<\/p>\n
Lewis’ performance is magnetic; when she stands at the mic with her guitar, her eyes move from person to person, making intimate eye contact with every single fan, even if just for a split second. It is evident that this woman has spent most of her life in the spotlight because she certainly knows how to command the attention.<\/p>\n
She prefaced every new song\u00a0with hints about their themes, at one point divulging that Megadeth frontman, Dave Mustaine, is her spirit animal, confessing that, after all, she and Mustaine have the same hairstyle. Her anecdotes made the new material all the more enjoyable, which could have been difficult for a less gracious artists with such a beloved back catalogue. I\u2019ve been to shows before where the artist plays new material, perhaps too heavy-handedly. There\u2019s a fine line between giving the fans some new material to get excited about and inundating them with material that they\u2019re not yet familiar with. Lewis did a superb job of mixing up her setlist with her classics, from Rilo Kiley and her own solo repertoire, and the new stuff.<\/p>\n
To her credit, the highlights of the show were clearly the new material, which is so fresh and reinvigorating that you can almost (almost) forgive Jenny for taking so long to release a new album. As she hasn\u2019t actually set a released a date for The Voyager<\/em>, fans will have to continue to be patient. Also, she pulled out a very special Rilo Kiley treat when she played \u201cA Man\/ Me\/ Then Jim.\u201d Her encore was enchanting, as her new band stepped out from behind their instruments to sing backup vocals on \u201cAcid Tongue.\u201d She closed out the show with a new song, which I felt was a very risky move. But, as expected, she nailed it, because \u201cShe\u2019s Not Me\u201d is such a rockin\u2019 jam.<\/p>\nFrom what I can gather about The Voyager<\/em>, it is going to arguably be her strongest album to date. Acid Tongue<\/em>\u00a0saw Jenny Lewis honing in on her sound, and this new material\u00a0sounds as if Jenny will be reinventing that sound in a very retrospective sort of way. Whatever it ends up being, I\u2019m more than glad that she\u2019s back and will be on the look out\u00a0for more post-album release tour dates;\u00a0 I will certainly be seeing her again.[\/fusion_builder_column][\/fusion_builder_row][\/fusion_builder_container]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] Much anticipation led up to Jenny Lewis\u2019 May 6th stop at The Roxy. After touring with The Postal Service for most of 2013, Lewis has only granted her fans five solo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":8004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[565,638,204],"tags":[1801,1803,1802,1804],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/jenny-lewis-voyager-e1400272117681.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7990"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19563,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7990\/revisions\/19563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}