Father John Misty – April 9th – Ellie Caulkins Opera House

Estimated read time 5 min read

12-TYH_8721-Edit
Photos by Ty Hyten

The Scene: In the four years that have followed Father John Misty’s 2012 album, Fear Fun, his Denver shows have come a long way. In his first visit to Denver, an acoustic opening set for Youth Lagoon at The Bluebird back in 2012, a slightly intoxicated Josh Tillman (otherwise known as Father John Misty) snarkily quipped at the audience as they talked over songs from what would become one of the biggest releases of that year. Saturday night couldn’t have been further from that show. It marked the first of two sold-out nights at one of Denver’s most lavish venues, the 2,225 seat Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The venue, usually reserved for the fine arts, was filled with 25-40 year olds, more well dressed than a show at the Ogden, but not on par with the venue’s traditional sport coat and evening-gown crowd. The large corridors provided a great atmosphere for fans to drink wine (out of covered cups with straws), and because of this, the venue was about half empty for opener Tess and Dave. After the opener concluded, the bulk of the crowd quickly found their way to their red velvet seats on one of the four levels of the massive theater.

Father John Misty: The house lights went dark and a demonic sounding vocal clip played as Josh Tillman and six musicians took to the stage. He took the stage, encouraged the crowd to stand, and eased into it with “Every Man Needs a Companion.” The spotlight focused on Tillman, in a blazer over a nearly completely unbuttoned shirt. His large band of multi-instrumentalists remained silhouettes most of the night – both in sight and sound. Tillman glided across the stage frantically gesturing, femininely twirling his hips, throwing his hands up, kicking his head back and collapsing to the stage like some sort of fainting damsel in an old Western movie.  

Tillman is not only a gifted writer, but an outstanding performer. He embraces the art-form in a way few artists do anymore. He fell to his knees, reaching into the front rows, dramatically imploring fans to share some sort of empathetic moment with him, all the while telegraphing that he was completely kidding. More than once, he hopped down from the stage and ventured down the aisle, doing the same, at one point grabbing tightly ahold of my hand, fingers interlocked, the scent of a man working out in a suit filling my nose as he sang directly to me.

Tillman’s stage antics, much like his lyrics, are a form of social commentary, playfully mocking the human concert experience. They were a juxtaposition of playfully cynical lyrics and serious emotional body language – and in that, felt much more genuine than the sincere antics of another performer who resorts to staged emotions in the overselling of a shallow song.

Fans may have scratched their head at the venue choice of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and assumed he may be touring with strings, or doing something scaled down. This certainly wasn’t the case and some songs, like “Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow,” were much bigger and louder than the record. This held true for the bulk of the songs throughout the evening and the audience fully loosened up with the arrival of “I’m Writing A Novel.”

The sound at the venue was pristine. Tillman’s flawless voice was expertly balanced in the mix of multiple keyboards and guitars (three of each at various points). The lighting was also top notch. Smoke billowed across the stage as colored lights searched the crowd, punctuated with bright strobes of light. The sound and lighting combined with the amount of space, ease of getting around, and unobstructed views made the venue one of the best I’ve been to in Denver. And before you suggest that I’m getting old, let me clarify. It was an awesome difference between a recent stretch of oversold shows at some of the venues you’d expect this show to have been. You know, stuck behind tall guys, trapped with a full bladder and dealing with drunks filming full length iPhone videos.

Tillman has handfuls of Instagram photos featuring him in all of life’s situations, while buried in his phone. I don’t know if it was this clear mocking of one of America’s worst habits (guilty) or the quality of the show, but the audience kept their phones in their pockets and remained fully engaged. Even the hotel employees beside me, who work at the hotel Tillman was staying in, and were  given free tickets by him, were absorbed in the show, despite their unfamiliarity. There was also the complete lack of the drunk asshole involving himself by shouting asinine comments and song requests.

Highlights included “Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins), “Honey Bear”, and a “Bored In The USA” with the audience filling in for at least some of the laugh track portions on the record.

The night concluded with an encore beginning with the gentle account of meeting his wife on “I Went To The Store One Day.” Rather than playing a Rihanna cover he had in previous nights, he moved to an explosive cover of Patti Smith’s “Because the Night.” Then, just to be sure he took care of any last dance moves and freakouts, he ended fantastically with the spiraling shitstorm of “The Ideal Husband.”

Saturday was one of Father John Misty’s best Colorado performances – if not his best. It did lack much of his usual hilarious banter, but the energy, the tightness, and the atmosphere made Saturday night an experience worth sharing.

Energy: A+
Musicianship: A
Sound: A+
Stage Presence: A+
Set/Light Show: A

Overall: A

More From Author

+ There are no comments

Add yours