Brandi Carlile and Josh Ritter at the Bank of America Pavilion
Standard operating practice for recording artists on tour is to focus on their current albums, with concerts not-so-secretly serving as an additional arm of the promotional machine. But Josh Ritter and Brandi Carlile have both spent so much time in live performance over the past 10 years that perhaps it should not have been surprising that they played a combined seven songs from their most recent releases at the Bank of America Pavilion on Saturday. It was almost as if they were less interested in racking up album sales than in simply playing their music.
Following a solo acoustic set by Andy Hull, the Manchester Orchestra frontman whose clear, soft tenor suited his sad-man folk songs, Ritter raised the show’s heartbeat while ultimately remaining frustratingly static. Certainly, plenty of his songs had teeth. “Rumors’’ sped along on a seesaw bassline and sharp piano pulse, “Snow Is Gone’’ was whipped up by Ritter’s fired-up acoustic strumming and the Dylanesque rap of “To the Dogs or Whoever’’ had an upbeat, freewheeling stomp.
But if the toothy grin he maintained throughout his set showed that he was in good spirits, Ritter rarely seemed to push much further. “Here at the Right Time,’’ with its plucked guitar, watery organ and subtly atmospheric lap steel, may have been too gentle for its own good, and the boilerplate acoustic-pop strumminess of songs like “Wolves’’ and “Kathleen’’ never quite expanded to fill the open-air venue.
Carlile had the opposite issue to contend with, as the outdoors seemed too small to contain her voice. She shifted from the dark, churning country of opening song (and possible mission statement) “Raise Hell’’ to an energy-building drum duet that led to the defiant melancholy of “Dreams.’’
Carlile’s too good a singer to simply howl her way through an entire concert, though, and the songs and arrangements took full advantage of the shifting dynamics of her vocals. She and her band were equally effective unloading with rock power into the “The Story’’ as they were transforming into a happy bluegrass outfit for “Caroline’’ and “Keep Your Heart Young.’’ “Before It Breaks’’ seemed to capture Carlile’s entire range: starting with piano, violin and cello, it opened into the full band, with Konrad Meissner’s drums ratcheting up the intensity as Carlile sang in delicate little leaps that nonetheless had no trouble making themselves heard.
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