[ATTENDED: June 11, 2022] Torres [moved from March 2, 2022]
This was my forth time seeing Torres play. I was excited to see her open for Superchunk, but I was (obviously) even more excited to see her play as a headliner.
The headlining gig was great, and I was curious to see how much it would differ when she opened for a well known but not huge indie band. Especially since she is not exactly the same type of music.
Her new album is a love/lust letter to her new wife and in a close setting like Johnny Brenda’s she explored the album in great detail. But her she was able to rock it out with amazing intensity.
She switched her setlist a little to open with the more rocking “Are You Sleepwalking” and followed it with the slower opening “Don’t Go Puttin’ Wishes in My Head” (even though it is ultimately even more catchy).
It was the same band that was on stage at Johnny Brenda’s but the band felt huge. The crowd (at least the crowd near me) really responded to it.
She has made the killer riff from “Cowboy Guilt into a stomping rager which is wonderful to see live. That and “New Skin” are older songs that she has fully mastered live. There is something about the way she sings “a child of God” that gives me shivers every time she sings “New Skin.”
Then she played a few more new songs. “Hug from a Dinosaur” turns into another full-bodied rager and “Thirstier” is one of the sexiest songs every put to record and you can feel the lust when she sings it live.
She ends the set with two of her classic songs. “Sprinter” is an amazing song with an incredible buildup. And “Helen in the Woods,” is a wild song that feels like an exorcism. Mackenzie is practically possessed by the end of the song, playing some guitar so wild that her capo when flying into the audience.
She put on an amazing show. Quite different from the one at Johnny Brenda’s and possibly more intense with more to prove.
I’d see her again in a heartbeat.
SETLIST
| 2022 Union Transfer | 2021 Johnny Brenda’s |
| Are You Sleepwalking? ∇ | Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head ∇ |
| Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head ∇ | Are You Sleepwalking? ∇ |
| Skim ε | Constant Tomorrowland ∇ |
| Good Scare § | Cowboy Guilt ⇒ |
| Cowboy Guilt ⇒ | Good Scare § |
| New Skin ⇒ | Dressing America § |
| Hug from a Dinosaur ∇ | Big Leap ∇ |
| Thirstier ∇ | Skim ε |
| Sprinter ⇒ | Hug from a Dinosaur ∇ |
| Helen in the Woods ε | Thirstier ∇ |
| Kiss the Corners ∇ | |
| Hand in the Air ∇ | |
| Records of Your Tenderness § | |
| Three Futures ε | |
| Sprinter ⇒ | |
| New Skin ⇒ | |
| Helen in the Woods ε | |
| Gracious Day § (solo acoustic) |
| September 2017 Boot & Saddle | June 2017 Union Transfer |
| Tongue Slap Your Brains Out ε | Skim ε |
| Skim ε | New Skin ⇒ |
| Righteous Woman ε | Sprinter ⇒ |
| New Skin ⇒ | Cowboy Guilt ⇒ |
| Honey ⊕ | Three Futures ε |
| Sprinter ⇒ | Strange Hellos ⇒ |
| Cowboy Guilt ⇒ | |
| Bad Baby Pie ε | |
| Three Futures ε | |
| Helen in the Woods ε | |
| Marble Focus ε | |
| Concrete Ganesha ε | |
| incomplete list |
∇ Thirstier (2021)
§ Silver Tongue (2020)
ε Three Futures (2017)
⇒ Sprinter (2015)
⊕ Torres (2013)
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