Lissie, October 21, 2022 at Teragram Ballroom

We could have tested if we could get multiple tickets at a time from DoMoreLA, but however it was, when tickets for Lissie came up we grabbed them and we got them. That was a lot of shows for October (though we only went together to two, that’s more than we sometimes get out for the rest of the year). It was also a night we had Rae over, so that could have been tricky, but we just went on to a certain ticket website and got her a ticket (which, even if it wasn’t cheap, the total cost of the tickets would have been minimal). We’ve already seen Lissie a couple times, and she was even the only one we watched do a livestream concert during lock-down, and while I was probably good, Carla could see her any number of times. The Teragram is also an easy drive, even on a Friday night, and we could park across the street (for $20, but that’s better than driving around the block too much looking for a space). We got there with an hour to kill even before opener Trash Day (not Cat Clyde like an ad had said, though both of those could be wrong as easily as they could be right), so we had time to take in some of the DTLA nightlife and one of Rae’s early club shows. For that it wasn’t much to speak of, but it could be a low-stakes night out and an often-mellow folk-rock show. And Lissie is always talented and charming enough. If nothing else she has a good voice and some good songs. Though this show, while touring on Carving Canyons, was half-capacity, if that, so it was easy to get around and as close as we wanted to the stage, but it doesn’t give you much hope that this artist you like may be able to keep going for you. Everyone might have been there for “When I’m Alone,” which would be understandable, though that wasn’t enough of a hit to bring out people to a show they could leave early for. It also took me to this show to realize what a Fleetwood Mac vibe she has (as any flower-child who was familiar with the ‘70s would be; and if her sound didn’t sell it, she could have done it all with the boho dress that looked comfortable enough that you could wish to be that kind of rock star), maybe even without the guitarist riding some Buckingham riffs. FM were trending at the time anyway so it would have fit, but it’s a shame she couldn’t use that to hype herself more, and it became just an element for those already in the know. Even an enthusiastic cover could have taken her far, but she seemed to avoid those (except for “Pursuit Of Happiness” or what she played in her livestream). Rae might not have been moved enough to become a fan (she’d get obsessed with FM later but she generally stuck to them (and even when there are similarities, Lissie herself has less drama)), but she, and we, enjoyed being out, catching some mellow vibes at the small-venue California-rock show in California.

Lissie’s set-list:
"Unravel"
"Sleepwalking"
"Flowers"
"Best Days"
"Don't You Give Up on Me" (with snippet of “Running Up That Hill”)
"Oh Mississippi"
"Hero"
"Sad"
"Further Away (Romance Police)"
"Lonesome Wine"
"Chasing the Sun"
"In Sleep"
"Carving Canyons"
"When I'm Alone"
"Night Moves"
"Everywhere I Go"
"Little Lovin'"

Lissie, December 9 at the Fonda

On a Saturday afternoon we were driving to Carla's parents house listening to KCRW and they had a giveaway for Lissie tickets. I don't use my membership perks enough and I happened to be a member at that time, so I called called up and there were the tickets. Not really so much a contest, just a call-in. But we got the tickets and it was as good as buying them. We had considered going when they went on sale but we'd seen her relatively recently so we skipped it. But if the tickets were free, why not? The show was similar to the one at the Masonic Lodge, except that her songs felt a little more lived-in. Plus she played more new ones, which didn't seem as personal as the older stuff, though the production on the album (Back to Forever) was better and it translated well enough to a live setting. She herself might be making a point of not selling out and going pop, but her music made an effort to be more accessible. She may not have moved much further up in the world after breaking out with her first album and since the past shows, but at least she got to the Fonda, which is still pretty good. Lissie's set-list: "Bully" "Record Collector" "Sleepwalking" "Love in the City" "The Habit" "When I'm Alone" "They All Want You" "I Don't Wanna Go to Work" "Little Lovin'" "Everywhere I Go" "Shameless" "Shroud" "Further Away (Romance Police)" "In Sleep" "Oh Mississippi" "Hold On, We're Going Home" (Drake cover) "Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)" (Kid Cudi cover)

Lissie, May 28 at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Lissie was yet another act I didn't know before Carla. Clearly I'm a pushover for stuff she introduces me to but she has a great track-record with me.  Even better are the bands she's been into for a while that I've missed for whatever reason, but the great thing about music is that you can always catch up later.  We got tickets for her show at the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Cemetery, a venue we'd never been to for a concert (though we'd gone to a different section of the cemetery for movies in the summer).  I got Lissie's first album, Catching a Tiger, to catch up, and I really got into it. Carla's introduction to her was the Kid Cudi cover but I went with "When I'm Alone."  It's been easy to connect to female singer-songwriters since the early '90s, especially ones too spunky for easy pop stardom, and I've been as big a fan as anyone. Lissie falls into that archetype, though on her own terms, and it works, for as many people who know about her.  She has the talent and looks to be a starlet without difficulty but there's no reason for it, with the pop world clogged with too much junk in the first place, and bless her for not bothering with that direction. She's a pretty lady who could go places on her looks if she wanted, though not wanting to also gives her a cool edge. But it can go too far, in this case, when wearing a tank top like that night, and revealing her habit of not shaving her arm-pits.  Call me a sexist or old if you like, I just always enjoyed the days when girls had a minimum of hair on the bodies.  (And to be fair: it's gross on dudes too, including, and especially, myself.) So it's a trade-off. There can never be enough talent doing things their own way in music, even if massive success on their own terms eludes them (though I always hope the deserving ones can at least make a living off it). It's a fine line between selling out a little (offering your music for a price) and a lot (letting your songs go in a direction they weren't meant to; dressing up and doing what they say) so it's hard to say if she's shooting herself in the foot by not going along with what could easily come to her or if it's a fool's dream to try to make it exactly like she wants it even if she sacrifices her own financial, and maybe eventually creative, success, but that she put out this music presumably on her own terms and it's terrific, means that we are rewarded for discovering her.  She stands her ground with "Shameless," her only new material for this pre-new-album show, which sounded great in the set. So while she's around and can do this, we get another set of great music.  But, girl, you gotta shave those pits.  The venue was great, by the way, literally an intimate, relatively little room, a wine & beer bar (better than overpriced mixed drinks), with ample, free parking.  She got a bigger place after that but for that show it was just right. Vance Joy opened the show but we weren't there for that.

Lissie's set-list:
"The Habit"
"When I'm Alone"
"Sleepwalking"
"They All Want You"
"Little Lovin'"
"Shameless"
"Shroud"
"Romance Police"
"Everywhere I Go"
"In Sleep"

"Oh Mississippi"
"Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)" (Kid Cudi cover)