Rhiannon Giddens Can’t Be Pinned Down to Just One Sound at the Beacon Theatre on Saturday
Rhiannon Giddens – Beacon Theatre – March 16, 2024
Looking down upon the stage from the balcony of the Beacon Theatre awaiting the start of the Rhiannon Giddens show, I was compelled to take stock of all the instruments onstage: multiple banjos, guitars, keyboards, basses, fiddles, accordions. There were at least two of everything, which invited the question of how Giddens and her band were going to use all those music-makers. By the time the show had ended, some 90 minutes later, the sold-out crowd ecstatic in appreciation, the answer was clear: Those instruments would be used every which way and then some.
The opening instrumental, “Following the North Star,” found Giddens and Dirk Powell going back-and-forth with banjo and fiddle respectively, drums driving a lively rhythm behind them. The six-piece band then settled into “The Love We Almost Had,” which suggested old-school jazz, Powell now on piano matching Francesco Turrisi on organ, with Giddens providing an Ella Fitzgerald–esque scat solo. From there, permutations of players, instruments and genres turned the band into a two-guitar blues outfit on “Wrong Kind of Right,” an accordion-heavy Creole band on “Dimanche Apres-Midi,” a psychedelic Americana ensemble on “Louisiana Man” — a set highlight — an Aretha-soul group on “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad,” and traditional folkies on “God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign.”
Throughout, it was Giddens’ voice and talent and make-the-historical-present worldview that tied it all together. The band’s fun free-for-all was balanced by weightier material: Giddens describing the painful separation of families to introduce “Come Love Come,” fiddle, organ and guitar adding musical pathos to the song, and then the dark rocker “Another Wasted Life,” inspired by the tragic story of Kalief Browder. Despite the serious material, the music was infused with joy and optimism, and Giddens made sure to end on an uplifting note, closing with “Yet to Be,” filling the theater with the words: “Today may break your heart, but tomorrow holds the key / We’ve come so far, but the best is yet to be.” —A. Stein | @Neddyo
Photo courtesy of Ebru Yildiz | www.ebruyildiz.net