{"id":529,"date":"2020-03-03T01:31:52","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T01:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elissagayle.ebersold.org\/blog\/?p=529"},"modified":"2020-03-03T03:14:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T03:14:48","slug":"dermot-kennedy-syml-03-01-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/elissagayle.ebersold.org\/blog\/2020\/03\/dermot-kennedy-syml-03-01-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Dermot Kennedy & SYML || 03.01.2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Review initially posted on Nippertown<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I generally try to go to a concert educated on the music, but this time I fell short. I attended the Dermot Kennedy show on relatively short notice, and in doing so I failed in familiarizing myself with Kennedy\u2019s music which allowed me to attend his show with a clear, unbiased perspective. The same cannot be said for the supporting act, SYML<\/a>, who I am very much a fan of. With those disclosures out in the open, let\u2019s dive right in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening act was Seattle-based Brian Fennell, or as he is known in the music world, SYML<\/a>. SYML<\/a>, formerly of the band Barcelona, is generally a one-man all-encompassing songwriting, producing, and performing entity. However, during an anecdote, SYML<\/a> stated that he picked up a musician somewhere along his tour, a fellow Brian nonetheless. Brian offered violin and piano accompaniments to SYML<\/a>\u2019s largely mellow music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
SYML, Upstate Concert Hall, 02.26.20\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

During a break in his set, you got to see his charming and laid back demeanor when he took questions from the audience. He indulged audience members by answering questions such as \u201cWhat is your favorite triangle?\u201d(he was non-committal, so I\u2019ll decide for him and say isosceles because he has a song called \u201cSymmetry\u201d)  and \u201cWill you accept any more Brians on stage?\u201d (Jury\u2019s still out on that.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
SYML, Upstate Concert Hall, 02.26.20\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One thing that stood out to me about the set is what draws me to SYML<\/a>\u2019s music in general. Most of it revolves around the core components of music: the music and the lyrics. It is not about a light show or manic stage presence. It isn\u2019t about layers upon layers of production, even though SYML<\/a>\u2019s eponymous album and a song or two on his set does contain some of that. The show is focused around heartfelt and raw words he wrote. They are songs like \u201cGirl,\u201d an adoring letter to his young daughter. They are like \u201cFlags\u201d which is about dealing with cancer, and are about love and loss and all that life has to offer, good and bad. Each note and soaring falsetto carries with it a refreshing honesty. If your heartstrings haven\u2019t been yanked on by the end of SYML<\/a>\u2019s set, you clearly weren\u2019t paying attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setlist:<\/strong> Symmetry, The Bird, Girl, Clean Eyes, Flags, Where\u2019s My Love, Dancing On My Own (Robyn cover), Everything All At Once<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
SYML, Upstate Concert Hall, 02.26.20\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now if you\u2019ll humor me, it seems like as good of a time as any to climb up on a soapbox. I will never understand the people who only come to see the headliner. Headliners themselves often got their start as supporting acts, and the way that these musicians gain enough traction to make it to their own tours is the exposure they get. It\u2019s through the audience members buying their merch and music, and putting eyes and ears on them at live shows. You are how they earn their living. Not to mention, the price of your admission ticket is partly to see them. You\u2019ve gotta get your money\u2019s worth, right? Why \u201cwaste\u201d the entertainment value by not showing up? You don\u2019t have to buy an entire discography on Amazon like I did once, but give these musicians your time. They count on you. It\u2019s musicians like SYML<\/a> that really make me look at people who stroll in right before the headliner like they\u2019re nuts. Why would you miss a performance like that!? (There\u2019s my bias speaking.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*climbs off*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I unfortunately don’t have any photos from Dermot Kennedy’s set. SYML<\/a>‘s team told me to only photograph his set and that I should reach out to Kennedy’s team to get clearance for his. They never got back to me, so sadly no photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like I said in the first paragraph, I was a Dermot Kennedy virgin, but like most virgins after their first night, my deflowering left me feeling unsatisfied. That\u2019s not to say he<\/em> was bad, not in the slightest. But there was a lot lacking, in my opinion. From the moment he took the stage, everything felt lackluster. It was a sold out show, but the audience made hardly any noise relative to the amount of bodies packed into the music hall. If I hadn\u2019t been paying attention, I might not have even noticed that he took the stage. One could argue that it was SYML<\/a> \u2019s job to hype the audience up. But after hearing both of them perform, it just wasn\u2019t really that kind of show. Any energy would have petered out during Kennedy\u2019s set because, like SYML<\/a> in a way, it was more of a focus on the lyrics and the music and less on the stage personas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy stood center stage, lit from behind so\nhe was but a shadowy silhouette. This was more or less how the lighting design\nremained the whole show. He was the only musician you could see with clarity,\naccented by dramatic shifting spotlights, while the rest of his bandmates were\nset farther upstage, obscured by thick smoke from the fog machines. I want to\nsee and acknowledge the hard work that the band mates are putting in, and the\nlighting setup just didn\u2019t allow for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy has a very gravelly rasp, one that is\nfull of natural cracks and breaks. This added an extra layer of angst in each\nnote. I love myself a voice like that and I was enjoying his music; I really do\nand I really was, but after forty five minutes or so it all started to feel\nrepetitive. Each song felt like it had the same texture, the same angst, and\nthe same thrumming beat. But I can respect a musician who knows what they are\ngood at and is able to keep on doing it, and that could be why he had a sold\nout audience eating up every note. You can tell that he\u2019s a songwriter, one who\nbelieves in what he sings and what he writes, and that it all comes from deep\nwithin. His songs had this bewitching ability to seize at nostalgia buried\nwithin me, cajoling loose memories I can\u2019t quite place. I heard some really\nbeautiful lyrics that carried me along on these journeys and romantic nights.\nIn particular, the lines from his song \u201cRome\u201d: Do you remember when \/ midnight\ndrives when you\u2019d sing \/ I\u2019d play you songs you were in? \/ I just want to be\nthere again \/ Do you remember when \/ with Rome below us that day \/ You said, \u201cI\nwish we could stay?.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess one final thing that left me feeling a\nbit starved was that Kennedy (or his team) made the interesting and atypical\nchoice to leave us without an encore performance. He played his set and that\nwas it. Wipe your hands of it, house lights up, done with it. I never fully\nunderstood why we as an audience carry out the encore performance tradition\nsince everyone expects an encore anyway, but now I suppose I know why. It\u2019s\nbecause it feels empty and abrupt without one. Or is that simply the result of\nconcert muscle memory, in a which-came-first-chicken-or-the-egg kind of way?\nHave we come to expect it so it feels unsatisfying, or is it actually\nunsatisfying because it is an abrupt end? Perhaps I\u2019m just overthinking it.\nNobody asked me for a philosophy session\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to see why an audience loves Dermot Kennedy. He\u2019s a strong-jawed good looking Irishman with a gruff singing voice that oozes life\u2019s experiences undergone by others from all walks of life. His sold-out venue packed with warm bodies singing along is enough to make that more than clear. But I, the layman, was left feeling hungry for just a little more, like that itch wasn\u2019t quite scratched. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s because he didn\u2019t have an encore, because of the isolating lighting design, or if it was just me and my preferences and there was nothing to be done. I am just one person\u2019s opinion after all. I guess you\u2019ll have to listen and decide for yourself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setlist:<\/strong> An Evening I Will Not Forget, Lost, All My Friends, What Have I Done, Moments Passed, The Corner, Couldn\u2019t Tell, Rome, Outnumbered, For Island Fires and Family, Glory, Without Fear, Redemption, Power Over me, After Rain <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To view more photos of SYML, click here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sidenote: I got to chat with Fennell after the show. He was very kind and warm and made me feel incredibly self conscious because he is a beautiful man and I am just so average. But we chatted about some mutual friends (or more like “friendlies” on my end) we have in common for a good moment. Lovely dude. Hope we’ll get to chat again and I look forward to any and all new music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A chat with SYML<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n