If you only know Julien Baker through boygenius, her solo show may come as a surprise. I witnessed quite a few people finding that out on Friday, Oct. 23, at The Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge. It was night three of her three-night residency at the club. The Cambridge stop is part of a six-city residency in deliberately small rooms, and fans have been paying for that intimacy the old-fashioned way. Tickets went on sale only at each venue’s box office, which meant standing in line on a Saturday morning in September to buy them in person. The line formed again around 3 p.m. before every show, and the room reflected it, packed with devoted fans wall to wall.
Future Teens opened, and it’s easy to see why Baker brought them on for all three nights. The Boston band is basically local royalty, and they delivered a great set that suited the room. Night three had an extra moment. For “Team Sports,” a song that usually features Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years, Baker ran onstage herself and sang Campbell’s part, to a crowd that clearly loved it.
Baker’s own set was something else. Everything about it suggested a perfectionist at work. Her pedalboard was the most impressive piece of gear I’ve seen in a room this size, and her guitar playing was remarkable all night. She’s understated between songs, but the music tells a different story, and she plays with the energy of someone who is just happy to be up performing again. It goes harder than you might expect, too. The end of “Tokyo” and all of “Ringside” kicked up moshing in the crowd, which isn’t what you’d picture at a Julien Baker show. Between the new songs and the old, it never felt like a night built for quiet contemplation.
She played at least three unreleased songs, listed on the setlist as “F,” “G” and “O.” Baker told the crowd how much she appreciated finally being able to share the new material, especially in such an intimate setting. She debuted new songs at a surprise Nashville show in September and has said little else about what’s next, so hearing them live felt like a preview. Fan favorites got the biggest response, with “Turn Out the Lights” and “Favor” landing hardest. Lucy Dacus watched from the side of the stage, and a few fans whispered hoping for a guest spot, but the night belonged to Baker.
The most memorable moment came toward the end. Have Heart was playing upstairs, and you could hear the music thumping through the ceiling for much of the show. Baker is a huge fan, and with three songs left she told everyone she would be sprinting up as soon as she finished, so please clear a path. She’d even moved her set earlier that night to make it work. She said “Everybody Does” would have been the encore, but she was skipping the walk off and back to save time. Then she ran, with “Shipping Up to Boston” playing through the speakers on her way out. It was a good reminder that the artists you love the most are usually the ones doing it for the right reasons. With a residency in tiny clubs, a packed room and a full-speed dash to another band’s set, Baker made a very fun case that she’s in this for the love of the game.
JULIEN BAKER SETLIST:
Lathe
High in the Basement
Middle Children
Sprained Ankle
Bloodshot
Even
Ringside
Favor
F (unreleased)
G (unreleased)
O (unreleased)
Shadowboxing
Tokyo
Turn Out the Lights
Hardline
Everybody Does
