041/ First eyes on the Big Thief reboot

Aug 15, 2024

For two weeks now we’ve had glimpses of Big Thief’s new lineup, stage setup and material, post bassist Max Oleartchik’s departure.

With Adrianne’s Bright Future solo touring done (for the time being) and the big announcement made, the band arrived in Europe to play a wealth of new songs at a select handful of summer festival dates. This weekend they’ll show up in London as main support for PJ Harvey’s Gunnersbury Park all-dayer.

“Our love for each-other is infinite.”

At least in public, and I guess in keeping with Big Thief’s usual comms, Max’s departure was handled with enough care that there are no gory details, and so on they roll. So it’ll be fascinating to see how the fanbase reacts to the band’s new shape, and indeed, if this is a long-term new look, or if we’re heading into a period of album-by-album shifting sands. It’s the first time I’ve stopped to ask myself, what is Big Thief?

Several solid audience-shot live vids are doing the rounds, but here’s the first high quality TV broadcast of a live set, from Way Out West festival in Gothenburg.

With the shift to a quintet format, new bassist, Brooklyn resident Justin Felton, from the band Strugglin’, actually feels like the lesser element of the change: his understated playing isn’t a vast departure from Max’s work, if a touch more rock (less up-the-neck shimmer) and it feels to me — at least via laptop screen and headphones — like a reasonably straightforward transition. The bigger lurch is this whole second drum set mallarky. The live five-piece added percussionist Jon Nellen, sat behind drums positioned next to James Krivchenia, the two (albeit quite different) drum kits placed side by side.

Jon’s an intriguing NYC muso: a producer, live engineer and film composer as much as a player. Probably he entered the Big Thief sphere via Nick Hakim, the terrific journeyman pianist from Bright Future (and some of Adrianne’s live stuff). In 2022, Jon contributed to Nick’s third album Cometa. He also co-runs the record label No Content.

Thing is, overall, somehow, despite two kits, this staging still makes Big Thief feel more conventional than previously. The drums are now at the back and roughly in the middle, on risers, like almost all bands. This lineup is much more focused around Adrianne as central figure, rather than continuing that unusual curved-inwards egalitarianism vibe it used to possess, with drums on floor-level, set stage-left.

For me, Jon’s extra percussive stuff is working best when it’s less drummy: congas and shakers, or odd little metallic noises, all fine. Now, I definitely do not want to hear James’s beautiful, unique, oblong drumming get doubled or augmented by another player doing anything similar. And to be fair, they’re not doing that too much, there’s already variety and imagination in the pairing. But whenever a snare is duplicated, for example, I’m actively not enjoying that change to the sound.

If Wikipedia is to be trusted, neither Jon or Justin are full band members yet, with the lineup now listed as the trio of Adrianne, Buck and James.

Material-wise, at least ten new songs (ten!) have already been played on this short run, and of course the quality is super-high, several very memorable tracks, with that feeling still pervading of Big Thief songs (as with Lenker solo) having been chiselled out of bedrock, like perfectly preserved things that always existed. Pause once again to marvel at Adrianne’s astonishing fecundity of songwriting gifts.

As the guy who ripped and posted that Gothenberg TV footage writes in his description, the highlight of this set is probably the version of ‘Incomprehensible’ that, in classic Big Thief mode, is markedly different to other live versions — though it’s drop dead gorgeous every time — if not fully formed yet.

Incomprehensible… let me be.

— four words, outstanding songwriting, in and of itself.

‘Los Angeles’ is an understated, wordy, two-chord gem.

In contrast, I’m struggling with the classic ‘Not’, which hasn’t been reworked especially but feels draggy to me on the performances I’ve seen. ‘Vampire Empire’ too, a bit. It’s not everything, ‘Certainty’ works beautifully, but some things aren’t there.

Okay, so essentially: buckets of positives for new Big Thief, still a superb band with a lush, humane core, and with such potent songs at heart, they’ll always have a shot at magic beyond the capacity of most. And yet. I need time to (hopefully) fall in love with this new dynamic. I’m also accepting the possibility that I’ll never quite feel as I did about a quartet that I’m not exaggerating to say brought me back to music again. It’s not fear of change, I swear. Nothing needs to get pickled in aspic or vinegar. But it’s Big Thief, so it’s important.