Gin Wigmore w/ Patrick Park
Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA
09.19.15
You can tell she’s going to be electric. The crowd – having been lined up down the block an hour before doors – is cheering and hollering as Gin Wigmore takes the stage at Tractor Tavern for an early evening show. The young New Zealand singer-songwriter kicks off the show with “New Rush,” the lead track off her latest release Blood to Bone. This, her third full-length, throbs with experimentation and heavy emotion, and Wigmore translates her creativity into her live performance. And the track is solid, swaggering with intensity fit for grabbing attention.
Scattering her back catalog between new tracks, Wigmore proves to be a high-energy performer, dancing around the stage, shaking her hips, having a lot of fun. She prefaces “Don’t Stop” by saying that “it’s about a time I was worried what everyone else thought of me, my friends, my boyfriend, everybody.” And you get the feeling she has definitively moved on. “Black Sheep” off her sophomore release Gravel & Wine is a foot-stomping anthem that has the crowd clapping along with its strong beat.
Wigmore speaks to the album creation process later in the set, “You sit in isolation for three years writing something. Then you put it out there and you never know what’s going to happen. Will anyone listen to it?” The answer, though, is clear. As the band plays the final song and heads backstage, the cheering only intensifies demanding the band’s return. The reemerge and Wigmore gives everyone a big thank you before launching into “Man Like That.” She plays the guitar on this song and gets into an amusing guitar battle with her lead guitarist. Before you know it they’re both on their knees trying to one up each other with guitar-playing theatrics.
The crowd loves it and demands more… Wigmore and the band appearing taken aback by the sheer level of support they are receiving from the crowd and they’re enthusiastically thanking them for the love. Launching into something Wigmore notes as a special occurrence, the band proceeds to line up around a single microphone and do a four-part harmony to accompany Wigmore’s “I Love You”. Overall this was a surprisingly good show, the uncontrollable energy pushing beyond expectations to a whole new level.
Opener Patrick Park, the underrated American singer-songwriter with a growing catalog of engaging records, played a sweet selection of emotional, folksy tracks. With a hollow-body electric guitar and the occasional addition of an electric kit drum, his controlled vocals make you sit back and listen.
Keep an eye out for both Gin Wigmore and Patrick Park coming your way.
Review by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Alex Crick
Gin Wigmore
Patrick Park
