Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticDid ye get healed? This is a rhetorical question Van Morrison posed many years ago that may pop up in the back of your mind at someone else’s show, on one of those rare nights when there’s enough strife or upset in the world that the crowd can be collectively understood to be experiencing a wound.
That was the case with Brandi Carlile playing two sold-out shows at L.A.’s Greek Theatre over the weekend right in the wake of the Supreme Court issuing a decision that the vast majority of her progressive-leaning audience would find deeply grievous, or ominous, with one justice vowing that another right should be on the chopping block — the same-sex marriage that Carlile has sung and talked about on stage virtually every night for years.
The first of Carlile’s two performances at the amphitheater was balmy, with L.A. currently being hit by a classic seaside “monsoonal moisture event.” But her show was also balm-y, for a full house that likely alternately felt healed, helpfully distracted, riled, roused, connected and almost feeling OK about the human condition.
Carlile gave voice between songs to the anger and sorrow many were feeling, but boy (or girl), is she the one to see if you need some ointment rubbed in.
Read more on variety.com