SHOWS // Tomberlin @ The Bootleg

Post by Misha

Tomberlin’s debut album, At Weddings, has been one of my rainy day staples since its release this summer. Everything about it is achingly, existentially, deeply sad. When on I’m Not Scared Sarah sings the ragged poetry, “to be a woman is to be in pain, and my body reminds me almost every day” my heart jumps from my chest into my throat and stays there for the whole song. Every time. 

And when one listens to sad music a lot (and I mean a *lot* – we’re talking about me in case that wasn’t clear). Anyway when one listens to sad music a lot it’s hard not to think of the artists themselves as fundamentally, one-dimensionally sad people. Misunderstood loners, quiet criers on the subway, that kind of thing. Perhaps because those are the people we channel within us while listening to their music.

But live shows are great because the best ones feel like meeting the artist in person and being confronted with all their real life complexity. At Tomberlin’s show you are as likely to laugh as you are to turn inwards. Last week at The Bootleg on an uncommonly chilly night in Silverlake, Sarah’s dry self deprecating wit punctuates what otherwise might be a rather melancholy set, transforming it into a testament to the multitudes that are contained within what we call “sad.” 

“This one is so sad it doesn’t even have a name” she explained wryly before launching into one of the Untitled tracks from the album. And this captured the evening well, illuminating as it did the intimate relationship between tragedy and resilience. How we are never defined by one or the other, but have to find the beauty in both.

Buy At Weddings here.