The Indigo Girls show why it's only life after all.

ItIConcert Date: 9/28/24

Venue: Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery-Woodinville, WA

Genre:  Folk Rock

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Gay pride was on display and palpable in the air as I arrived at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in the Washington rain for an evening with Indigo Girls and Amos Lee, their opener. As I stepped off the shuttle bus, the skies cleared, and arching over the stage was a vivid double rainbow, a sure harbinger for the night ahead. 

 

Amos Lee set the stage, yes pun intended, with an inspired set in which he channeled the soulful ancestry of Otis Redding and Bill Withers along with being right in step with his contemporary Leon Bridges. When Amos left the stage, I did not know that he would be appearing again to bookend the show with a rousing “Closer to Fine” sing-along, including Brandi Carlile, a surprise guest.

 

Speaking of books, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers took the stage to a backdrop of a giant bookshelf loaded with such titles as Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Heavy by Kiese Laymon and Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. It gave an air of the intellectuality of their music, especially lyrics that have addressed such issues as LGBTQ, Native American rights, and protecting the environment throughout their career. Perhaps that’s why they set the tone opening with “Shame on You” from their Shaming of the Sun (1997), calling out those who may be opposed to any of the above. Indigo Girls followed with “Get Out the Map”, also from the same album. It certainly feels like we need a map these days to navigate the constant shifts and changes. Their next song, “Moment of Forgiveness” is a heartfelt song of relationship. Regardless of sexual orientation, the Indigo Girls do relationship songs very well, which lends itself to a broad audience appeal.

 “Shed Your Skin” from Shaming of the Sun was another standout of the evening as it calls for inner transformation and a dropping of old ways that may not be serving one anymore. “Look Long,” the title track from their fifteenth album, released in 2020, was very touching, especially in light of the fact it came out in the early days of the pandemic. The next song, “Faye Tucker” surprised the audience as Amy Ray invited Washington local Brandi Carlile to the stage which added an additional spark to the show. 

A few songs later, though, the crowd went into the biggest uproar of the night when the Indigo Girls called, “on the resting soul of Galileo/ king of night vision/ King of insight” from their 1992 Rites of Passage album with its hit song, “Galileo.” It was certainly a crowd pleaser, and the Indigo Girls kept the momentum going when they called Amos Lee and Brandi Carlile back on stage to finish the evening with an inspired “Closer to Fine,” the song that put them on the map of stardom back in 1989 as it primarily speaks of the search for meaning in life which so many of their songs do.