The multi-talented and multi-faceted song-writer, singer, and fine artist extraordinaire Marissa Nadler graced the stage for the finale of the 2024 New Jersey International Film Festival last Saturday night at Rutgers University’s Voorhees Hall in New Brunswick, NJ. Nadler's solo concert featured her own film projections, which swirled and shimmered behind her, in a black-and-white kaleidoscopic and cosmic array.
Last year, I decided to expand our New Jersey Film Festivals screenings with live music performances, hoping to reawaken the once lively, now dormant New Brunswick music scene. Nadler‘s show was the second show in this new concert series. Guitar master Tim Motzer performed a solo concert with film projections created by yours truly last September. Looking ahead, noise-ambient musician Jim Haynes will be coming from California to offer an audio-visual show on October 18th as part of our Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival line-up.
Nadler’s spell-binding solo performance synched up beautifully with her film projections. Her first trance-like song Poison featured reverse raindrops on the screen counterpointed by her hypnotic finger picking and ethereal vocals. Her second song Bessie, Did you Make it? -- which retells the story of Glen and Bessie Hyde, a couple who disappeared in Arizona, attempting to navigate the rapids of the Colorado River --featured images of driving through a tunnel and crackling flames in close-up. Storm featured slow-motion shadows with Nadler’s melancholic vocals sending chills down one's spine. Her mesmerizing song Dead City Emily revealed images of Nadler’s hand using a paint brush in a Rorschach style. Truly a perfect merging of Nadler’s art and music, as she is also an accomplished painter. She swayed back and forth during this lovely number.
As a counterpoint to the pensive mood Nadler created, she revealed to the audience in between songs that she had had a harrowing time getting to New Brunswick from Nashville as her flight to JFK Airport the night before had been cancelled due to inclement weather and she had to reschedule her itinerary to fly on the day of the show. To make matters even worse, she had to wait nearly three hours to get her car rental sorted once she finally landed at the airport. We also found out about Nadler’s gephyrophobia -- which is a fear of bridges – as she described driving over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, alone, that afternoon. Yet, none of this impacted on her entrancing performance in our space. Nadler, who has been touring for two decades, is and was the consummate performer. She wove trance-like songs effortlessly for the spellbound audience.
Nadler rounded out her wonderful concert with songs from her 2018 album For My Crimes (All Out of Catastrophes, For My Crimes), and July (Drive, Firecrackers) albums. Her groundbreaking album July is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and she told me she plans to play a great deal of it during her current tour. For her last song, she performed her amazingly nuanced song Fifty Five Falls, which features an unusual open guitar tuning.
I wanted to close this review with a few comments about this concert that I received via email from grateful audience members:
Sarah: "The concert was awesome! It was really cool to see her live."
Erica: "I truly did love Marissa Nadler's performance! She's a wildly talented artist! I'm sure it's been said, but I found her work hypnotic."
Deborah: "Al, thank you very much! The Marissa Nadler concert was a pleasure!"
Marissa Nadler’s next area show will take place at TV Eye https://tveyenyc.com/ in New York City on July 6! Don’t miss it!
Top photo by Albert Gabriel Nigrin and Bottom photo by Anita LaBelle.
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