As I had previously seen them there on three different occasions – twice in 2016 and then once again two years later – I have always equated Darlingside with the Cambridge Folk Festival. The American band from Massachusetts are heading there again this weekend coming and tonight’s show is part of a short UK tour leading up to their appearance at one of the world’s longest-running folk festivals. In fact, there is definitely a Cambridge-like vibe in the Crescent tonight, but admittedly without the assault course of picnic blankets, camping chairs and widespread scowling faces, one has to negotiate if trying to get anywhere near the main stage at Cherry Hinton Hall.
Before Darlingside, though, tonight’s support act is another who will be playing at Cambridge Folk this weekend, by way of our more local Deer Shed Festival. The artist in question is Lizzie NO. She hails from Brooklyn, New York, she writes songs, sings, plays guitar, and harp too. Her latest album is called Halfsies. She tells us it is about “getting free from the inside out.” And accompanied by regular collaborator Will Greene on some lovely cosmic electric guitar she plays a lot of it here. She performs with the freedom and abandon of which she speaks. Her positivity shines through her personal heartbreak in what are often dark and desperate times. She ends with a new song ‘Silverado.’ It takes its title from the 1985 Western film of the same name and shares with it the principles of fighting injustice and refusing to just lie down and accept your fate.
At Cambridge Folk Festival, Darlingside were a quartet. Since then they have lost one member, at least temporarily – David Senft has stepped back from touring to spend more time with his family – and added two more. Molly Parden has joined Don Mitchell (guitar, banjo and vocals), Auyon Mukharji (mandolin, violin, vocals), and Harris Paseltiner (guitar, cello, vocals) on bass guitar and vocals, and so too has Ariel Bernstein on drums and vocals.
And also at Cambridge the four men had all huddled round the one microphone; their exquisite four-part harmonies were impeccable. The collective vocal delivery still remains a key element of the Darlingside sound though the changes in personnel have shifted its emphasis. It is now more textured, more patterned, more divergent. This is no more true than on the title track from their 2018 album, Extralife – where the five musicians depart the stage and perform in the centre of the room in the midst of the audience – and many of the songs taken from their latest release, Everything Is Alive, which forms the backbone to this evening’s set. ‘Darkening Hour’ and ‘Green Light’ are particular highlights.
Lizzie NO joins Darlingside for ‘Time Will Be’ reinforcing the view that for all of this evening’s musicians their sense of belonging, collectivity, togetherness, and community is paramount. Requests for an encore are richly deserved and ‘Ocean Bed’ duly obliges.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of Darlingside and Lizzie NO at The Crescent, York.
