Jenny Lewis plays to wall-to-wall crowd at the Cradle

Friday night brought California indie queen Jenny Lewis back to the Cradle. Carrboro was the band's final stop before hitting the massive Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee on Saturday.

The crowd kept piling in during the two opening acts, Farmer Dave and Deer Tick (we'll get to them later), and by the time Jenny Lewis and her band took the stage, the crowd was at capacity and then some.

They dove straight into the rocking tune "See Fernando" and didn't take a break throughout the set which was heavy on tracks from Lewis' latest solo album Acid Tongue. It also included some choice numbers from Rabbit Fur Coat including "Rise Up With Fists!!!" and her cover of Traveling Wilburys song "Handle With Care."

Lewis didn't say much between songs, but did discuss her and guitarist Johnathan Rice's love of food forums. She got into a lengthy speech about whether to keep your peanut butter in the refrigerator or not. She said that she keeps it in the refrigerator because she (and I'm paraphrasing) "doesn't eat that Jif shit with all the chemicals in it." The crowd got riled up. There were clearly a lot of non-refrigerated peanut butter lovers in attendance.

Two new songs made their way into the set titled "Just Like Zeus" (which you can watch a video of at the bottom of this post thanks to YouTube user TainTasTic) and "Big Wave." The latter was a bigger, rock song that sounds poised to make it onto the next Rilo Kiley album.

Towards the end of the set, Lewis gave a shout out to Superchunk who she said were one of the first supporters of her band Rilo Kiley.

The show was a phenomenal follow-up to Lewis' show at the Cradle with The Watson Twins back in March 2006 (I can't believe it's been that long). Hopefully, it won't take another three years to get Lewis and her cohorts back to the Triangle after Rilo Kiley skipped the area several times to play Asheville while touring for Under the Black Light.

Providence, Rhode Island quartet and recent BriTunes featured band Deer Tick was one of two bands that opened the show. The band manage to combine rockabilly, folk, alternative rock and probably a few more genres into a unique sound that works. The band opened with the song "Easy" from their new album Born On Flag Day which will be out on June 23.

Deer Tick showed off their playful side by closing with two odd covers. They ripped through an awesome version of John Mellencamp's "Authority Song," briefly spoofed the Dave Matthews Band playing a bit of "Crash Into Me" and then closed with "La Bamba." The latter really got the crowd moving. It was easily one of the oddest sets I've seen in a while.

And last but not least, Farmer Dave Scher was the first act to take the stage. He was joined by two of his fellow Jenny Lewis bandmates as well as a local guitarist, Kurt Easley. Dave played a brief set of spacey rock songs that were okay. It wasn't a set to write home about, but it was a good way to pass twenty minutes or so.

Set list:
See Fernando
The Charging Sky
You Are What You Love
Pretty Bird
Carpetbaggers
Sing a Song For Them
Jack Killed Mom
Trying My Best To Love You
Silver Lining
Happy
Rise Up With Fists!!!
Just Like Zeus
Handle With Care
The Next Messiah
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Acid Tongue
Big Wave
Godspeed

Jenny Lewis


Deer Tick