Ezra Furman.
Beloved indie rocker Ezra Furman — rounding out a national tour and soon to embark on an international one — prowled the Space Ballroom stage Sunday evening even before her set started. “Joy and resolve,” she said, setting the tone for her set and providing a fulcrum for an evening of music that tapped, in time, into all the emotions.
Before Furman came New Haven stalwart Alexendra Burnet with her latest band, the Proven Winners: Torrey Proto on bass, Annalisa Boerner on viola, Jill Emerson on cello, Landon Elliott on pedal steel, and Jay Bates on drums. Burnet, on vocals and guitar, acted almost as conductor, too. Bates and Proto offered sturdy yet supple rhythm, while the trio of Boerner, Emerson, and Elliott created rich backdrops and shifting textures while also stepping out for riffs and solos. Through all of this, the laconic, easy lope of Burnet’s voice delivered lyrics that were poignant and laugh-out-loud funny in turn, feeling deeply personal while also getting just serious enough. There was a reason for that.
Early in her set, Burnet sent a message. “I’m guessing it’s not the last time you’re going to hear this tonight, but let me be the first,” she said. “It’s a really shitty time to be trans, legislatively speaking. I want you all to take a look at the person next to you and think about how important it is that you’re here at this trans-fronted event. I’m really humbled.”
There was no doubt of the support Burnet got from the packed crowd in front of her, as she connected quickly and strongly.
“Can we do a cover?” she asked, halfway through her set. The crowd responded with an on-cue “yeah!”
“Wow, don’t all say it at once,” she deadpanned, to laughter. That humor appeared throughout her set, resting on a solid foundation of deep compassion. She got the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to her mom, who was in attendance. And toward the end of the set, her Covid-era song “You’re Okay” came on like a mantra, a call for everyone to be gentle with themselves and with others.
If Burnet was one side of a coin, striving for a kind of inner peace, Ezra Furman came on like she was ready for combat, starting her set with the prophetic “Train Comes Through.”
“We carry a lot of emotions in here,” she said near the beginning of her set. “We can feel them all at once. Our celebration and our anger — I like to see them merge and mix.” That statement felt like a promise fulfilled by the end of Furman’s rager of a set that connected the personal and the political to take no prisoners.
She introduced one song by saying that it was “for the culture war.” Another song was “about living and outlasting empire.” Another was “about meeting God.” Yet another was about “love and war, and it’s dedicated to Ronnie Spector and anyone who’s had to run away from home — especially this year.”
In another moment, she picked up where Burnet had left off. “I don’t know if you mean it as an act of defiance — ” she began, and was cut off immediately by a howl from the crowd, which seemed to please her. ” — but showing up to see two trans-fronted bands, it means a lot to us.”
But Furman’s most powerful message lay simply in the music itself, and her fully committed delivery of it. She showed that, as a songwriter, she has few contemporary equals, merging the emotional and the cerebral, the hard-hitting and raucously funny alongside the astonishingly delicate. Onstage, she was backed by a band that came out swinging, springing tightly coiled rhythms and creating eerie textures one minute and screaming guitar solos next. It was all in support of Furman’s voice, a quavering, raspy instrument that somehow conveys aggressive strength and great vulnerability at the same time.
By the end of Furman’s set the energy in the room reached a fever pitch. “Use that energy for something,” she said. “Use it tomorrow!” But for that night, the audience wanted an encore, which Furman and the band gave, in the form of three more blistering songs that at last wore out the screaming fans. During that encore, she had one more statement to make regarding the current state of politics in some parts of the country.
“It’s them that recognized our difference,” she said. “Once that weapon’s on the table, don’t be surprised if we grab it and use it.”