Big Thief frontwoman Adrianne Lenker has asked fans in a video message to stop talking through their support acts’ sets.
The Brooklyn band are currently out on a North American headline tour in support of their fifth studio album, ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You’, which came out in February via 4AD.
Canadian musician and producer Kara-Lis Coverdale is currently opening for Big Thief at the ongoing concerts, per Stereogum.
Earlier this week, Lenker took to Instagram to share a video message in which she outlined her “feelings r.e talking during openers and attention/creating respectful show environment in general”.
“Hello, friends. Hello. This has been on my mind for a few days now. Actually, I should say this has been on my mind for a lot longer than that,” she began.
“It’s really come forward in the last few days that: when music is happening in a room, there’s a performer on stage playing and doing their craft, when you enter into that space, try to be mindful of what’s happening and pay attention and don’t talk.
“And if you want to talk and greet people and socialise, you can totally do that. But just when you do it in the room where a performance is going on, other people who are there to listen don’t have any say at all in what’s happening. And then suddenly the space is loud.”
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Lenker went on to say that a sense of “real magic” is created in venues when there is silence from the audience: “Sometimes I have this feeling like, ‘If only the room were quiet, this could just be so incredible’.
“Like, people are missing so much. Because every time there’s meant to be a silence, there’s all this sort of white noise chatter.”
The musician then requested that those attending live gigs “be mindful” of other people when any sort of performance is taking place on stage. “Either listen or at least be quiet so that other people can listen,” she said. “Or go and put yourself elsewhere.”
Lenker added: “I just think that because it’s a common space people should be able to enjoy the full breadth of what the artist has to offer. Speaking for myself, I feel that when there is quiet, it allows for so much more dynamics, and it makes me feel like I can breathe as somebody creating sound waves.
“So if you can be as respectful as possible, and just mindful. Sometimes people walk in and aren’t aware of where they are. Their priority is to greet their friends or family who you’re seeing. But just look around and if there is somebody who’s on stage they’re probably, like, pouring their heart out, and it’s hard to sort of just be talked over.”
She concluded: “Do your best, and I appreciate you.” You can watch the video in full above.
Big Thief are set to perform at a string of UK and European festivals this summer, including Glastonbury, Primavera Sound, Best Kept Secret and Tempelhof Sounds. You can find the band’s full live schedule here.
Earlier this month, the group performed their recent single ‘Spud Infinity’ on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.