Over the past decade Big Thief have emerged as one of the indie bands that carries itself most like a classic rock/jam band. Not only does each successive album have its own distinct character, they switch up their setlists, perform songs in various arrangements, and bring an overall dynamism to their live shows that suggests creative chemistry happening in real time. You never know what you're going to get, which was especially true two months ago when they surprised their audience at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium by debuting a country-leaning, guest-heavy triple album called Horsepower that has yet to be announced for commercial release. (Cue the notorious headline.)
So it makes perfect sense, and is tremendous to report, that Big Thief have launched the Big Thief Live Archive, an official hub for live concert recordings, inspired by drummer James Krivchenia's interest in Grateful Dead live releases. The site went live today with 10 full concerts recorded by the band’s front-of-house engineer Alice Wilder and monitor engineer Aleda Deroche and mixed by 4AD’s in-house engineer Fabian Prynn. A new live show will be added on the second Tuesday of each month. In addition to listening through full shows, site users will be able to build their own playlists out of recordings from multiple shows. And in a twist that is personally cool for me and maybe no one else, the earliest show in the archive at launch is a November 2019 gig in Columbus that I reviewed for this very website.
A statement from the band:
Dear friends, For the last couple of years we’ve been creating a Big Thief Live Archive website, where you can find full, mixed concerts from the recent and distant past.
Every show we play holds a different energy. The songs are always changing and sound different every night, and we spend so much more time on the road than in studios, and so we felt a desire to create something that captures the ever-undulating aliveness of our music through time. In around 2019 we started recording all of our shows. There are 10 shows up right now and we will be adding new ones to the archive on the second Tuesday of every month hopefully forever. It’s all free. We made the website interactive so that you can choose tracks and make your own playlists.
Thank you so much to all who have come out to our shows over the years, it’s been such a treat revisiting these. We love you so much! Warmly, Big Thief
Along with the website launch, Big Thief have shared official live audio of "Incomprehensible" from their show April 29 this year at 3Arena in Dublin across all DSPs. Three weeks ago they also published full-length video of their show last November at the Opera House At 7A Ranch in Wimberley, TX. Check those out below, and visit the Big Thief Live Archive here.