The Head and The Heart pay tribute to debut album at Keswick Theatre

Fifteen years ago, Seattle-based indie-folk band The Head and The Heart released their debut namesake album. To commemorate this crucial moment, the band announced its “15th Anniversary Tour,” which would consist of two legs and stop in places such as New York, Vermont, and our very own Glenside, Pennsylvania.

As Wednesday evening drew closer, fans paced the streets of Glenside, the Keswick’s lights shone bright, and fans gathered in front of the awning to photograph their friends and family under the black lettering. The Brudi Brothers, a cowboy-esque Seattle-based three piece (with additional support), took the stage. They will be opening for Sierra Ferrell this summer and Kacey Musgraves this fall. 

The group sang and played a wide variety of instruments, warmly setting the stage for The Head and The Heart to perform.

The stage was set up to reflect the feeling that we are all right at home, singing together, with various lamps illuminating the band, couches for them to sit on, and the warmth of a fireplace underneath a framed painting of their debut album’s cover. The band consisted of Charity Rose Thielen on vocals and violin, Jonathan Russell on vocals and guitar, Matt Gervais on vocals and guitar, Tyler Williams on drums, Kenny Hensley on piano, and Chris Zasche on bass. 

Upon their entry to the stage, Gervais jumped off the stage and climbed into the crowd (the first of many times he would do this throughout the evening), holding hands with various fans and hugging them. They began the show by performing their debut album front to back, starting with “Cats and Dogs.” Fans of all ages, parents, children, partners, and friends, lined the front of the stage, wrapped in blue glow-in-the-dark string, with their hands in the air. The band stopped between songs to tell the stories behind each track. They explained that many of the songs were written in their living rooms, their bedrooms, and in public libraries.

As it appears on the album’s track list, they sang fan-favorite “Down in the Valley” fourth. The audience swayed back and forth, with people wrapped around each other, hand in hand. The band followed this song with a performance of “Rivers and Roads” that left the entire audience teary eyed. The echoes of the audience singing along to this song were surely audible throughout the halls of the theater and Glenside’s streets.

They closed with “Heaven Go Easy on Me” and left the stage for about 30 seconds before returning. They briefly spoke about the re-release of their debut album, which includes some songs that did not make the original. They sat on the couch and sang “Grace” and “Oh Virginia”, a song that Russell described as being about longing for the place you are from. 

The band spoke about their gratitude for their fans and this experience, and continued the show by singing through some songs from their more recent albums, such as “All We Ever Knew,” “Honeybee,” “Aperture,” and “Shake.” After they left the stage, they returned for an encore, which was the closing track from their 2019 album Living Mirage, “Glory of Music,” a powerful choice of a closing song for the tour that states: “We are the power of music.”