As members of the Hollywood Bowl orchestra tuned under the baton of Thomas Wilkins this past Saturday, November 1, I was wondering how literally Faye Webster was going to take the title of her 2024 album, Underdressed at the Symphony. This evening, she was actually at the symphony (Walt Disney Concert Hall to be precise), set to perform with the ensemble as part of her brief orchestral tour entitled An Evening with Faye Webster.
I wouldn't have been surprised if she stuck with the blue smock she wore with her band at Coachella, Camp Flog Gnaw, and all over the country. But then the tuning note concluded. The orchestra was ready, and Webster glided onto the stage in a black dress, properly honoring her surroundings.
Her propriety also foreshadowed the nature of the performance. In the last couple of years, more and more pop artists, including Anderson .Paak, Dua Lipa, Damian Marley, and Jeezy, have been performing with orchestras. Except that these artists all had their standard pop bands playing alongside the historic performance format. Don't get me wrong, that is still awesome to witness, but Webster didn't have a traditional band. Her music was fully integrated into the orchestra, making for an unbelievably emotional evening.
Lauded by indie-lovers, pop-fans, and aggressive rappers alike, Webster's music taps into myriad feelings and narratives. She embraced that universal appreciation and, with the help of arranger Trey Pollard, transformed meanings written on a guitar through the orchestral prism, flourishing into dozens of sonic colors.
The one constant, of course, was Webster's voice. Beloved for her subtlety, her sweet and light tones on songs like "In A Good Way" and "Wanna Quit All the Time" blended effortlessly into the more elaborate backdrop, naturally adjusting with the greater sense of dynamics so that other leading instruments like trumpet and oboe could create counter melodies to her sung choruses.
The instrumental parts of the originals remained as such with the orchestra, and when Webster wasn't singing, she would jig along to the more intricate music, totally at home on this kind of stage. Then the song "Undressed at the Symphony" came around, and she guided the musicians into a powerful crescendo.
After all, she had released orchestral music before on her EP, Car Therapy Sessions, which also featured arrangements from Pollard. As she said about the title track:
"This is the song that kind of started it all. I sent it to him on a phone demo with just me and my guitar, and he wrote this arrangement. It's the only form and way that this song exists."
Webster peaked when she performed this piece and others from the EP, such as "Suite: Jonny," a revelatory cinematic epic that shifts her from a singer to the leader of a spoken-word one-woman show. She clearly has a mind for this mature style, and to share that with a crowd of truly appreciative fans elevated her beyond a pop artist and into a true polymath. (Though she did do some fun pop-friendly things like giving the crowd remote lights to create some immersive production).
