Concert Review: Fiction Family @ Largo

Maybe it was because Jon Foreman and Sean Watkins are two of my favorite modern songwriters or maybe it was because my last concert was OAR at the  House of Blues crammed between a brigade of unappreciative, drunk frat boys   and sorority girls, but I’m pretty sure that this weekend’s Fiction Family concert was the best I’ve been to in years. Fiction Family wrapped up their debut tour at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles this Saturday. Surrounded by their family and friends, as well as fans old and new, Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek and Jon Foreman of Switchfoot played a set of originals, collaborations, and covers that lasted over 90 minutes.

Largo was the perfect venue to feel welcomed by this fictional family. A historic landmark, the small movie theatre-style venue has been a home for the Watkins family where they’ve maintained a residency every Thursday night for years. What made the night so uniquely enjoyable was the addition of Sara Watkins on violin and breathtaking background vocals. I couldn’t imagine the rest of the tour without her.
Sara performs with so much passion, energy, and confidence and yet manages to maintain a humble, not-to-be-taken-so-seriously persona while on stage. It’s a package one wishes every artist could deliver.

The renowned piano accompanist, Benmont Tench (Johnny Cash, U2), sat in on many of the songs delivering just the right color to each piece between casual sips of coffee, showing off his incredible solo skills only when asked. Jon’s celloist, Keith Tutt, also joined with his brilliant arrangements that struck well against Sara’s fiddle licks.

Foreman continues to impress me with his songwriting. The group did a number of his that has yet to be recorded called Rob Me, a foot stomping hillbilly tune that  Dylan would be honored to cover. Molly Jenson, a new friend of Conversant and Undiscovered, opened the evening up with her honest stories accompanied by her charming wit and personality that manages to shrink a room so that you feel you’re sitting across the table from her in a coffee shop. Her duets with Jon and Sean fit like a glove. Look for more on her in this blog soon as her new album, “Maybe Tomorrow” releases in March.

Whether it was hushing the room for a cover of Radiohead’s I Dio Teque (with three out of the four vocalists sharing the same microphone in traditional bluegrass style) or a version of Foreman’s stirring Your Love is Strong (based on the Lord’s Prayer) with Sara adding original harmony, or an instrumental bluegrass duet between the Watkins siblings, it was an unforgettable night that wasn’t about Fiction Family at all…it was about friends getting together to appreciate, celebrate, and share, stories and songs together.

The set ended with Foreman and Watkins thanking us for letting them be our fictional family for the evening and “if we wanted to hear some more songs we would have to sing a chorus of Hey Jude before they came back.” We complied. Soon each member strapped on their instruments to meet us on the chorus in the key we were all singing, followed by a long list of encore numbers. It was a night to remember.

To download Fiction Family’s single, When She’s Near Me,  for free on Undiscovered, click here.