Grace Potter at the Anthem with Brittney Spencer Opening
Each time she walks onto a stage, Grace Potter says “all bets are off, and no promises made.” She describes the set list for each show as the “pilot” and makes room for “detours” that ensure she never delivers the same show twice.
That philosophy was evident during Saturday’s 17-song performance at The Anthem in Washington, D.C., an eclectic mix of rock, blues, jam band, and acoustic tracks that drew from Potter’s two-decade career, both with her former band The Nocturnals and as a Grammy nominated solo act.
Wearing skintight black leather pants that she called an homage to “Grease,” Potter led the crowd in an impromptu version of “You’re the One That I Want,” was joined by opener Brittney Spencer on two lovely acoustic tracks and made references to “The Little Mermaid” during the almost two-hour show.
In other words, it was just another night on the “Mother Road,” the title of Potter’s most recent album.
Spencer, a Baltimore native whose terrific debut album My Stupid Life was released as the tour began earlier this month, opened the night in front of a late arriving crowd with a nine-song set. Highlights included the tracks “Bigger Than the Song,” “New to This Town,” “I Got Time,” and her 2021 breakthrough single “Sober and Skinny.” Now living in Nashville and supported artistically by Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Maren Morris, and others, Spencer’s career is one to follow.
With a road-trip themed stage featuring neon signs and a vintage gas pump, Potter and her four-piece band brought the fireworks from the start as she kicked off the set with “Lady Vagabond,” a highlight from “Mother Road.” Picking up her Gibson Flying V guitar, she then roared through “Medicine” before moving onto “Ah Mary,” two of the eight Nocturnals-era tracks played on Saturday.
Turning her attention back to “Mother Road,” Potter took a moment to talk about the “arduous and expensive journey” that led to the new album, written during a two-year pandemic touring hiatus that nonetheless included three cross-country trips from California to her native Vermont along Route 66. Potter, who was dealing with the after-effect of a devastating miscarriage, has said she was clinically depressed when she started writing the album on her road trips, admitting that the end result “felt like the deepest real emotion I had ever dealt with.”
“Now I may not be waiting tables, but I’m serving up songs and I’m so honored to have this job,” she said to cheers as she moved into an incredible cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman.”
Following the new album’s “Empty Heart” and the title track, Potter referenced “The Little Mermaid” before playing “Something That I Want,” her song that aired over the end credits of Disney’s “Tangled.” That was followed by fiery versions of the Nocturnals’ “Treat Me Right,” which fed into the “Grease” sing-along, and “Good Time,” one of the hell raising anthems from “Mother Road.”
And then, admitting that the Olivia Newton John homage may not have been the best idea, she took off her pants and offered to take requests. That didn’t go far, and Potter broke into a couple of lines from “Bulletproof.”
“Every time I start telling the audience I’ll take requests, you start yelling back at me and it sounds like ‘Bulletproof’,” she said as the audience laughed with her.
Potter brought out Spencer as her band left the stage, and the admiration between the artists was affectionate and mutual. Potter noted the two “turned into 8-year-olds the moment we met each other”; Spencer called the tour “the biggest most fun ride.” The two then performed a lovely acoustic duet of “Little Hitchhiker” from “Mother Road” before the band returned to play “Reaching Out,” the final song off Spencer’s album.
As Spencer left the stage, Potter asked assistant Drew Malone to bring her some new pants, explaining that she had met him while playing a gig at a Star Trek museum in upstate New York. Notingn that she now was on “a new journey,” she then played a terrific version of the Nocturnals’ “Stop the Bus,” inspired by a visit to a North Carolina graveyard when she was 21.
That led to a string of Nocturnals-era classics as Potter’s band finished the set with “The Lion The Beast The Beat” and “Paris (Ooh La La).” A three-song encore featured “Big White Gale” and closer “Stars” sandwiching “You and Tequila” — the Deana Carter cover that earned Potter and Kenny Chesney a Grammy nomination.
By this point, following two weeks of a fluky winter that featured snow followed by 70-degree temperatures, many in the audience were full of tequila or their libation of choice. They were happy, singing along, and already anticipating when Potter’s roadshow would return next.
Check out Grace Potter’s schedule and more on her website here: https://www.gracepotter.com
Find more about Brittney Spencer here: https://www.brittneyspencer.com
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Show Review: Grace Potter Lights Up the Night in Milwaukee with Devon Gilfillian