The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 — 5

NETFLIX

There is a certain kind of magic 

that happens when women’s voices 
fuse together — it’s always spiritual 
even if the listener isn’t, a joyful 
noise made unto the congregation 
no matter what the circumstances. 
While I wouldn’t call the collection 
of people at The Majestic Theatre 
on Sunday a church, with their 
nose rings and shearling jackets 
and 
well-worn 
band 
t-shirts, 

we were all there to have some 
experience of beauty, and that we 
definitely got. The three artists that 
form boygenius — Phoebe Bridgers, 
Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — all 
took the stage with equal power, 
their voices ringing through the 
audience alone and then together. 
Though it was dark and crowded in 
the venue, with the fans whirring 
and heat blasting, the moments 
that hung in the air throughout 
each artist’s set were worth our 
heavy breath. The neon signs on 
the walls glowed in the darkness, 
but they could have easily been 
stained glass. Purity and soul were 
woven into every melody like a 
hymn, a naked baring of all three 
souls through the stories of their 
lives.

The first artist to play was Lucy 

Dacus, a quiet brunette whose 
underlying power as a musician 
may not seem obvious at first, but 
makes sense as soon as she opens 
her mouth. Dacus was technically 
the opener, but her shorter set left 
the audience satisfied — each one 
of her songs sprawls across five or 
six minutes at least, constantly in 
flux between different movements. 
On 
songs 
like 
“Night 
Shift” 

and “I Don’t Want to Be Funny 
Anymore,” those that put her on 
the map of indie rock, Dacus’s 
raw soul came through in every 
note. The audience hung onto 
every lyric exiting her painted-
red lips, jumping and whooping as 
each song came to its climax in a 
thumping crescendo of guitar and 
drums. The songwriter’s truest 
talent is hidden beneath her low 
and smooth voice, but emerges 
when the crowd gets loud; she’s 

a secret rock star, one of a new 
generation that is bringing soul 
back into the genre with honest 
narratives of love and loss.

As Dacus left the stage to huge 

applause, the audience waited 
for the next chanteuse to appear. 
The crowd buzzed excitedly as 
the mic was draped in fairy lights, 
a signature set piece of Phoebe 
Bridgers that only added to the 
cozy mood of the show. Bridgers 
stepped into the light with an 
almost alien beauty, her silvery 
platinum hair held back by a black 
headband and cascading down her 
shoulders. The concert’s feel was 
never funerary despite the black 
outfits of all three artists; instead, it 
was merely a blank canvas for their 
voices to stretch over like paint, as 
the audience’s attention was drawn 
only to their faces, contorted 
and smiling through each song. 
Bridgers’s performance of her debut 
LP Stranger in the Alps was truly 
something to be reckoned with. 
Her live skills mirror the beauty of 
her studio work almost exactly, the 
only differences found in the grand 
scale of her stage presence. A cover 
of Gillian Welch’s “Everything is 
Free” performed with drummer 
Marshall Vore punctuated her set 
with a melancholy note, supporting 
her original songs with the wistful 
words of the past. The Majestic 
holds over 600 people, but it felt like 
she was singing directly to every 
audience member as a personal 
conversation, mulling over her 
own life with ease and the class of 
an artist beyond her years.

Julien Baker then closed out the 

solo sets of the show with a bang, a 
Telecaster and a whole lotta soul. 
Seeing Baker live feels like you’re at 
a magic show — it’s hard to believe 
such a big sound can come out of 
such an unassuming and petite 
person, but this illusion didn’t last 
for long. As soon as she walked up 
to the mic, the crowd would have 
been stupid to think something big 
wasn’t about to happen. Even her 
small stature and general shyness 
on stage can’t hide the stage 
presence that Baker carries with 
her everywhere, a diamond beneath 
long blonde-brown hair and her 
understated 
banter 
between 

songs. She began with the song 

that made her a household name, 
“Sprained Ankle,” immediately 
proving herself to the crowd as a 
powerhouse and riding that wave 
through a succession of similarly 
perfect tunes. Baker’s melodies 
are high and moving, accompanied 
by a performance of thrown-back 
heads and interjecting shouts that 
let the audience know how much 
she really loves making her music. 
The passion that all three artists 
have for their work was palpable 
throughout the entire four-hour 
set, making the long-haul stand 
worth every ache of the morning 
after.

The three solo sets of the night 

were stunning, but the real magic 
of last Sunday lay when Baker, 
Bridgers and Dacus joined together 
to perform their EP as boygenius. It 
honestly seems like they were born 
to play music with one another, like 
siblings or sirens waiting in the 
water. Their allure is most obvious 
in the measured vulnerability of 
each member’s decisions to shine 
or support — all of them are stars 
alone, but their respect for each 
other leads to a cohesive group 
that allows everyone to soar 
and simmer in different ways. 
Bridgers’s stunning belt on “Me 
and My Dog” was countered by her 
quiet harmonies on “Souvenir,” and 
the same goes for both Baker and 
Dacus on other tracks. Watching 
the three interact on stage was like 
looking onto a family telling stories 
after dinner, as they shared in their 
musical similarities and differences 
to create a woven quilt of soft folk, 
anthemic rock and a pointed clarity 
that only comes from groups with 
natural chemistry. The last song of 
the show was an acoustic version 
of “Ketchum, ID” that took the 
crowd’s breath away in an instant 
 

— boygenius decided to go without 
microphones and instead asked the 
audience to join them in singing 
along, which resulted in one of the 
most moving concert experiences 
I’ve ever had. The harmonies of 
the crowd became a dysfunctional 
choir for a moment, as hundreds of 
voices rose to meet the group in the 
middle. It was almost as if we were 
praying together, celebrating music 
in the way that only those who 
really love it can do. 

boygenius was meant to be

CLARA SCOTT
Daily Arts Writer

MATADOR RECORDS

CONCERT REVIEW

Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus supergroup 
turned The Majestic Theatre into a sacred space on Sunday

‘Princess Switch’ spins the 
lookalike formula for Xmas

’Tis the season for sugar-

cookie feasting, family feuds, 
frostbite and, of course, romantic 

holiday flicks. Would it really be 
the most wonderful time of the 
year without these old-reliable, 
quintessential 
hallmark-esque 

gems? Sure, the classics are great, 
but there is something especially 
comforting in settling in for 

an hour and a half to witness 
the magic of an unrealistic 
yet pure love story unfolding 
right before your eyes. Though 
underwhelming in originality, 
riddled 
with 
cringe-worthy, 

PG-rated 
romantic 
tension 

SAMANTHA NELSON

Daily Arts Writer

and 
oozing 
with 
Christmas 

spirit, “The Princess Switch” 
is unexpectedly charming and 
ultimately successful in warming 
our hearts. 

With 
Christmas 
fast 

approaching, 
hardworking, 

talented and no-nonsense baker 
Stacy (Vanessa Hudgens, “High 
School Musical”) has business 
on her mind. However, when 
her handsome, easy-going best 
pal Kevin (Nick Sagar, “Ill 
Manors”) reveals that she has 
been accepted into a prestigious 
baking competition, which he 
secretly entered her into months 
before, Stacy’s holiday plans take 
an unanticipated toll. Persuaded 
by Kevin and his charismatic 
and uber-cute daughter Olivia, 
played 
by 
newcomer 
Alexa 

Adeosun, 
Stacy 
soon 
finds 

herself en route from Chicago to 
the royal kingdom of Belgravia to 
put her cooking skills on display. 
Shortly after her arrival, Stacy 
finds herself face to face with yet 
another surprise: Margaret (also 
played by Vanessa Hudgens), the 
Duchess of Montenaro and her 
literal double. When Margaret, 
eager for a taste of the world as 
a commoner before she weds the 
Prince of Belgravia, asks Stacy 
to swap lives for two days, Stacy 
hesitantly 
agrees. 
However, 

as is expected, love gets in the 
way of the girls’ plan and things 
become, well, complicated.

“The Princess Switch” can be 

best described as “The Holiday” 
meets “Monte Carlo,” a mashup 
that we probably didn’t need 
an entire movie to picture, 
but is enjoyable nonetheless. 

An 
undeniably 
“seasonal” 

film, much of its charm would 
arguably be subdued were it to 
be re-watched in August. The 
movie’s greatest shortcoming, 
however, is that instead of 
developing 
the 
chemistry 

between 
the 
characters 

onscreen, director Mike Rohl 
(“Kyle XY”) crosses his fingers 
that the age-old wonder of the 
fast-track-romance-with-a-
stranger plotline will be enough 
to make the budding romances 
believable. 

At its very core, “The Princess 

Switch” is completely and totally 
wholesome, a movie that should 
be accompanied by a mug of 
marshmallow-laden, 
whipped-

cream-topped hot chocolate and 

a platter of gingerbread cookies. 
While both protagonists are 
incredibly cookie-cutter, with 
Margaret tied down by duty and 
seeking adventure and freedom, 
and Stacy, who is uptight, goal-
oriented and detests surprises 
for 
some 
reason, 
we 
don’t 

seem to mind. Whether it’s 
the mouthwatering displays of 
immaculately fashioned cakes 
and pastries, courtesy of the 
scenes used to exemplify Stacy’s 
superb baking skills, or the 
cheesy 
horseback-riding 
and 

Christmas-shopping dates, there 
is something about the film that 
allows us to ignore its flaws and 
bask in the gleeful combination 
of 
happily-ever-after 
and 

season’s greetings.

With an open mind, managed 

expectations 
and 
a 
bit 
of 

Christmas spirit — instead of 
analyzing 
the 
seen-it-before, 

fairytale 
plotline 
and 
Stacy 

and Margaret’s respective one-
dimensional male suitors — we 
can focus instead on Vanessa 
Hudgens’s 
impeccable 
glow 

and allow ourselves to slip into 
the holiday mood. If you don’t 
feel quite hyped enough for the 
upcoming 
winter 
festivities 

or just need a little pre-finals 
season pick me up, this will likely 
do the trick. 

FILM REVIEW

“The Princess 

Switch”

Netflix

At 
the 
Michigan 
Theater 

this past Sunday, a group of 
diverse and inspiring women 
transported the city of Ann 
Arbor to a rare and beautiful 
place. Every space was a woman’s 
space at the Hello Sunshine X 
Together Live event.

Together Live is a traveling 

storytelling 
organization 

that 
partnered 
with 
Reese 

Witherspoon’s 
media 
brand, 

Hello 
Sunshine, 
to 
bring 

authentic storytelling to spaces 
worldwide in order to help 
amplify diverse and inclusive 
female voices. Among the voices 
heard at Sunday’s event were 
comedian 
Cameron 
Esposito, 

soccer player Abby Wambach, 
journalist Noor Tagouri and 
Together 
Live 
co-founders 

Glennon Doyle and Jennifer 
Rudolph Walsh. These women, 
and many other well-known 
feminists, are traveling to cities 
around the U.S. and splitting 
their hearts open — telling 
vulnerable stories of love, loss 
and their authentic journeys 
navigating 
the 
world. 
The 

women at Sunday’s event handed 
each of us a magnifying glass 
that allowed us to look into both 
their lives and our own. 

An 
immediate 
observation 

upon my entrance into the 
theater was that the audience 
was mostly women. This for me 
is always super empowering; but 
lately, I’ve been wondering why 
spaces created to amplify women 
can’t attract more men. I wonder 
if they feel excluded themselves. 
Or maybe they feel as though 
they do not need to be informed 
about this community and don’t 
think twice about attending a 
women’s empowerment event at 
all. 

Patriarchal systems dominate 

in all spheres of American 
life, 
including 
business, 

entertainment 
and 
media, 

and we all need to hear the 
unfiltered 
and 
empowering 

stories of women, regardless of 
who we are. There’s something 
so important and so rare about 
men genuinely looking to hear 
these 
female 
empowerment 

stories. Despite my love for the 
girl-power sentiment filling the 
theater, I wished for more male 
desire to learn from the event 
in order to be an allied force 
to the women’s empowerment 
and 
rights 
movement 
going 

forward. An important piece to 
the women’s rights movement is 
informed listening from those 
who have the power in exclusive 
spaces in order to help keep the 
door open for those of us trying 
to get through. 

Kicking off the evening of 

girl 
power 
storytelling 
was 

vocalist and songwriter MILCK, 
whose 
brassy, 
clear 
voice 

established the evening as a 
warm, welcoming and, most of 
all, interactive space. The stage 
was set up like a boho-chic living 
room, which gave the impression 
of 
a 
private 
conversation 

between the women on stage and 
the entire, quieted audience. As 
MILCK’s voice bounced off the 
walls, everyone looked on with 
admiration. It was an emotional 
moment as she sang: “Ooh-ooh 
child / things are gonna get 
easier / Ooh-ooh child / things’ll 
get brighter / Ooh-ooh child / 
things’ll get brighter.” Halfway 
through her opening song, she 
took a pause to look at everyone 
in the audience and speak to us 
directly. 

“Ann Arbor … is gorgeous,” 

MILCK 
said 
before 
picking 

back up with her song. With her 
compliment to our precious little 
city, we all swelled with pride, 
even more excited for what the 
rest of the evening entailed. 

Jennifer 
Rudolph 
Walsh 

(Together Live Co-Founder) took 
over as the crowd cheered and 
whistled for MILCK and the rest 
of the guests flooded the stage. 

“We are using the power 

of 
authentic 
storytelling 
to 

transform ourselves and the 
world around us,” Walsh said, 
which brought about a roar of 
applause from the audience. 
“Loneliness. 
Anxiety. 
Rage. 

Addiction. Depression. The cure 
... The antidote to all of this is 
storytelling. Especially in the 
disconnected times we’re living 
in.” 

I 
had 
the 
pleasure 
of 

interviewing 
Rudolph 
Walsh 

prior to the event and was 
thrilled to directly speak to her 
about something as important 
and life-changing as storytelling.

“Storytelling is our magic 

superpower. It connects, elevates 
and heals us. It’s a salve to bring 
us together during these divided 
times,” Walsh said when asked 
why she felt inclined to turn 
storytelling into her full-time 
job. 

During 
the 
event, 
Priya 

Parker, the founder of “Thrive 
Labs,” also shared some beautiful 
words about the importance 
of storytelling and gathering 
together as a community. 

“There’s an element of heat, 

risk and intimacy when we 
gather together to tell stories,” 
Parker said.

This really resonates, because 

I 
feel 
that 
when 
students 

who 
come 
from 
different 

backgrounds and have diverging 
opinions gather together to talk 
about something that makes us 
uncomfortable, we can make real 
breakthroughs. 

Abby Wambach, a professional 

soccer player, shared a bit about 

her own personal breakthrough, 
which I haven’t stopped thinking 
about since. 

“We all know the story of Red 

Riding Hood, right?” Wambach 
asked the audience, who nodded 
in agreement. “Well, Red Riding 
Hood is told to stay on the path 
or else the big bad wolf will get 
her. She’s told stay on the path 
and only on the path. But I’ve 
sort of found in my life that when 
I’m off the path, is when the 
best opportunities and moments 
come my way. So my mantra is 
to go off the path, and I sort of 
had to look at myself and say ‘Oh 
Abby, you weren’t Red Riding 
Hood. You were the wolf all 
along.’”

With that, a rush of energy 

filled the theater and suddenly 
we were all on our feet, yelling 
and cheering with enthusiasm 
and a new mantra: Be the wolf. 
As the evening progressed, I felt 
as though I was at a TED Talk — 
but subtract any morsel of toxic 
masculinity and add the most 
kickass, incredible women I had 
ever been in the presence of. 

“I think a lot of people think 

gays and minorities and liberals 
only live on the coasts but all 
I have to say is that we are 
everywhere. We are your fucking 
neighbors. We are HERE, ” said 
comedian 
Cameron 
Esposito 

following her stand-up set.

We are here. So many voices 

are ready to be heard.

When I asked Rudolph Walsh 

what she hoped people take away 
from the event, she said, “That 
everyone has a story and that it 
matters!” Gathering up stories 
and inhaling their themes and 
messages is the most incredible 
way to mend wounds, part 
seas and bring even the most 
diverging 
opinions 
together. 

What Rudolph Wash is seeking 
to do through Together Live X 
Hello Sunshine is something that 
should not only be celebrated 
but replicated, worldwide, by 
everyone — not just women.

I wanted to go and use my 

voice too. I wanted to listen. 
I wanted to stop strangers on 
the street and tell them stories. 
I wanted to hear theirs too. 
Two words that are part of the 
Together Live X Hello Sunshine 
mantra were etched into my 
head: Stories travel. 

Stories do travel. They travel 

from coast to coast. Across the 
world. Across your dorm room 
hallway, next door to your 
neighbors, all the way to the city 
you were born. Stories travel 
great lengths and distances, 
across time and space. They 
traveled to Ann Arbor. I put the 
ones I heard in my pocket as the 
shiny tools of the work yet to be 
done. And what a joy it is to know 
we’ll always have stories, they 
will never go out of style. They 
will never run out. 

ELI RALLO

Daily Arts Writer

Storytelling event Together 
Live X Hello Sunshine in AA 

EVENT REVIEW

