Andy Shauf at Paradise Rock Club 4/2

The promise of “spring” semester is always an empty one. After enduring weeks on end of mind-numbing cold, Andy Shauf gave me, and the packed crowd at Paradise Rock Club, a glimmer of hope for warmer days ahead. 

Supporting act Cassandra Jenkins hit the stage impeccably dressed in a cascading white tulle skirt and leather jacket — it was Americana and metal and probably just Brooklyn all at the same time. Her rich and deep voice lulled us through a lovely set pulling mainly from Jenkins’s 2021 release, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature. “Hailey” was a highlight, which Jenkins dedicated to a Hailey standing next to me in the crowd. This show was Jenkins’s last with Shauf and the band, ending her leg of the tour. Canadian singer-songwriter Helena Deland joined the band in the last month of the tour, which started off in February and concluded after a stint in Europe in May. 

I can only describe Andy Shauf’s stage presence as meek — he quietly introduced each song with a sort of deliberateness reminiscent of my beloved 4th-grade teacher. If Shauf appears self-effacing between songs, his command of the stage and skillful clarity becomes clear when he performs. Shauf and the band played with a near-mathematical quality that made their sound almost cerebral. Spirograph-like patterns projected above in an assortment of blues and greens worked in perfect concert with the band. While there’s a quality of symmetry and balance to the band, Andy Shauf’s voice adds a striking warmness — perfectly capturing the feeling of a 55-degree partly-sunny Boston day. 

I usually gravitate towards music with a busier and fuller sound. In many ways, Andy Shauf is the exact opposite. But, I found the emptiness to be quite comforting. In the few moments when the band jams out, like in “Thirteen Hours” from Shauf’s 2020 release, The Neon Skyline, there’s still incredible synchrony and control. There is a oneness to their sound, which almost makes it sound like there’s only one instrument on stage. Over the course of a long tour, which kicked off in mid-February in Canada, the band clearly has developed real chemistry on stage. 

I was most impressed by “Quite Like You,” from Shauf’s 2016 breakthrough album, The Party. In its recorded form, “Quite Like You” is a story of a neglectful boyfriend, a heartbroken woman, and the unrequited feelings of the narrator. Performed live, the story becomes animated by the unfolding of the song on stage. The slowing and speeding, stopping and starting of “Quite Like You,” is so impressive in live performance and was a true demonstration of coordination. But, in the beautiful little moments when the synchrony of the instruments breaks, the band members become characters of the story. Andy Shauf becomes the sweet and lusting narrator and the instruments chase after one another in a lover's quarrel. 

I hadn’t noticed before but Andy Shauf never really ends a song. At the end of many of Shauf’s songs, the band simply stops the pattern they were playing before — sometimes quite abruptly. There’s something perfectly springy about Shauf’s aversion to resolution. Much like the ambivalence of early spring in Boston, Andy Shauf left the crowd with a taste in our mouths, something between a nostalgia for the quietness of winter and a suggestion of a warm spring breeze.