Julien Baker / Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster @ Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO

Words and photos by Whitney Hensley

I love photographing concerts. At this point, I couldn’t imagine not doing it. But last night was special in that all I wanted to do was put down my camera and take the show in with the rest of the audience at the Bluebird Theater in Denver. Opening up the night was a solo Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster from the Mississippi band, Water Liars. Justin’s soft, indie-folk tunes were beyond perfect to get the crowd ready for Julien Baker. The ease in which you can take in Justin’s music at times reminded me of Sam Beam from Iron and Wine. You can pick up Justin’s debut solo album Constant Stranger on September 30th.

At 9pm sharp, a Telecaster-adorned Julien Baker took to the stage and opened up her set with “Blacktop”, the first song off of her debut solo album, Sprained Ankle. Going to a Julien Baker show is a unique experience in itself. A completely quiet and captivated crowd looks on in complete admiration for what they are experiencing. Only after each song is clearly over does the crowd dare make any noise. The silentness of the crowd stems from the overwhelming respect the audience has for Julien’s music. I saw Julien in Texas back in March when she was making her way down to Austin’s SXSW musical festival. In five short months, she’s been able to quadruple her audience size. That fact alone lets you know that her music is incredibly special and people are taking notice. At one point Julien covered a small portion of the Carter Family’s “Keep On The Sunny Side” before transitioning into “Brittle Boned”. Every song on Sprained Ankle was played with the addition of “Funeral Pyre”, which at this time can only be heard live or on various YouTube videos. You can catch Julien on tour now through the end of September and then again on select dates with Kevin Devine this November. Photos of the show are below:

Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster