Marissa Nadler & Milky Burgess
The 529
March 8, 2022
Atlanta, GA
Marissa Nadler is an artist whose music became a huge part of my soundtrack in such a weird time in our world. Living during a pandemic, a fucked up Twilight Zone of a time with Trump as our president and my own band parting ways was just a lot. But, as always, music helped me keep it together and somehow make things just a little less painful. Marissa Nadler’s soothing, haunting, and enchanting voice and poetic lyrics that tell stories of a darker side of life were the escapism that I truly needed. The desire to see live music again really didn’t hit me, but the desire to finally see Marissa Nadler live was what I needed after these last couple of years.
There was a fair bit of nervousness as I pulled up to the 529 in East Atlanta Village. I grabbed my N-95 mask, took a Xanax, and headed to the venue. Sitting outside pre-show having a beer, I ran into Marissa and guitarist Milky Burgess’s partner in crime. Getting to tell them both how excited I was to see the show felt really great. They were both so kind and took the time to have a friendly conversation with me, even taking a request from me for the song “Drive.” Shortly after our conversation, I made my way into the venue just in time to see the stage being prepared for Marissa Nadler. I could feel the excitement in my body and my mind. This is an artist I had been waiting a long to see, and she was going to be no more than 10 feet in front of me.
The audience of about 20+ people may not have looked like much, but these people were here to see Marissa Nadler. These weren’t just stragglers off of the street wandering in for something random to do. When Marissa and Milky took the stage, everyone applauded and was very vocal about our appreciation for her coming to finally share her songs with Atlanta after a much too long absence. There was no hesitation, no contrived banter as “Bessie, Did You Make It” from her latest album, The Path of the Clouds” started things off, and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard in a live setting. The audience cheered very vocally, and a smile took over Marissa’s face.
Marissa’s set was primarily comprised of material from her most recent album, The Path of The Clouds. “Storm,” “From Vapor to Stardust,” and “Lemon Queen” were delivered with so much passion and emotion as Marissa let us know that this was the first time a lot of these songs were being performed live. While there was some subtle nervousness at times, Marissa made light of it with us, and everyone laughed along. I was nervous because this was my first concert in two years, so I can’t even begin to imagine the stress of performing post-pandemic for the first time.
The title track from her 2018 album “For My Crimes” was a highlight for me and probably for the rest of the room. With the subtle accent instrumentation of Milky combined with Marissa’s sparse fingerpicking, this was a murder ballad that was dark, haunting, and beautiful all at the same time. At times it felt like what one would call a religious experience only to exude the vibe of an ambient ritual in the depths of some catacomb.
“Couldn’t Have Done That Killing” and “And I Dream of Running” featured their jokingly “old school analog drum machine” as their drummer, which, in all honesty, added an excellent depth to these songs. Milky played multiple roles at once, which was impressive as he used bass pedals to push out a nice ambient bass sound along with the drum machine. This created a really different sound from the rest of the songs in the set and showed some real thought about a unique way to deliver these songs.
My personal highlight of the night was when Marissa performed my request, “Drive,” from her July album. The minute she went into the first chord, I felt my entire body overcome with emotion. Call it corny, but I got teary as she sang the first line, “If you ain’t made it now, you’re never gonna make it.” Even though those words weren’t particularly tied with my own emotions, at that moment, they connected with me on a whole other level.
When it came time to sing the 2nd verse, Marissa drew a blank and said, “Don, what’s the verse?” which drew a laugh. I mouthed it to her, but just as I realized I was wearing a mask that prevented her from seeing what I was saying, she remembered it and delivered it. Whatever it was, it felt like a somewhat spiritual moment, and for that five or so minutes, I felt like I was the only person in the room, which isn’t something I haven’t experienced a whole lot in my 48 years of living. The show closed out with “All Out of Catastrophes,” which, given the current state of our world, seemed to be somewhat appropriate, and with that, it was over. No cheesy walk off the stage and back on for an encore thing. That was it.
After the show, I thanked Marissa and Milky for an outstanding show and I tried to put to words just how moved I was by the show, but I feel that they knew, if anything, just by seeing me in the audience. For an hour or so, I felt like I had transcended to this whole other plane where nothing but the music that was being played existed. There was no Covid, no war, no insanity. It was just this beautiful void where I felt like it was just Marissa, Milky, and myself. It was a beautiful place to be, and it’s something that will never leave me. This was the show I wanted to see and needed to see, and I was reminded of the power and the magic of music; what it can do to you, what it can do for you, and where it can take you.
SETLIST:
Bessie, Did you Make it (The Path of the Clouds)
Storm (The Path of the Clouds)
From Vapor to Stardust (The Path of the Clouds)
Lemon Queen (The Path of the Clouds)
For My Crimes (For My Crimes)
Said Goodbye to that Car (For My Crimes)
Blue Vapor (For My Crimes)
Firecrackers (July)
Guns on the Sundeck (The Wrath of the Clouds)
Drive (July)
And I Dream of Running (The Path of the Clouds)
Couldn’t Have Done that Killing (The Path of the Clouds)
All Out of Catastrophes (For My Crimes)
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