Father John Misty at Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, March 26, 2015

Back-to-back shows this week with Father John Misty at Variety Playhouse following Nels Cline last night at Eddie's Attic.

Variety Playhouse was sold out for this show.  This was not our first time seeing Father John Misty, having already caught him at Terminal West and at The Masquerade.  I believe both of those shows were sold out as well.  But a new Father John record dropped this year, his second, I Love You Honeybear, and J Tillman has upped the performance ante with a larger backing band (six musicians) and a louder sound - he basically brought a stadium show to the medium-sized Playhouse last night.   It was a big sound, but all too often it sounded like Tillman had to shout the lyrics that he croons on the new album.  

Speaking of loud, King Tuff opened with a set of highly amplified garage rock.  The were able to keep the audience's attention, if only by sheer volume, far better than Misty's opener at The Masquerade, the quiet and introspective folk singer Jessica Pratt.  I don't think most of the Masquerade audience even knew Pratt was on stage, and fewer still acted like they cared, which was too bad.  La Sera opened for Father John at Terminal West and provided just the right balance between Pratt's acoustic strumming and King Tuff's Marshall amps.   

I didn't get any good pictures of King Tuff, but Variety Playhouse posted this one on Facebook, below, followed by some of my shots of FJM: 

The most prominent feature of the stage was a large, neon "No Photography" sign conspicuously placed behind the band - they occasionally played in silhouette back-lit by the sign - but many people apparently ignored the rule based on the number of illuminated cell-phone screens I could see from my usual Variety Playhouse position back on the first riser, right.

Father John Misty played the expected songs off of Honeybear and Fear Fun, and included Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man in their encore.  Stage banter included references to Squidbillies, Bronze-Age desert myths, and gold-plated dollar-sign necklaces.