“I’ve been surprised by how much the fans agree with what we want to play,” laughs Zach Williams, guitarist and lead vocalist of The Lone Bellow. The Brooklyn-based Americana trio – who just this June played WXPN’s Concerts Under The Stars concert series in King Of Prussia and just last year did two nights at Johnny Brenda’s on their 10 Year Anniversary Tour, celebrating the 2013 release of their self-titled debut album – are gearing up to embark on the By Request Only Tour, which literally enabled fans in each city to submit their dream setlist for their local show, which would then be curated by the band.
The By Request Only Tour will have The Lone Bellow returning to the Music Hall at World Café Live on October 5th for the first time in nearly ten years. And during our recent phone chat, Williams tells me that he vividly remembers a very significant moment of the band’s career which occurred at the University City venue: “We were at World Café Live the first time we ever played ‘Green Eyes and A Heart of Gold,’ which went on to become like our biggest song. We were opening for The Civil Wars [in February of 2011] and we didn’t even have an album out, and we just played the song nervously for like eight minutes [laughs].”
“This is something that Bruce Springsteen talks about, the live show is a handshake between the audience and the people… So, if the audience doesn’t want to do that and go all in, it won’t happen,” Williams explains of the idea of actually collaborating with fans on the band’s upcoming live show, admitting that the band’s got a catalogue that could provide a plethora of setlists at this point: “We’ve got six records out in the world, which is like eighty something songs.” Zach tells me that, in some ways (internet balloting and tallying aside), this seemed like an obvious way to approach a live set: “We were like, ‘How do we take their participation to the next level?’ With this, we can literally curate a night together.”
Although once the band – also comprised of Kanene Donehey Pipkin and Brian Elmquist – sat down to sort through requests, they realized that these setlists may not be all that different from recent shows. “‘Honey’ was by far the most requested song. I remember when two years ago that bumped ‘Green Eyes’ off the final ending for shows, and it was just so exciting to see how much they loved this new song, even over the older material,” says Williams, happy that apparently the band have been on the same page as their fans all along.
However, Zach says that the shows will definitely include a few rarities: “We’ll do ‘Come Break My Heart Again,’ which we never play, and which I think I want to try doing in a different way. Originally, I wanted to make it a duet, but we were talked out of that in the studio, so I want to see if maybe I can talk Kanene into doing it that way.” And he tells me Philly will likely get something extra special: “There’s definitely been some Boyz II Men requests that we’re excited about. We’re not doing a ton of covers, but we’ll definitely do some Boyz II Men in Philly.”
The Lone Bellow have played the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection many times over the past decade+, but, in addition to the band’s first time playing their biggest hit, Zach tells me that there are certain memories that stand out: “All of our shows at Union Transfer just rule. Also, somebody from Philly took me to this like 100-year-old market down the street from there where I had the best sandwich of my entire life!” He also admits that the two shows at Johnny Brenda’s last December were especially exciting: “Johnny Brenda’s was really special, just because it’s so intimate, and they’ve got that great balcony.” And while the Music Hall at World Café Live is quite a bit bigger than Fishtown’s “mini rock n’ roll ballroom,” Zach says that the band are trying to recreate the same kind of intimacy on the By Request Only Tour.
“Ya know that scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou? where George Clooney and his buddies are singing around that one mic? That’s the production vibe of this. We literally move around one mic for the whole show. We don’t want to hide behind anything. It’s stripped down and very intimate on purpose. We don’t even have monitors.”
When I ask Williams how he would reflect on the history of The Lone Bellow, he admits that he didn’t necessarily see it turning out exactly how it has: “When I think about it, it’s like, this is what we’re doing with our lives. We’re still growing and building and doing stuff; it wasn’t like something that we’d do for five years.” And the band have some big things afoot, including something relating to a show that they played just last night: “We’ve got a humdinger coming up… We’re doing 18 songs with the Nashville Symphony… for a live symphony album that’s gonna take a lot of time.” And that’s not the only release in the works. They recently recorded an album of new material at a formerly abandoned firehouse in Henderson, Kentucky that a friend of theirs renovated, and Zach tells me he thinks it’s the most collaborative thing The Lone Bellow have done yet.
“We’ve always pushed towards collaboration with each other… This feels like the first time the five of us [including longtime bassist and drummer] fully wrote a record together… That’s not done a lot right now, like bands aren’t really a thing right now. It’s more like the singer comes into the studio and is like, ‘Here’re all the songs.’”
*Get your tickets here.
