Touring to promote her brand new release Heartstrings, Leighton Meester stopped by the Birchmere in Alexandria last Wednesday night to play for a packed house of eager fans.
The night marked the first performance on her current tour that features nine dates in total, beginning here on the east coast with a DC area date, later Philadelphia and Boston shows, and then moves west, culminating in Meester’s home state of California.
With a full five piece band in place and an acoustic guitar in hand, Ms. Meester arrived on stage, her hair pulled back simply and dressed comfortably in a plain grey cardigan and jeans and couldn’t hold back a warm, gracious smile. The audience clearly had no problem expressing their love for her either with applause and warm sentiments. In fact, I think someone in the crowd shouted “I love you, Leighton” after every song. By the end of the show she joked, “Still?”
Meester is relaxed on stage and comfortable, her voice is delicate, yet strong enough to hit beautiful peaks just above the melody. She certainly knows her range and carefully plays it to her advantage. Her beautiful tone and raw ability is striking and the new album showcases this more than ever with an emphasis on a traditional singer-songwriter presentation.
About halfway through her set an audience member suggested from the crowd, “Sing some of your early stuff!” To which she replied with a straight face—”no,” then laughed gracefully.
The night’s set list did include opener “Heartstrings,” “LA,” the Cardigans’ “Lovefool,” a cover of Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take my Man)” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” as an encore.
