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Swamp Ophelia Tour Apr 8, 1995 (29 years ago) Market Square Arena Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Indigo Girls don't let arena dwarf them: Duo keeps the mostly female crowd at MSA standing for most of a polished, passionate show. DIANA PENNER Indianapolis Star 09 Apr 1995
The Indigo Girls 3 1/2 STARS Opening band: Ferron Where: Market Square Arena When: Saturday Star ratings: 4 excellent, 3 good, 2 fair, 1 poor.
The next time the Indigo Girls are booked into Market Square Arena, the staff might as well dispense with setting up all those cumbersome seats: Hardly anyone sat in them for any significant length of time, anyway.
From the opening Let It Be Me, an upbeat and engaging number that immediately put the spotlight on the trademark harmonies of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, to the rousing encores that extended the concert by more than a half-hour, most of the audience was on its feet. And most of the crowd joined in on a good number of the lyrics.
Saliers and Ray more than held their own at the arena, cut roughly in half for the show but still among the largest venues the duo has ever played. About 6,500 fans - most, but not all, women, ranging from junior high age to comfortable middle age.
Saliers made note of the size of venue in quipping, "We've never played in a place like this . . . it's a big ol' basketball place."
Accompanied for most of the show by chums on cello, electric bass and drums, the Girls nonetheless managed to fill the half-arena with sound even when it was just their two guitars and their two voices.
Whether they were trading off with their hopscotch harmonies or blending head-to-head, Saliers and Ray were in top vocal form.
They went from their more delicate numbers - Power of Two, featuring Saliers' wonderful finger-picking, and The Wood Song, again putting Saliers at the center of attention with her more breathy and higher-range vocals - to the harder rocking tunes that show Ray's strength.
That was never more evident than on This Train Revisited, an urgent and almost disturbing indictment of the Holocaust. A few people were seated when Ray began, but she was burning up the strings by the time the song wound up - by which time the audience was wound up, too.
Whether the selections were from their newest album, Swamp Ophelia, or from their 1989 self-titled major label release, the audience seemed to know them all. The crowd was a huge chorus for the "nah-nahs" on Least Complicated and just sang the whole darned song when the professionals pulled out Closer to Fine, one of the Indigo Girls' biggest hits.
They poked fun at themselves for so often being so lyrically serious, and seemed to have the most rollicking fun rocking along on their more pop-oriented numbers, including the radio-friendly Galileo.
The most stunning musical moment - one not equaled on any of their CDs - was a passionate, 15-minute version of Touch Me Fall, featuring Ray and Saliers displaying electric guitar talents that, by comparison, are only hinted at on their recordings. And almost right after that, they pulled a musical-180 with a lush and tender rendition of the traditional folksong The Water is Wide.
As satisfying, polished and in-control as the Indigo Girls were, their opening act, Ferron, was dwarfed by the arena setting. Ferron (2 STARS) tried valiantly, but neither her material nor her totally solo performance could begin to engage an audience in a room that size.
Copyright 1995 - Indianapolis Star - All Rights Reverved
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