Natalie Prass wouldn’t stop calling the crowd beautiful.
“I can’t get over how great you guys look! You guys are hot.”
So asserted the Virginia singer-songwriter to a sticky, sizeable noontime crowd Friday at Zilker Parker. Prass’ chatter had the crisp, bubbly elocution of a musical theatre actress. In a sunny yellow getup, she arrived backed by a quartet of players in royal blue.
Appraising an older couple in Abbey Road tees next to me – almost eight hours early for Paul McCartney on the same stage, but already camped out – I didn’t quite glean the assembly’s aesthetic appeal for Prass, who put on a buoyant, 35-minute performance. The Beatles fans of my proximity stayed seated nonetheless.
The singer’s crystalline pop tone established itself from the outset on “Oh My,” the first track from sophomore work The Future and the Past. The LP finally came out in June after Prass orchestrated a full rewrite following the 2016 presidential election.
Rather than brood, the album offers a cinematic, danceable uplift with political underpinnings. The optimistic work’s funk and jazzier moments multiplied onstage through Prass’ lively backing crew. For peppy single “Short Court Style,” the guitarist and bassist engaged with the bandleader in some celebratory side-stepping choreo. The frontwoman looked absolutely ecstatic.
Soulful organ lifted “Bird of Prey,” a baroque take off the artist’s eponymous debut. Following bluesy ballad “Ship Go Down,” which ended in angular guitar breakdown, was captured in a tight shot of Prass’ eyes flashing on the American Express stage’s enormous screens. Reflected in her circular shades, a green meadow spanned gloriously, idyllically dotted with colorful onlookers and fluttering flags.
That’s when I saw what Natalie Prass saw, and it really did look great.
This article appears in October 5 • 2018.