What exists beyond: The Crane Wives at The Bellwether 4/30
Photo description: Lead singers and guitarists Emilee Petersmark (left) and Kate Pillsbury (right) play guitar on stage bathed in purple light. Drums and stage lights stand against a backdrop of darkness.
The crowd cheers as a figure dressed in black walks onstage. A golden deer mask crowned with antlers covers the figure’s face. In hand are four lanterns glowing with golden light. The figure weaves between drums, microphones, and guitar stands alike, setting the lanterns down one by one, each symbolizing one of the four musicians soon to step onstage.
Placing the final lantern, the figure straightens and tips their top hat in greeting.
Let the show begin.
Moments later, The Crane Wives step onstage and kick off the night with “Arcturus Beaming,” a song from their most recent album: “Beyond Beyond Beyond.” Released back in 2024, this eleven-song album marked the group’s transition from indie-folk into their indie-rock era. Guitarists and lead vocalists Emilee Petersmark and Kate Pillsbury made this shift clear with this first song, releasing an impassioned bit of guitar riffs, supported by bassist Ben Zito and drummer and backup vocalist Dan Ricabus.
The band has released five studio albums since forming in 2010 and assured the crowd that they would be covering beloved songs from numerous albums, hoping to play everyone’s favorite song over the course of the show.
Sure enough, Emilee jumps back to the 2020 release “Nobody” from their “Here I am: Live from the Listening Room” collection before heading further back to “Allies or Enemies” from the 2015 “Foxlore” album. The line “I want to be let in, not out” speaks not only to the band’s first performance in LA but the community The Crane Wives create for their fans. Touching on love, pushing through doubt and anxiety, and healing through trauma, these lyrics open a connection between the band and the audience. The crowd stomps along with the beat, the band plays, and everyone smiles, hearts a little bit lighter.
This tone continues into “Never Love an Anchor,” a fan favorite that solicited a chorus of gasps as the song became recognizable after the first few plucks of the guitar strings.
As the music played, energy and light ran through The Bellwether music hall. The sold-out show was clearly dominated by hardcore fans, and their energy matched the dynamic and lively sound hidden by the song’s name, “Sleeping Giants.” The crowd, however, hid none of their excitement, voices unifying to mimic the lyrics sung by 1500+ fans: “My pulse is clear, rushin’ in my ears I hear something calling me.”
Pillsbury then took a moment to address the crowd, asking who among them were chronically anxious like herself. In humorous harmony, many of the fans in attendance raised their hands. Pillsbury invited everyone to connect with her through the next song, “Bittersweet Medicine,” during which the stage lights dimmed and gave way to golden ones, casting rays of shimmering light across the stage and over the audience.
Switching back to “Beyond Beyond Beyond,” the band played the album’s biggest hit “Black Hole Fantasy,” which discusses uncertainty and taking chances, working up courage to do something scary. Facing fears is an essential part of life, one that often requires a great deal of thought and consideration. But The Crane Wives had no doubt in this performance. Confident and willing to take the chance, this song’s sound was not a “black hole” but “guided by the stars,” instilling confidence in the cacophony of voices that abandoned their doubt to overpower the hall’s speakers.
From the winding ending of “Black Hole Fantasy,” the band dove into their viral Tik Tok hit “The Moon Will Sing a Song for You.” Released on the “Coyote Stories” album, the song went viral as an audio, resulting in animation trends and a massive increase in the popularity of not only the song but the band. Of all the songs played, this is the one that even the newest fans would surely recognize.
The band slowed down to display their lyrical skills with “The Hand that Feeds” and “Scars.” The former, greatly inspired by Petersmark, accounts her experience with adoption trauma and stands as a powerful anthem for listeners with similar experiences.
Indulging while preparing for goodbyes, the performance shifted to “Steady Steady,” easing back into the music before quickly picking up pace and dropping it again. Bathed in lavender light, befitting of the crowd’s sea of heads crowded with flowers, the band displayed their control of both instruments and audience. Bass in hand, Zito began to sing along to lyrics, becoming fully enveloped by the energy in the building, moving close to Ricabus to enjoy the experience together.
Closing with “Foxlore” favorite, “Curses,” the band bid farewell and stepped offstage with smiles. Refusing to let the quartet escape without an encore, cheers and chants built until instruments were back in hand. The band laughed, thrilled that the crowd was so insistent on an encore, asking if attendees would come to a future show in LA. The cheers were the loudest of the night.
Coming to a close with a bittersweet goodbye, “Tongues and Teeth” blared with volume and passion. The Crane Wives poured their hearts and souls into the crowd, truly being wrung “dry of everything.” The songs close resonated with powerful vocals and heartfelt guitar, both guitarists ending beside each other resting on the stage floor.
Rising with smiles, the band soaked in the last of what was their first LA performance and blowing kisses with a wave goodbye.
As their final song warns, the band and their performance truly does “ruin you” and leave you wanting more. The Crane Wives return to LA will be a must-see performance, no question.
