Iris DeMent Tickets

-Iris is a national treasure -acoustics, seating, climate control at Bijou all good. -convenient to hotels/restaurants for us out of town guests

Music great. Dement and her female band took two songs to get together, but then we're terrific. Bijou staff very helpful with need for seating accommodations. Very appreciative!

Iris Dement brought a great performance, an excellent trio, and endearing humor and charm to her Bijou Theatre show in August. It was wonderful to hear her voice and playing on her classic songs old and new. Her accompanying musicians were so great, too!

The first couple songs were nice, but it took a turn and the next hour or more she did horribly dreary, depressing songs. The last 3 songs were good.

Overall, sound was nice, but I could not understand her words most of the time. Either she needs to articulate better, or the sound system was bad. I compared the Bijou experience to her recordings, and it was like night vs day. I can understand all her words on the recordings.

I love Iris. While I'm not a regular country/bluegrass fan, I love Iris's music, her voice and her lyrics. My husband and I went to the Birchmere in October 2023 to see Iris for the first time. She sounded wonderful and she shared some entertaining stories. This concert was only a few days after the start of the Israel/ Palestine conflict. Iris sang "Warriors of Love", a song which among other things, talks about a young American woman named Rachel Corrie who was killed trying to defend Palestinian rights. After the song was over, a woman in the audience shouted a big thank you to Iris for acknowledging the plight of the Palestinian people and criticizing the U.S. for its support of Israel. Other people in the room started getting angry and it quickly got heated. Security came to remove the woman and Iris calmly looked at her and simply said, "No, just let her be. There's a lot of people right now who are in so much pain."And she quietly played church music on the piano. The woman left the room with the security guards and I thought about a world where people had a disagreement, everyone listened, and someone started playing music to restore calm. Iris said she saw a t-shirt that read "What everybody needs right now is a good listening to". I'm listening to Iris.

This was a rescheduling following a last minute cancellation in August. The concert was great, DeMent in perfect form with two unusually skilled backups (bass and guitar). My concern was with the process. The original performance was cancelled at the last minute (we and many others had already driven to the concert venue). We were told that our tickets would be honored at some unspecified future date, which they were. But wouldn't it be nice if Ticketmaster or the Birchmere, which was the venue, had offered something to make up for the inconvenience. Maybe a partial credit for a future event, or someting off the meal/drink costs at the rescheduled concert. Obviously, when you're dealing with live performances last minute changes can happen. But there are four parties involved in the process: the performer, the venue, Ticketmaster, and the ticket holders. Why should the ticket holders carry the burden for decisions over which they had no control?

This was a an odd concert: Iris was fabulous and Louden was absolutely terrible. I wish Iris would have played guitar on a song or two, rather than just playing the piano. Her time on stage felt like it zipped by. Louden has a great voice, but his 'show' was just plain raunchy. I was glad when he was done.

DeMent and Wainwright in concert. Iris' soul has connected with the soul of Russian poet Anna Akmatova whose life spanned most of the 20th Century, through the Russian Revolution to the late 1960s. Iris set the poet's words to "country," resonating with poet's strong love of country, and Iris' love of this country. Different from previous work, these beautiful renditions brought the audience to its feet with thunderous applause. The couple behind us wanted to read the words later they could not quite grasp. Loudon Wainwright III spunked the evening with his particular blend of story and song that set the house rocking! He sure plays it close to the bone in songs about those who do him wrong - including Trump. And right - songs of family and lovers. What you might think in your head but would rather not say - HE SAYS. Along with all the humor and antics, his beautiful voice soars in songs that let you know just how talented and accomplished he is, still strong at 70. He didn't sing "Dead Skunk in the Road," but you can hear that again on YouTube.

Iris DeMent and Loudon Wainwright outstanding in a beautifully renovated theater. You owe it to yourself to visit.