Billie Marten performed at The Sinclair on Dec. 2.
Billie Marten performed at The Sinclair on Dec. 2. | By Hugo C. Chiasson

Billie Marten Concert Review: Marten Enchants at The Sinclair

Despite the rain, fans lined up around the block outside of The Sinclair to see the musician.

By Gwendolyn M. Ibarra, Crimson Staff Writer

The supporting tour for Billie Marten’s newest album, “Dog Eared,” made waves during its stop in Cambridge on Dec. 2. Despite the rain, fans lined up around the block outside of The Sinclair to see the musician.

The artist from North Yorkshire entered the indie music scene in 2014 with her release of “Ribbon” and has since released five studio albums. The evening began with her song, “Feeling,” which describes fleeting emotions in twirling melodies and soft vocals. Marten’s newest album is true to her style, weaving acoustic and indie melodies with developed production. Lyrically, the album is a meditation on the beauty of small sensations and moments. Her delicate voice was accompanied by a guitar and drum set, along with a peculiar set of percussive instruments that resembled wind chimes.

The songs “Crown” and “Feeling” were fan favorites. Around halfway through the set, the music took a Southern turn. Her next song, “Planets” was dedicated to a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma: “Found myself there in mid-January, bleak. I stumbled into this bar called DD’s Double Shots.” Marten continued, “They only serve Coors Light and you smoke inside.”

“The mainstays of the karaoke zone are very old, very weary, and very sad men who are expats or have been through a lot of trauma in their lives and just want to stand in a corner and sing a country song,” Marten said at the show’s opening. Indeed, these moods are reflected in the lyrics: “Watching silver turn to gold / And I’ll love you ’til I’m grey and old.”

Marten’s bandmates left the stage for her acoustic song, “Vanilla Baby,” which was haunting and moody. The stage washed over in warm orange hues that mirrored the album cover, “Feeding Seahorses by Hand.” The only regret from standing in the mezzanine was a loud vacuum from the back of the bar that thwarted Marten’s spooky glow for some audience members. Luckily, the noise was over by the next song, “No Sudden Changes.”

The opener, Nuría Graham, joined Marten onstage for the end of her set. Marten took time to mention that the Catalan musician was a key contributor in the making of “Dog-Eared.” “We made music together for three weeks and thus formed the beautiful album. Any word I was going to say was going to be a double entendre. Album. Thus formed a beautiful album,” she said. The light-hearted tension between the musicians was quickly dismissed as their musical chemistry came together in her song, “I Can’t Get My Head Around You.”

Throughout the evening, Marten showcased her vocals with songs that are felt in the chest.

—Staff writer Gwendolyn M. Ibarra-Bustamante can be reached at [email protected].

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