Concert Review: Buck Meek at 29th Street Ballroom
On tour behind The Mirror, his lovelorn and long-gestated fourth album, Buck Meek brought his homecoming to Texas, dispensing country-inflected earnestness, bandmate introductions, and a setlist that proved the most searching records demand the most searching rooms.
Written by Noah Keany
Photos courtesy of Bob Boilen
After two decades of subways, basements, and Big Thief touring itineraries, Buck Meek has arrived at The Mirror, his fourth solo album and third for label 4AD. Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia produced the record, who molded its eleven tracks and traced the arc of love as a form of ongoing self-examination. The album confronts who we are when someone sees us and who we are when we face the glass alone. The Wimberley-born, Brooklyn-based songwriter returns to Texas again at the 29th Street Ballroom to perform his new album alongside Kisser.
Kisser took the stage at 8:15 p.m. led by Dutch vocalist and songwriter Germaine Dunes. Meek is there in support of her as both her guitarist and husband on stage, behind Dunes who, before turning to music full-time, spent years doing space station development at the ESA and studying neutrons from other galaxies on the Matterhorn. Kisser sounds like a free-spirited alt-90s rock band with a softer, folk sound. The set opened without announcement and ran eleven songs across forty minutes, with "Quiet Power," "Boom Boom," and "Candy Apple" across the opener’s setlist. Each song exists as a compact and spirited dispatch. At the end, Dunes mentioned that their first two songs were available for free download at the merch table. "Thank you, we're Kisser!" Dunes said, and they exited the stage by 8:55.
Meek and his band entered the stage at 9:15 p.m.The first song was "Gasoline," the hooky, frenetic opener from The Mirror that, as one reviewer put it, “ignites the spark of a whirlwind romance with the question of who will say ‘I love you’ first.” The track ended at 9:19 as Meek grinned into the crowd. "Thank you!" he said. "You guys are great!"
"God Knows Why" followed immediately, blue lights washing over the stage as the crowd began swaying and bobbing their heads. It is a song of self-confrontation, one of those Mirror tracks where Meek croons about the hypocrisy of a hateful, holy man. The crowd wooed for the vulnerable performance about mid-way through the song. The song ended at 9:22 p.m., and "Can I Mend It?" began in the same breath. The crowd sang along to the chorus and its titular question of “Can I make it whole? / Now that you've seen the dark side of my soul.” The room roared at 9:25 p.m. as the second chorus came in and the track ended at 9:27 p.m.
"Pretty Flowers" arrived at 9:27 p.m. and surged energy from the band and into the crowd both until 9:30 p.m. What followed was the track,"Demon," a catchy standout from The Mirror, the song centers Meek’s personal life as it borrows a line from his late friend and collaborator Tucker Zimmerman, possibly Meek's way of recognizing that “The line between us all is thin.” The crowd was roaring as Meek yelled "Everybody!" and the crowd chimed "la la la" right along with him as the song came to a close at 9:33 p.m.
The sixth song, "Joe," started at 9:34 p.m. with the room going quieter and slower around it, a more solemn track that held the crowd swaying for two minutes. "Pareidolia" followed at 9:36 p.m. and a voice broke out from the audience saying, "We love you!" as the song ran through to 9:40 p.m. Then came a second pass at "Gasoline" which, given its Americana groove and delightfully sweet lyrics, still ignited the crowd despite hearing it a second time.
"Outta Body" brought with it pink, purple, and blue lights spreading across the stage, and a groovy guitar cut through the room at 9:44 p.m. The vibrancy and color of this track had the crowd swaying for four full minutes until 9:48 p.m. "Certainty" followed immediately with country vibes that ran to 9:51 p.m. as the crowd sang along. "Beautiful singing everybody," Meek told the crowd when it was over. "We love it when you sing."
The semi-spoken opening of "Worms" started at 9:52 p.m. with warm red lights covering the stage and, as the song picked up pace, the track was punctuated by a short, unexpected jolt of electric guitar. "Deja Vu" followed immediately at 9:54 p.m. and closed out at 9:57 p.m.
Meek and his band started performing "Ring of Fire" at 9:59 p.m. On the album, the song is a soft lullaby to the woman he loves with Meek singing softly about the years he bled for the rock and roll life and music before deciding to save all that love in the sound for his girl back home. This track’s love for rock and roll and outlaw spirit filtered through tight, almost poppy production, which was beautifully reflected in Meek’s live performance. "Soul Feeling" followed at 10:02 p.m., a Southern rocker with hymn-like verses, and ran until 10:08 p.m.
The title track of Meek's acclaimed 2023 predecessor “Haunted Mountain” brought a groovy Americana feel of a man walking the valley at 10:08 p.m. and ended at 10:12 p.m. as the room erupted to the performance’s conclusion. "Thank you guys so much for that!" he said, looking genuinely moved as he exited stage with his band. "You guys are so beautiful!”
The crowd cheered for a full minute before Meek came back alongside his band at 10:13 p.m. "Thank you so much to Dan for running our sound!" The encore began at 10:14 with "Halo Light," a shallow and sad song, as orange light flooded the stage and the venue fell silent around it which ended at 10:18 p.m.
Meek then gave special mention to his bandmate Steven van Betten, who, he noted, had just put out a record called Heartbreak Bop to which the crowd cheered. Meek thanked Kisser once more. "We got shirts over at the merch table," he said, "and I'll be over there too if you want to come say hi."
As the live rendition of "Kiss My Mirror" took stage at 10:19 p.m. with the full band, a funky bass line played out at 10:23 p.m. before the song closed. "Candle" followed immediately, a quieter closer to the encore, while the room gathered around it until 10:27 p.m. "Thank you guys so much," he said as he and his band exited backstage. As Meek exited the stage to man the merch table alongside Dunes, the crowd swarmed to meet the artists who touched their hearts and held the mirror up to them through their performance.