REVIEW: Elizabeth Moen at Lincoln Hall
By Meggie Gates
The girl behind me can’t stop squealing about Elizabeth Moen. She tells her friend’s about writing her senior thesis on the artist and they all recount memories of Short’s Burger Joint, a place in Iowa City that Elizabeth used to work at. “She was there before me but still. I can’t wait to say I walked where a famous person once walked,” the girl says, showing her phone to friends when Elizabeth messages her back on Instagram. Excited, enthralled, and nostalgic is the general mood of a concert filled with people who love Liz the most.
Lincoln Hall is one of the biggest venues Elizabeth has ever performed at, something she stresses towards the end of her set. “This is a bucket list item for me,” she hides her face, embarrassed. Accompanied by David Hurlin on drums, Dan Padley on guitar, and Gemma Cohen on vocals, the crowd cheers at her authenticity, proud of the Iowa City native they all came to see. For Iowa natives, the excitement of seeing someone not only chase their dreams, but succeed feels like a personal win for the entire community. People line up afterwards to embrace the artist and recount stories of almost encounters. The time they almost ran into her at a party, almost caught her at a music open mic she hosted at Short’s. Her journey of success is their journey of success, the crowd screaming how much they love her when she looks nervous or stressed.
“I’d say 30% of the crowd was people from Iowa City who moved here after college,” she tells me after the concert as fans line up for her autograph.
Elizabeth opens with “Tell Me When,” a song off her sophomore album. Bathed in pink and blue lights, she sets the tone for those who have shown up for a post Valentine’s Day celebration, a love song to the entire audience. Inspired by artists such as Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olson, her lyrics cover a range of topics that mirror theirs, emphasizing the carefree need for nostalgia and the indescribable sense of longing as one moves through adulthood. She emphasizes multiple times how much she appreciates the friends, family, and fans who have shown up for her time and time again. Living out of her van for the years she’s been touring, Elizabeth bridges gap between success and builds relationships with the people who love her. “I’ve been crashing on couches and in friend’s guest rooms for a long time,” she tells me. “People from Iowa are so supportive.”
As she moves in to songs off her new album, people cheer and hoot, their arms wrapped around love one’s who want to sway to the music. Mixing what people know with her new material, she showcases where her music is going, leaning in to Lake Shore Dive vibes with a voice sultrier than Amy Winehouse. The venue is huge but she has no problem filling it, her vocals reaching the back wall as if they were made for this moment. Years of traveling performing in venues around the world has paid off for Elizabeth. Her work ethic is unmatched and it’s obvious when she opens her mouth and let’s heartfelt lyrics fall out, her vibrato covering a scale of notes only the best musician can hit.
Performing the day after Valentine’s day, Elizabeth insures this is a special concert unlike any she’s done before. Her parents are in the crowd and she regales the story of how they met, surprising them with a song she wrote the day before for them. “I’ll probably be looking down at my music stand a lot for this one, as I wrote it yesterday. It’s for my parents, who met at a baseball game.” Older couples around me rest their head on their partner as she sings about love being a homerun, a one of a kind experience with your one of a kind soulmate. Her love pours in to the room and is reciprocated by a wave of couples swaying to the rhythm, a group of friends sitting near the railing holding hands crying. “My parents were freaked out when they heard that song,” Elizabeth texts me (a star gave me her number!). “They were like: we like this but are you ok?”
Following “Red”, my favorite song of hers to date, the lights change to Purple and she readies herself for the next song. She lets people know this song is one of her favorites and that the audience should sing along if they know it. Out pours Prince’s “Kiss” and the crowd cheers. A fan favorite, she follows “Red” with more incredible slides, vocally bouncing up and down displaying how seamlessly she can move between one note and the other. She brings a part of herself to this cover putting a twist on Prince’s content, the perfect cap to a perfect Valentine’s Day concert. Through red tinted glasses, she pans the audience left and right as she dances to a classic, an artist at home with the home she’s created. Everything’s come together for Elizabeth as she grooves with Gemma Cohen alternating verses to the song. You can tell she’s excited to be here with the people who have lifted her up her entire career. You can tell she deserves this moment.
Finding an artist humble enough to not let attention get to them is a rarity. She dedicates her time and music to the people willing to spend their time with her. Taking photos with the people who came to see her, she meets the crowd in the lobby immediately after getting off stage and converses with everyone who’s come to see her despite the fact she must clean up equipment and haul her ass to Milwaukee for a concert the next day. She’s tired, I’m sure, but she’s talented and unique, her style unmatched by any in the music industry.
She understands encores are a must and stays out promising one, unable to walk backstage and abandon the people who came out to see her. She sings a song she saw online from an artist she really liked and the venue is bathed in red. “This is for people in relationships, single people, and people not looking for relationships,” she closes her eyes and sways with the audience. “True Love Will Find You in the End,” a hard to accept phrase by people who find it hard to accept themselves. A promise future romance is not indicative by past heartbreak. “True Love Will Find You in the End.”
Her tour will be hitting cities across America. Make sure to secure tickets here.