Recap Why? at the Bluebird Theater

A few songs into his band's set Friday night at The Bluebird, Why?'s lead singer and songwriter Yoni Wolf said, “We heard there's a lot of crazy-psycho-freak killers out there. Is that true?” The audience emphatically answered “Yes!” to Wolf’s tongue-in-cheek introduction of “Song Of The Sad Assassin,”—a track that references Lee Harvey Oswald and Billy The Kid. But Wolf’s question holds another meaning: Who are these people who turned out to hear him sing these intensely personal songs?

Last time Why? came through Denver, Wolf looked irritable and uncomfortable on stage, touring for Alopecia, an album full of uneasy stories. The subject matter hasn't changed much, but Wolf looked transformed Friday, confidently exuding a “lead singer” vibe that had been absent at past shows. With no instruments in front of him—save for a bag filled with various shakers and tambourines—Wolf was free to be charismatic and self-deprecating. As he wandered the stage in a pseudo-interpretive dance for “A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under,” Wolf made reference to the musical Cats, attempting to explain away his strange movements. When it came to explaining the reasoning behind Why?’s short set however, Wolf made a cryptic, sarcastic remark about “the Set List Writers' Guild Of Southern California And Central Colorado” only allowing the group to play 14 songs.

The band's set hinged on Eskimo Snow's acting centerpiece, the intelligently self aware “Into The Shadows Of My Embrace.” Its declarative opening line, “I conquered my own childhood silence / And now the world is my lit confessional marquee” felt a little strange, as the audience watched Wolf sing about being conscious of being watched—but his confidence prevailed amid the swirling cloud of embarrassing anecdotes. In some ways, the show felt more intimate than a one-on-one conversation with Wolf could have. “I know saying all this in public should make me feel funny,” the song goes, “but you gotta yell something out you'll never tell nobody.” It was short, but Why?’s set of 14 songs full of painful admissions was more than enough to feel like a connection was made.