The smaller solo sound of the former singer of Big Thief from Minnesota is still very popular

While loud dance beats blared outside from a Pride block party along Hennepin Avenue, Adrianne Lenker quietly created a completely different boom-boom-boom at the State Theater on Sunday evening.

The singer of the increasingly influential folk-rock band Big Thief got her audience’s hearts jumping and pounding at the second of two sold-out solo acoustic gigs in her former home state.

Their 95-minute performance was often subdued, rarely rising above mid-tempo urgency, and always sounding delicate and fragile. By the end of the show, however, it still felt like a jubilant celebration and emotional rollercoaster.

“This place is definitely ingrained in me,” said Lenker, 32, thanking her family in attendance and her Minnesota roots (mainly in the Nisswa area). She also praised the Twin Cities for hosting such widespread Pride celebrations.

That backdrop may have added an extra touch of sentimentality, but Lenker always seems to pour her heart out to the audience, whether she’s with her increasingly loud and experimental Grammy-winning band or playing alone.

“I wish I could be better alone,” she sang in her unmistakably wavering but strong voice on the trend-thinking solo LP oldie “Steamboat,” with lyrics that sounded ironic.

Lenker has actually gotten better at solo performances. Her fingerpicking guitar playing sounded much fuller and more impressive on Sunday—and her voice much more pronounced—than it did during her last solo performances at the Cedar Cultural Center in 2021, when Big Thief was just breaking through. Conversely, she lost none of the intimate atmosphere when she moved to a much larger venue (a size Big Thief has since outgrown).

In a sign of the cult-like devotion that developed around Lenker as a songwriter, the audience also seemed familiar with and enthralled by songs from her lesser-known solo LPs. Songs from the band’s catalog included “Spud Infinity” (joyousfully performed with her brother Noah Lenker on Jew’s harp), “Forgotten Eyes” (in a more upbeat, twangy version) and “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You” (saved for a stirring encore at the end).

However, a sign of the cult veneration that has developed around Lenker as a songwriter is that audiences also seemed familiar with and enthusiastic about the songs from her lesser-known solo LPs.

After some of the 2,200 fans quietly murmured the lyrics to the night’s opening song, “Not a Lot, Just Forever,” she invited them to sing along to another of her favorite solo songs, “Anything.” And so the show took on a strong campfire sing-along atmosphere, which continued through “Sadness as a Gift,” “Steamboat” and “Indiana.”

The mood was somber here and there. In “Donut Seam,” Lenker sang about going for one more swim before the world’s waters run dry. She announced another somber, poetic new song, “Fangs Lungs Ankles,” which will be sold online to benefit the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

Those moments were balanced by lighter highlights like “Born for Loving You,” which she admitted was written about the night’s opening act, Texas Americana strummer Staci Foster, whom she’s dating.

With the kind of awkward exuberance of one of John Prine’s more romantic tunes, Lenker sang, “From my first steps to my first words / Through waddling and birdwatching / To the teenage nightmare, mine and yours / Thank God we made it / ‘Cause I was born to love you.”

And there went the hearts.