Review: In St. Pete, Faye Webster cruises through deceptively steamy Florida headlining debut

On Tuesday night in St. Petersburg, Faye Webster walked onstage with the third part of “Daphnis et Chloé” playing over the public address system. The 1912 choreographic symphony is French composer Maurice Ravel’s longest work, but clocks in at just short of an hour.

In front of a sold-out Jannus Live packed with millennials and Gen-Zers draped in thrift store gold, the 26-year-old Atlanta songwriter also kept it brief, and turned in a near-flawless, 62-minute set that reached all the way back to her 2019 breakthrough LP, Atlanta Millionaires Club.

As Webster kicked the show off with “But Not Kiss” from her latest full-length, Underdressed at the Symphony, fans jumped right in to sing along with lyrics of a song that’s as much of a love song as it is an anti-love song. “I want to sleep in your arms but not kiss. I long for your touch but don't miss,” the crowd screamed, getting locked into big feelings that would be a theme for the night.

It’s not out-of-bounds to assume that a lot of the material from Millionaires  and its follow-up, 2021’s I Know I'm Funny Haha, got Webster's fans through long periods of pandemic-related isolation. As the world asked young people to stop going to school and learn on their own, and the rest of us to work from home forever, Webster’s introspective, often dry, and frequently funny observations on life were a shrewd and comforting summation of life these days.

Those albums also found Webster adding elements of jazz, R&B to her music, which had fallen squarely in the indie-folk bin at the record store. In St. Pete, however, a lot of the remnant twang was amplified thanks to pristine slide from Matt “Pistol” Stoessel who laid down stoned solos on songs like “Better Distractions.”
And while it was fun to watch and feel Stoessel shine, the rest of the band—including India.Arie and PJ Morton drummer Charles LaMont Garner, and bassist Noor Khan—was impeccable in adding punch to Webster’s quiet storm. “A Dream With A Baseball Player,” felt like straight up yacht-rock (but without cocaine, which is saying a lot when it comes to St. Pete). Producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Annie Leeth sent the show into another atmosphere with effortless saxophone solos, satin-smooth keys and lush strings, especially on “Jonny” and “Lifetime.”

The crowd, California sober for sure, remained attentive and mostly silent throughout most of the deceptively steamy set, breaking its quiet devotion only to scream along during tunes like the luxurious, set highlight performance of “In A Good Way” where Leeth shined even brighter and some in the crowd passed out before being helped by attentive and swift Jannus security guards.

“Please make sure you’re drinking water,” Webster said before set-closer “Cheers” (the closest thing this band has to a rager).

After stripped-down, auto-tuned encore-opener “Feeling Good Today,” Webster & co. closed the band’s first Florida headlining show with “Kingston,” another song about real, unencumbered connection.

Fans screamed its lyrics, “Give you everything I have and more,” louder than anything else they sang all night, only to see the band walk off and pack up ahead of a tour that sends the group across the U.S. and all over the Europe before wrapping in early October.

The 13-song set was, by all means, appropriate for a school night, but no one would’ve batted an eye if it went longer. Still, there’s nothing wrong with being thirsty for more.
Setlist
But Not Kiss
Better Distractions
Kind Of (Type Of Way)
Right Side Of My Neck
A Dream With A Baseball Player
I Know I’m Funny Haha
Jonny
Lifetime
Thinking About You
In A Good Way
Cheers
—
Feeling Good Today
Kingston

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