NEWS

 

Friday night generations of Indigo Girls’ fans streamed into the new Davidson College Stadium. For some, the concert was the second big event with the duo in two days. Thursday night Amy Ray and Emily Saliers were on hand in the Duke Family Performance Hall for a screening of their documentary It’s Only Life After All.

The Indigo Girls’ connections to Davidson run deep. Amy Ray’s brother, Larry, an internal medicine doctor in Georgia, is a graduate in the Class of 1989. Larry was able to attend Friday’s concert, surprising his sister in the process.

In addition to the family connection, the Indigo Girls’ manager, Russell Carter, graduated in 1975. Carter joined two other Davidson alumni involved in the music industry in a panel discussion Thursday morning.

The buzz surrounding the events on campus included media coverage well beyond News of Davidson. Several local TV stations announced the concert, and Wednesday morning the duo was interviewed on WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks” with Mike Collins.

But back to Friday night. . .

President Doug Hicks held a pre-concert reception in Gallery 18, the venue located at the top of the Game Changers Field House overlooking Field 76.

The warmup band was Danielle Howle. She played acoustic guitar and was accompanied by Kerry Brooks on bass. Of note, Brooks also plays with the Amy Ray Band.

Concert attendees ranged from teens to octogenarians, and maybe even a few nonagenarians. It was safe to say that gray hair was “in” for the event. Without any real data to back it up, we think there were more Davidson alumnae from the 1980s than any other group in attendance-with the classes of 1986 and 1987 vying for top honors of most class members at the concert.

For one member of our News of Davidson editorial team, it was the first concert she had attended in 50 years. The college had capped ticket sales at 2500, which would fill the home side of the stadium. It meant there wasn’t a bad seat in the house.

Parents of a recent graduate used the concert as an excuse to make the trip to Davidson, saying on a social media post “We had the BEST time at the concert! Absolutely wonderful!”

For another member of our team, the timing of the concert was even more special. It was amazing that the Indigo Girls played at Davidson on Lesbian Day of Visibility. The Indigo Girls have long been advocates for LGBTQIA+ equality, visibility, and representation. They did all of this in a music world that has not always welcomed lesbian women.

Still other attendees noted that the duo’s focus on social justice and community building fits it with the college’s ethos of humane instincts and lives of leadership and service.

Amy and Emily played twenty songs for the crowd Friday night. The complete setlist can be found here. And as many of their recent concerts have played out, the final song on their playlist was Closer to Fine. It was a grand sing along for all ages. The song was featured in the 2023 smash hit “The Barbie Movie.” The Indigo Girls played the song in concert on November 23, 1987 at the Joel H. Eaves Memorial Coliseum in Auburn, Alabama. When they played it Friday night, it marked 1,360 times the duo had performed it in front of a concert audience according to setlist.fm.

See our full album of photos from the concert.

Addendum: Shortly after we published this article the Indigo Girls posted the following on their Facebook page. We thought you should see their version of the visit to Davidson:

“We played a couple of shows down South this week. Davidson College gave us a rousing welcome with all sorts of activities around their screening of It’s Only Life After All. Director / Editor, Alexandria Bombach made a special appearance for a Q&A facilitated by the fabulous Emily Drew. Davidson did a bang up job of hosting us for a concert on their new sports field, with the community, students and alumni showing up to share the joy. Danielle Howle played a rockin’ set before us.”