Touring musicians with multiple albums always face a dilemma: How much should you play of the 'new stuff' vs. the songs the audience expects to hear. In many cases, the biggest hits are confined to the last two to three songs or the encores. Some groups have such deep catalogues that it's impossible to hear everything you want in a single show. And some just eschew the hits all together, not caring if they alienate the audience.
Case played 10 of Hell-On's 12 songs during two shows recently at the Lincoln Theatre. Recorded abroad with her usual variety of musicians and influences, the album captures Case's trademark mix of sophisticated and at times ethereal lyrics with influences of rock, pop, alt-country, punk and rockabilly.
Opening with "Pitch or Honey," which ironically closes out the album, Case came back with "Last Lion of Albion," the first single that explores ecofeminist themes. She then came back with "Deep Red Bells" from Blacklisted, followed by "City Swans" from the winner of 2013's longest album title — The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You.
Also worth spotlighting is Margaret Glaspy, Case's opener on this leg of the tour. Playing a fender guitar solo for almost an hour, Glaspy mixed a variety of styles — think Nirvana meets the Delta blues — while performing songs from her 2016 album Emotions and Math and the 2018 EP Born Yesterday. Especially noteworthy were the crunchy "You and I" from the former and the ethereal pop of "Before We Get Together" from the EP. Glaspy also did a cover of Lauryn Hill's "Ex-Factor" that she should consider recording in the studio.