All roads led to The Anthem on Saturday, January 27, 2024, when Grace Potter's Mother Road Tour intersected with Washington, DC. Potter has been powering across the country in a rock-and-roll-fueled muscle car since September 2023 in support of her fifth stellar new album, Mother Road (released August 18, 2023). Potter took a brief reprieve from her tour for the winter holidays before putting the key back in the ignition and embarking on a heart-stopping, energy-fueled adventure on the open roads of America for the next several months.

As fans walked into the venue, they were transported to the southwest desert adorned with cactuses, billboards, and road signs. Tonight, The Anthem would be a spaghetti-fi-cation and mark the crossroads where rock and roll met a Spaghetti Western, or as Potter would joke in a music video - a spaghetti vacation.  

Before Potter took the stage, the audience was treated to a mighty performance by Baltimore musician Brittany Spencer. Her presence was extraordinary as many long-time fans, friends, and family members attended, embracing her as a hometown musical hero. With two backing musicians, Spencer would spend nearly an hour entertaining the audience with her sultry and mighty voice, authentic stories, a deep connection to her home region, and playful banter as she cherished the release of her newly released album My Stupid Life (released January 19, 2024). Spencer took no time to settle in, thanking her whole family in attendance aside from one person who was always late but admitted to being late herself because she took extra time to do her hair before performing. By the third song, Spencer made herself at home, embracing the enormous stage and strolling among the cactuses and, at times, walked the great open plains of the stage alone, singing with her brilliantly soulful and sultry voice. The performance ended with an infectious and almost certain hit, "I Got Time." As she danced to the catchy refrain, "Oh, you make me wanna dance all night," she encouraged the crowd to join the festivities by instructing the audience, "Come on, everyone, shake your hips with me." After this spectacular performance, Spencer met, greeted, and embraced her fans at the merch table. We beam with pride as this enormously talented artist from our region emerges on the national stage, and we look forward to her return so we can once again welcome her as a hometown hero.

At 9:15 PM, Grace Potter took the stage to thunderous applause as palpable energy and euphoria washed over the venue. Neon road signs dotting the stage powered up as Potter and her band turned their engines on, plugged in their instruments, and embarked on what was to be an epic two-hour road trip. Setting the mood for the evening, Potter opened with the spaghetti western-inspired and high-energy song "Lady Vagabond." There is no doubt that if this song existed twenty years ago, Quentin Tarantino would have incorporated it into the Kill Bill soundtrack. Sporting shiny black latex leggings and equally impressive black heels, Potter was quick to leap across the stage with unbridled energy and boundless moxie reminiscent of a youthful Mick Jagger. Potter would briefly pause to remove her heels to reveal ski socks, recalling how her shoe choice at her last Anthem performance was apparently quite scandalous. Potter has performed at IMP venues for fifteen years, conveying how these venues feel like a home away from home. We watched with delight as she felt comfortable enough to make herself her familiar home, take her shoes off, be herself, and share a spectacular evening of music with her fans. Potter continued with her candid and casual banter by reflecting on her life, humble beginnings, and deep gratitude. Having recently moved back to her home state of Vermont, she described how she used to be a restaurant server in a small ski town and how grateful she is now to serve up songs instead as a career. Grace's talent is authentically connecting with fans while enchanting them with her music and performances.  

If one thought that Potter taking off her shoes was making herself comfortable, the most memorable moment was around the corner. Before singing "Good Time," Potter would remark that her tights reminded her of Sandra Dee from the movie Grease and then led the audience in a responsive refrain from "You're The One That I Want" as the venue echoed with the refrain "You are the one I want.... Ooh, ooh, ooh". Potter was not quite done with those leggings, as it turned out. After the band left the stage, Potter asked the audience if she could take off her pants because they were bothering her all night. And just like that, she removed her pants, revealing her onesie and stockings. After the unplanned stage change, Potter quipped before an ecstatic crowd, "I think I am going to get my Flying-V out now that I have no pants on." Potter was not quite ready to get out her Flying-V but would instead get her acoustic guitar and perform a duet with Brittney Spencer before Potter's band returned to finish out the song. Exuding a masterful and overflowing charisma, effervescent stage presence, humility, and relatability, Potter managed yet another stage change with a sparkly set of leggings.  

Not wanting the evening to ever end, Potter would close the set with a fierce barrage of four soul-stirring songs from her days with the Nocturnals. Starting with the ever soulful "Nothing but the Water (II)" the band surged forward with the "Stop the Bus." Clearly, the musical bus was racing towards a climactic end. The Anthem accelerated with sonic energy as "The Lion the Beast the Beat" roared forth, and the booming bass and drums drove the fans into blissful euphoria. As the clock struck eleven, "Paris (Ooh La La)" thundered from the cavernous venue as the musical road trip of musical ecstasy concluded.  

With a show closer like this, one could have walked away satisfied. The band had other plans as they seemingly threw caution and show curfew to the wind with a diverse and staggering three-song encore. After briefly asking if the audience would like to hear one of her songs or a Bruce Springsteen song, Potter would continue with another song from her Nocturnal catalog by delighting the audience with a personal version of "Big White Gate." Brittney Spencer was called up to appear on stage to perform a warm harmony of "You and Tequila" alongside Potter. Before these two kindred soul-sister spirits performed, they shared playful banter about growing up singing "Amazing Grace" at their respective churches. After Spencer left the stage, Grace would tell the audience, "I can't leave you without this one," before delivering a euphoric "Stars." If there were ever a moment to have a giant mirrorball affixed to The Anthem's ceiling, it would have been for this song alone.

 The fans left yearning for nothing. Grace Potter delivered the entire constellation of her music and showmanship as she masterfully fused twenty-three years of her song catalog into a unforgettable night of music.

While Potter and her band take to open roads again, we cannot help but cherish this performance and look forward to her next appearance.  The Mother Road Tour is not to be missed as we revel in the music of the enduring wild-child soul-queen of rock-and-roll. 

Brittney Spencer

To learn more about Grace Potter, please see the following web resources:

• Webpage
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• TIDAL
• Spotify
• TikTok

To learn more about Brittney Spencer, please see the following web resources:

• Webpage
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• TIDAL
• Spotify
• TikTok