
Faye Webster, Fawn of the Forest, Plays Mission
October 9, 2024Photos: Anne Burn
The Mission Ball room welcomed Faye Webster to Denver last Friday night in glorious fashion. The Atlanta singer – in all her twangy galore – is now touring her newest album, “Underdressed at the Symphony,” which is based on the nature in which she often decides last-minute to venture out to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – and invariably showing up very underdressed. This beautiful album navigates the dichotomy of heartbreak and tenderness involved in a new beginning, enticing us with heavy experimentation and playfulness. The record also features her old classmate and friend from middle school Lil Yatchy, in a wholesome addition.

Having seen Faye a few times, I have to say it’s always fun to find out what her hyper-fixation turns out to be…
The Mission is a contemporary space whose size belies how intimately it holds crowds, enveloping everyone in such a welcoming environment. The stage Friday night was set up as a psychedelic laundromat/dry cleaning interior, symbolically embedded in Webster’s iconography. The shirt projector she had set up opened with a display of minions emerging and humming along to her song “But Not Kiss,” showing how well her meme-core aesthetic just adds to her nerdy charm.
Having seen Faye a few times, I have to say it’s always fun to find out what her hyper-fixation turns out to be for each tour. Last time I saw her at Seattle’s Showbox, in 2023, she was shredding on the guitar to the Pokemon theme song. Faye has also always added to her of jack-of-all-trades persona, this year evidenced by her admirable attempts at yoyoing. She had a professional yoyoist come out to perform midway during her set that night, enthralling the crowd to no end.
Many of Webster’s lyrics are repetitive, and hearing them live one tends to notice this more. And yet, each line seemed to emote something new regardless, and each was sung completely different from the last, which cultivated a lengthy narrative – even with so few words.
The cutest thing about seeing Faye live is the way she accentuates her singing with cute little screams…

I felt huge camaraderie with the crowd – we were all so enraptured. She gave brilliant voice to our communal experience – one that seems almost universal for women – crooning about love in its all-consuming tenderness, highlighting what seems to be an often uniquely feminine yearning. I felt as though these feelings were captured in her lyrics: “… the right side of my neck still smells like you,” “if you’re not around, I’m missing a whole half of me.” It was difficult to avoid adoration in the way she reflected on her relationships with men and women – portraying the ultimate “lover-girl” – and it showed.
Time stood still for me when she started playing “Jonny,” as the crowd sang every word. It just brought me back to how my friend and I would sing it together in her 1994 Jeep Cherokee way back when. It was just such a tender and full-circle moment of girlhood to hear and see it live. The cutest thing about seeing Faye live is the way she accentuates her singing with cute little screams, like when she screamed “but I looked back two times” while singing “Right Side of my Neck.”

Showing her fan compassion, when someone passed out during the show, Faye noticed and stopped everything to make sure they were okay – she did not start playing again until she made sure they were good (Travis Scott – I mean – you think he could, ever?). Faye ended the night in bubbles galore, sending millions of them floating above and through the crowd, and ending the night with “Kingston,” bringing a show that was already so delicate and feminine into a level of romanticism, at its finest.