Race Street Live presents: SYML, May 20th, 2023, in Holyoke, MA
Words and photos by: Mari Washburn
With an all acoustic set, contemporary indie synth artist SYML stopped to make his mark in the pioneer Valley to an intent crowd at Race Street Live in Holyoke, MA on Saturday May 20th 2023. A venue change and, as SYML himself described it, "Biblical" level rain didn't stop the people of Western Massachusetts from seeing their favorite artist.
Brian Fennell (SYML) has taken his new found indie folk music and has blended it with the emotional phrasing he is so well known for, bringing his most recent album "The Day My Father Died" to life in a tour across North America. Labeled the "Phases" tour, he started the set in his newest phase with "You And I", "Believer" and upbeat favorite "Chariot", all tunes off of his latest collection of songs. From there, band members put down their instruments and readied their voices, with SYML on guitar and a gentle percussion, "Sweet Home" transcended many- if not all- audience members to their happy place, to peace. With the help of multi-instrumentalists Abby Gunderson, a fellow Seattle native, and Brian Eichelberger, every harmony felt like a hug and every "oooh" glided into place almost too easily.
Unlike any other traditional concert, SYML opened up the floor to questions from the audience, taking the already intimate experience to the next level for ultimate connection. Questions spanned from song requests to what instruments he played in band as a kid (percussion), and to what he is listening to right now; He is a big Fred Again fan who is a multi-instrumentalist and DJ and SYML himself joked "it's anything music… don't listen to it if your about to go fight somebody". When asked why they were dressed in all white, he retorted sarcastically "to look cool pretty much, that's why." The humor didn't stop there, one fan asked what SYML meant. He went on to explain that it was the Welsh word for simple, proceeding with a story about a fan that addressed him as S Y M L and that he didn't have the heart to correct her.
While the laughs filled the air during the Q&A, more moments than less captivated audiences to awestruck silence. Taking the stage solo and sitting behind the keyboard, SYML dove into heart-wrenching versions of "I Wanted to Leave" a lyric-less song about being desperate to leave Paris. This song is composed with such intelligence as without any preface, by melody alone, audience members would be able to create the same picture in their mind. Prior to that was another crowd favorite, "Flags", written from both the perspective of his friend with cancer and also of the cancer itself. This song received the faintest of echo back to the artist on stage creating a very powerful feeling throughout the room.
Special moments filled the night both in song and in conversation. Keeping the air light after his tune "Dark" the mood lifted during his rendition of John Hewitt's classic "Have a Little Faith In Me". A pair of strings, played by Guderson and Eichelberger, serenaded captive listeners for "Meant to stay hid" and "Symmetry". Every crescendo added an intensity or tenderness that felt cinematic to witness. Meanwhile, just as breathtaking as those refrains was his response to a question from the back of the house. Asking who the song "Who put blood in my Drink?" (Not part of the setlist) Was about? SMYL goes on to explain how it is a remix and the title of that song is a line from his track "Yes and No". Labeling the track as "Heavy" and not quite angry but "Sobering". During the time of isolation, just after the murder of George Floyd and other chaos and murder throughout the country still happening today, music is his means of outletting his thoughts and feelings. Grappling with the deed that "You woke up surprised that this blood was there… that it's been there for a really long time, like it was someone else's fault".
On record, SYML's music is a blend of sorrowful deep lyrics and just as heartbreakingly beautiful melodies to back it up. Although, when in a live setting, what seems fragile becomes more human. The connection of those personal lyrics to the listener are amplified when he performs in front of an audience. Perhaps it is the beauty of the music or the down to earth nature of his presence that fuels this innate sense of light. However, paradoxical to the previous songs' melancholy, the night ended with a line we all felt and needed to hear…. "love will be all that you need."
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