LIVE REVIEW: Tomberlin & Trace Mountains – Dallas, TX 05/07/2023

On Sunday May 7th, folk singer-songwriter Tomberlin (Sarah Beth Tomberlin) had an intimate evening with a small crowd at Club Dada in Dallas, Texas. Between playing tracks from her recent album i don’t know who needs to hear this… (2022), her 2018 album At Weddings, and 2020 EP Projections, the singer opened up quite a bit to the audience. Her soft-spoken jokes and concert stories elicited laughs from the crowd.

Opening with ‘easy’ off of the new album, Tomberlin then breezed through the set with an inviting and ecstatic crowd. Her gentle voice encouraged the audience, who slowly opened up to Tomberlin as she did to them. With the 11 track setlist, Tomberlin’s solemn yet sincere songs ‘Wasted’, crowd favorite ‘Sunstruck’, and ‘Seventeen’ plucked at the audience’s heartstrings. The pauses between each song allowed for the singer-songwriter’s delicate, touching lyricism to resonate and have its own moment.

 

 

 

 

 

The opening act for the night was alternative indie singer-songwriter Dave Benton, better known as Trace Mountains. Benton played songs off of his 2019 album A Partner To Lean On, such as ‘Forgiveness’ and ‘Soil,’ and a cover of The Replacement’s ‘Here Comes a Regular.’ With each song, the crowd started to sway along to the beat, ultimately discovering their new favorite artist. Following his released tracks, Benton mentioned a new album coming towards the end of the year and ended his set with a few unreleased songs.