Big Ears 2025 Day 2: ANOHNI, Jessica Pratt, Yo La Tengo & Sun Ra Arkestra, Alabaster DePlume, more (review, pics)

It’s rare at festivals like Big Ears that you stay in one place for a whole set; you’ve got a wristband that gets you into all the venues, so you catch 30 minutes of this and then bolt to catch something else. The churn, especially at seated theaters, is probably a little disconcerting for the artists, but it’s also just part of festival culture. Big Ears especially feels like an embarrassment of riches, with opportunities to catch an insanely diverse bunch of talent, from improvisational jazz to the biggest names in indie modern composers, noise rock, hip hop, metal, and even opera.

But for the first two nights of Big Ears 2025 I’ve gone to and stayed for the day’s signature spotlight shows at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium. Thursday night was Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, and then Friday night it was ANOHNI & The Johnsons. Even more than Beth, this was a full concert, almost two hours, and at least from where i was sitting one third back, there was almost no churn. People were there for the whole show  and this was indeed a special one.

This configuration of The Johnsons was a six-piece that included Jimmy Hogarth, who produced 2023’s My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, guitarist Leo Abrahams, bassist Sam Dixon, pianist Gael Rakotondrabe, drummer Chris Vatalaro, and multi-instrumentalist Doug Wieselman on a variety of woodwinds. It was a knockout show, spanning ANOHNI’s career, that reflect her passions, from global warming and ecological collapse to the current US administration’s war against the trans community. ANOHNI joked that earlier in the week they played Washington, DC and she got a little out of control, but was “trying to keep a lid on it” as far as speechifying went. When a late-in-show anecdote was going long, the band played her off, which she laughed at and said, “Thank you, saved by the bell.” The lighting design and sound were perfect and I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. Check out the setlist below.

Unlike Thursday’s Big Ears kickoff, this was a full day, with programming starting with talks and film screenings in the morning and shows beginning at noon. I got out the door just in time to hit The Mill & Mine to see the Nels Cline Singers, which includes punk/jazz greats Skerik on sax and Trevor Dunn on bass; they were a nice jolt of skronky sonic caffeine to the day. I ducked out to grab something to eat and then headed across town to the historic Tennessee Theatre to catch a bit of Meshell Ndegeocello‘s set. She had her own warm up act: longtime bandmembers Jake and Abe (drums and keyboards), who played a couple songs on their own. (The also just released their long in the works debut album, Finally!, a title that Meshell gave them.) They were very funny, and at one point Jake said “we’re gonna sing this chorus again because she’s not coming out for another three years” which brought a lot of knowing laughter. Meshell actually came out right after that for a wonderful set of her signature brand of neo-soul.

After that I dashed back to The Mill & Mine to see saxophonist and poet Alabaster DePlume, whose set was fun, funny, and improvisational yet purposeful. I will admit to never really getting into his records, but his charm and magnetism is in full effect on stage. “I fucking love doing this shit,” he told the crowd after a long extemporaneous spoken word bit that had them hanging on every word.

Some of the best sets at Big Ears are the ones you didn’t plan on seeing, and on Friday that was Joseph Keckler, who performed at Regas Square, a glass-walled space with big digital projection screens. How to describe what he does? They used to call it performance art, with part standup comedy, part spoken word, part multimedia presentation, but all done via Wagnerian-style opera. There were songs about having sex with a ghost while at an artists retreat, a relapse into his teenage goth phase, and more. He also noted that this was probably the first time he’s ever performed in daylight. It was so well executed, so funny and so surprising. Folks in NYC can catch him at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 9 & 10.

It was then over to the Tennessee Theatre to see a transfixing later afternoon set from Jessica Pratt. Backed by her band, Pratt sounded fantastic, and her wonderful, jazzy, tropicalia infused style folk pop — playing most if not all of last year’s great Here in the Pitch — was the perfect close to the first half of the day. 

I then headed to The Standard for UK improvisational art punk band Still House Plants, who were playing to a packed room, but I had hit a personal energy lull between afternoon and evening and it was not the right time for this to hit me. Similar situation with Squanderers who are the new trio of David Grubbs, Wendy Eisenberg, and Kramer, who I saw a bit of at Regas Square. I promise to revisit both.

Other Big Ears performances on Friday included Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn, the Philip Glass Ensemble, Yo La Tengo & Sun Ra Arkestra, Jeff Parker, Taj Mahal, Rachika Nayar & Nina Keith, Kelly Moran, Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light, Michael Hurley, Cassandra Jenkins, and more. Check out photos from Friday at Big Ears, including a few sets that I personally didn’t catch, below.

Saturday at Big Ears includes performances by Waxahatchee, Beak>, Michael Rother playing Neu! & Harmonia, Arooj Aftab, Lankum, Wadada Leo Smith & Vjay Iyer, Julia Holter, Chanel Beads, William Basinski, Maruja, Sun Ra Arkestra, SML, Helado Negro, clipping., and more.

More Big Ears 2025 recaps are here.

ANOHNI

Jessica Pratt (photo: Cora Wagoner)

Yo La Tengo & Sun Ra Arkestra (photo: c stewart)

Yo La Tengo & Sun Ra Arkestra (photo: c stewart)

Alabaster dePlume (photo: Eli Johnson)

Alabaster dePlume

Cassandra Jenkins (photo Cora Wagoner)

Merce Lemon (photo: Ashli Linkous)

Joseph Keckler

Joseph Keckler (photo: ash ogle)

Swamp Dogg (photo: c stewart)

Nels Cline Singers

Nels Cline Singers (ELI JOHNSON)

Phillip Glass Ensemble (photo: Eli Johnson)

SETLIST: ANOHNI & The Johnsons @ Big Ears 3/28/2025
Scapegoat
Why Am I Alive Now?
4 Degrees
Manta Ray
New Song
Hopelessness
It Must Change
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Drone Bomb Me (with It Must Change coda)
Little Wheel Spin and Spin (Buffy Sainte‐Marie)
You Are My Sister
Can’t
Another World

Encore:
I’m Set Free (The Velvet Underground)