Will Linley Called and DC Showed Up for a soldout show at DC9

BY ELIZABETH BAUMMER

Will Linley returned to DC, after supporting Em Beihold on tour at The Atlantis in March earlier this year, as his second stop on his first North American headlining tour. This time he took over DC9 for a sold-out show on a beautiful Saturday evening. Joining him for this tour was the phenomenal Mercer Henderson who I had had the opportunity to capture when she opened for Dylan at Union Stage in April of this year. To say I was thrilled to have both of these artists back in DC doing a tour together would be an absolute understatement. Two powerhouse performers, it is only a matter of time before they both blow up and become the next massive household names of the music industry.

I am a firm believer that you can tell a lot about an artist from their fans, and the fans on this Saturday night were some of the kindest, sweetest people I have ever met at a concert. As the venue had opened doors earlier than expected, there were a number of fans already inside when I arrived, but they graciously allowed me to scoot to the front to crouch in front of the stage. The fan next to me gave me two plastic animals to fidget with as my anxiety had been acting up all evening. The fans at center stage brought flowers for both Mercer and Will. One fan was nearly moved to tears when I offered to send her pictures of her and Mercer singing to each other after Mercer’s set ended. The good vibes were high long before the show even began which is always a good sign!

After making friends and small talk with the fans for a little over a half an hour (honestly one of my favorite activities), Mercer Henderson took the stage. Henderson sang a total of seven songs including my two favorites: Strangers, which highlights the pain of a friendship breakup and What You Wanted, a song about mixed signals (we’ve all been there, let’s be honest with ourselves). Henderson also covered one of the anthems of summer Good Luck, Babe! By Chappell Roan which requires an insane vocal range. To round out her set, Henderson also played No Strings Attached which at the time was unreleased. It was released on August 2 so GO STREAM IT!!! On top of that recent release, Henderson also announced last week that her debut EP “Not Really Strangers” is being released September 6. I for one can’t wait, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that a new EP means another tour soon… because quite frankly I can not wait for Mercer Henderson to be back in DC as soon as possible.

After Mercer’s impressive set, Will Linley took to the stage and was met with an incredible amount of fanfare. It is hard to put into words what a Will Linley show is like because Linley has a wild, innate ability to make any room feel like an arena. DC9 is a small venue, but I felt like I was at a show with thousands upon thousands of fans. With that sort of fanfare and his dancing abilities, Linley reminds me a lot of Harry Styles’s stage presence. Linley is high energy with impressive vocals and dance moves reminiscent of Styles’s signature stage style.

A Will Linley show has two rules as Linley dictates after opening his set: 1. Have fun and 2. If you see someone cute you are required to tell them (a rule which prompted a number of fans to attempt to flirt with Linley). Linley’s set consisted of eleven songs with a two-song encore. I got to hear my favorite songs of Linley’s (besides some of the unreleased numbers he shares on Instagram live #Heaven – if you know you know) including Gracie and Last Call. Linley did what I would argue has become the Gracie tradition of choosing a fan to be Gracie during the second half of the song – in this case a fan named Morgan. As the song ended Will asked her what her opinion was on long distance and reasoned that when it is winter in the US it is summer in South Africa so you could date him and have summer all year long, a win win in a lot of people’s books. At one point the fans even moved Linley to tears and then proceeded to sing even louder as he stepped back from the mic speechless and looked around the room. That was easily one of the most touching moments I have ever captured at show.

Linley, an avid ABBA fan – good taste in music, brought out Mercer Henderson for a rendition of Dancing Queen. They hopped off the stage to perform in the crowd, making the moment even more intimate and special. After finishing his initial set, Linley did a two-song encore in which he played Just Because I Called You, an unreleased masterpiece coming out later this month. This song is three years in the works, and I know a lot of fans literally can not wait to finally stream this song. Most of the fans were already screaming the words, learning them just from the teasers!!! That is some dedication!

After the sets concluded both Linley and Henderson came out and greeted every single fan that came to say hello. They were there for at least an hour greeting fans, taking pictures, and signing autographs (myself included). Linley even rips a strip of paper off his merch sign to write out two lyrics for a fan to get tattooed. There is something so special about watching the career of a genuinely kind human who is also an incredible artist grow. I feel so lucky to have already captured Linley twice.

And I am not the only one who feels this way. My editor, Liam, and I talk at least once every couple  of months about how Linley is going to be a star so naturally the first thing I did after the show is text Liam a full rundown of the evening as Linley was playing in NYC two days later where Liam would be photographing him. The conversation contained all of our usual sentiments including but not limited to “Will is such a kind person”, “Will deserves all the success in the world”, “Will is so much fun to photograph”, and “Will is going to be the next big thing”. We also established that one of the only songs I would ever get into a mosh pit for is Last Call – possibly an odd choice but I stand by it.

Sometime into our conversation, Liam joked that we should take extra care to enjoy photography Linley now because one day he is going to be selling out arenas, and it will be much harder to get a photo pass. I chuckle to myself now thinking back to the crowd chanting Will’s name over and over again in that tiny DC9 venue. The sound excelling the noise that I have heard at much larger venues. Liam is, as he almost always is, correct. He hits the nail right on the head. Will Linley is going to be selling out arenas, and I, for one, can not wait to watch… and hopefully photograph… I mean one can dream right?