Entertainment reporter/columnist {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Lindsey Stirling will play La Vista's Astro Amphitheater on Monday. For Lindsey Stirling, it’s all about the show.
As hands-on as any artist could possibly be, the violinist and dancer spent six months working on every aspect of the show that she’ll bring to La Vista’s Astro Amphitheater on Monday. That means, she told me last month, she works on the show’s concept and flow, costumes, set design and aerial choreography and puts together the set list that brings it all together. “The show is my baby, for sure,” she said.
“I feel like that's one of the things I'm best at. I don't think my best gift is writing the music. I don't think my best gift is even being a violinist.
I think my best gift is actually being able to tell a story, and being able to do it on stage in a long form and put on a show, I think that's the thing I'm really good at — making a show.” Her show prep, however, didn’t start this year. It was in her mind when she started writing the 12 songs that became “Duality,” the album she released in June.
"I've always written music not so much because I love the writing process, but because I love performing," she said. “That's the whole reason I started getting into the style of music I do. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to do energetic, big performances.
'” The album spins together classically rooted, Celtic-influenced rock and electronic-pop songs, a broad stylistic and emotional mix that feels perfectly suited to be transferred, in part, to the stage. “That’s absolutely true. It’s always kind of fun when there's a lot of diversity in the music, to figure out how to tell that story on stage and how to make it flow,” Stirling said.
“But I feel like that's always been what I've done. I've always had quite diverse music that I've kind of moved between. “And I have a little bit of a luxury being that I'm a violinist, and so the thing that people see as the through line is violin.
So it allows me a little bit wider of a space to play in than a lot of artists who are singers. ..
. I feel like I’m lucky in that way.” This summer’s show will include “Survival,” the last song she wrote for the album that plays out the record’s theme of internal conflict between the brave and confident parts of herself and self-doubt, a feeling of failure and being terrified.
“If we want to get real personal, I actually found out that my boyfriend of about three years was cheating on me, had another girlfriend, had another life,” Stirling said. “It was absolutely mind-blowing and really ripped my heart out. “I had to put that experience into a song.
I had the choice to write about how I feel right now. I felt broken. I felt like I didn't know if I'd ever love again.
But my heart and my brain, they knew better. They knew that hey, you're gonna be OK eventually. Like this sucks right now, but I know I'm gonna heal like my heart has healed before.
And so I wrote the song that I knew was true.” In truth, the prep for any of her tours began about four years ago, when she started training for the aerials that have her flying above the stage each night. “I'm in the best shape I've ever been in in my life (because of the training),” she said.
“I'm 37 and I'm close to 38 and I'm really proud. My body's never been healthier or stronger. “I really enjoy the aerials.
It's almost meditative in a way. When you get on your hoop or your aerial status of any kind, you have to be so focused, and you have to be so in tune with your body. The world is spinning around you and moving really fast.
You just focus on what’s in front of you and your center. That’s what keeps everything from going out of control or from looking down and getting scared.” Stirling, who brought her show to Pinewood Bowl last year, changes things up for every tour, conceiving it much like a movie — in three acts.
But, she said, she puts together its "story" in reverse, beginning with Act 3. “I just kind of start there and think about: Do I want to end in an empowering spot? Do I want to end in a fun, happy spot? Do I want to end in an intense spot, and leave them with their faces melted off?” she said. “It’s usually where do I want it to end? And then I take that emotion and I work backwards.
” The result, she said a few days before the tour started, is a full-on collaborative success. “It's a really ambitious show,” Stirling said. “At our first rehearsal, I thought to myself, 'Oh, no, what have I done?' But, man, I have had the same crew, the same dancers for the most part, same choreographer, same band .
.. and it came together in a huge team effort.
...
We’re ready and I think it’s really good.” Download the new Journal Star News Mobile App Violinist, dancer and performance artist Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. Pop duo Karmin, whose female singer is a Seward native, opened for Stirling at the first show of the Bowl's 2015 concert season.
LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Addie Byers, of Lincoln, performs as one of Lindsey Stirling's back up dancers on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB.
- 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater.
TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB.
- 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater.
TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB.
- 06/01/2015 - Drew Steen, of Lincoln, plays the drums for Lindsey Stirling on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater.
TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB.
- 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Lindsey Stirling performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater.
TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Cailee Rae performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB.
- 06/01/2015 - Amy Heidemann of Karmin performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Amy Heidemann of Karmin performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater.
TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Karmin performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB.
- 06/01/2015 - Cailee Rae performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Amy Heidemann of Karmin performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater.
TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star LINCOLN, NEB. - 06/01/2015 - Amy Heidemann of Karmin performs on Monday, June 1, 2015 at the Pinewood Bowl Theater. TESSA LIGHTY/Lincoln Journal Star Violinist, dancer and performance artist Lindsey Stirling plays at Pinewood Bowl in June.
Pinewood's diverse lineup has ranged from comedy to classic rock to performance artist Lindsey Stirling, who played the bowl in June 2015. Reach the writer at 402-473-7244 or kwolgamott @journalstar.com .
On Twitter @KentWolgamott What: Lindsey Stirling. Where: The Astro Amphitheater, 8302 City Centre Drive, La Vista. When: 6:30 p.
m. Monday. Doors open at 5:30 p.
m. Tickets: $59.50 to $125.
Purchase at theastrotheater.com. Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Entertainment reporter/columnist {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
.
