Review by Mia Call, photos by Josette Thornhill.
On Sunday December 3rd, Indigo de Souza took the stage for the first of two sold out nights at The Independent, looking older and wiser than her last appearance in SF in 2022– which is a little ironic considering the lead single off her latest album All of This Will End is entitled “Younger and Dumber.”
De Souza is based in Asheville, North Carolina, home of the thriving music scene that’s fostered artists such as Wednesday and MJ Lenderman. On her third album, she remains true to the brutally honest lyrics and vulnerable vocals of her other albums, but also reaches for a more mature sound. De Souza’s rawness and maturity was on full display at the Independent. 
The opening artist, Babehoven, matched the energy of the crowd perfectly. Front woman Maya Bon launched into track after track of folk-tinged indie pop, with soft melancholic, Katie Crutschfeild like vocals– much less rough around the edges than Indigo de Souza. The musical chemistry between the band, especially Bon and her guitarist and boyfriend Ryan Albert. The music was incredibly tight and heartfelt, at an almost hypnotic speed, featuring fantastic guitar solos. After the sad, pondering softness of Babehoven, we were ready for Indigo’s jagged edges. 
De Souza started off the set with a contemplative track, “Be My Love,” featuring a haunting slide guitar and a dreamy soundscape under her soft, sweet, and mature sounding vocals. After that, she brought the youthful rawness of her voice to the forefront with “Kissing People Close To Me.” The whole set was a back and forth between this older, softer sound and Indigo’s signature youthful rawness. This two sidedness of Desouza’s sound is also a reflected in her lyrics; after a soft reflection on human’s capacity for change in “Be Like The Water,” Indigo wailed “I can make it up as I go” over the chaotic buzzy guitars of “Not My Body.”
My highlights off the set list were “How I Get Myself Killed” and “You Can Be Mean,” both songs that are great examples of her raw youthful howls. The resigned nature of “you can be mean to me” in which De Souza admits to a partner — “it’s what I’m used to” — brought loud screams from the audience as we all cried out the lyrics. De Souza’s voice really lends itself to cathartic anger, as she half screams, half sings lyrics over the brutal fuzz of her guitars playing earworm riffs. In the melodramatic throes of “How I Get Myself Killed,” audience voices — mostly younger women — nearly drowned out De Souza’s shout of “I have never felt so dumb.”
De Souza’s ability to translate the angst of her song’s into an electric on stage performance was utterly captivating. The balance between the glorious slide guitar solos and heavy guitar lines She introduced her last song by warning us that it really was her last song, as their drummer had just joined the touring group and didn’t know any other numbers, then launched into a track off her newest album. “Always” started off at funeral dirge pace, with De Souza’s voice floating over open guitars lightly. Then the electric guitar kicked in and she launched into fantastic metal head wailing, jumping and screaming. She lamented the absences of her father (“Father, I thought you’d stay”) with the raw pain of adolescence and the musical maturity of an extremely talented musician. Indigo de Souza and Babehoven’s night at the Independent was cathartic and energizing — we all felt a little younger and dumber as we poured out onto the chilly San Francisco sidewalk. 
