Robin Pecknold played Rockport’s Shalin-Liu Performance Center – 4/25

Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold brought his spring solo trek to the North Shore with support from Allegra Krieger.

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Like another seasoned indie rock vet who came to town on a solo tour recently, Fleet Foxes leader Robin Pecknold has spent his last decade-plus on the road primarily occupying huge rooms and prominent festival stages. You’d have to roll it back to 2008 to find a Boston-area show the beloved chamber-folk outfit played to a crowd smaller than a few thousand. Naturally, that made Saturday night’s up-close-and-personal Rockport stop on his current solo tour a rare treat for fans who made the trek to the small seaside town 45 miles north of Boston (and some had trekked – a guy I chatted with at the bar before the show had just flown in from Nashville).

Indeed, the hall – a beautiful space with towering glass windows overlooking the water – was packed with diehards who largely gave the set the hushed reverence that Pecknold’s gorgeous songs command, but also injected the right degree of conversational intimacy that sort of made the show feel like a private performance among a few hundred friends. Pecknold, who seems every bit a genuinely sweet guy who might prefer this sort of thing to closing out the Delta Airlines stage at Boston Calling, was happy to chat and take some friendly encouragement between the songs, which he drew from all corners of the Fleet Foxes discography and beyond.

Fan-favorites were accounted for (“Blue Ridge Mountains,” “Montezuma,” a particularly stirring “Oliver James”) along with deep cuts, folk traditionals and covers from Judee Sill, Joni Mitchell, Jackson C. Frank and Elliott Smith (that’d be “Pitseleh,” which Pecknold relayed that he once learned for a middle school talent show). It was a delightfully unpredictable set that moved to encompass both the breadth of Pecknold’s own songwriting and the range of influences he draws from – made all the better by the room’s rather stunning acoustics. If I had a single complaint about the night it’s that I wish the show had started earlier and granted us some sunset pinks and blues through the windows during the main event – though at least Krieger was able to benefit during her lovely opening set.

Scroll for some photos from the evening below.