Teddy Swims brought I've Tried Everything But Therapy to Moody Amphitheater on Aug. 6. Waterloo Park, doors at 6:30, Cian Ducrot opening. The tour title is a lot. The voice is the reason the lawn filled.
Ducrot held the park with a piano and a stack of sad songs. I'll Be Waiting. All For You. People got quiet for him, which is not nothing when it is still daylight in an Austin August. An opener who can stop a lawn from talking has already done the job.
Swims came out with Freak Freely and worked through Part 2 like he meant the argument. He talks between songs. He sings like he is in it with somebody who is not on the stage. Moody Amphitheater is a big lawn with a skyline behind it. He still played it like he could see the back.
Texas got three of these: Austin, Irving the next night, Houston on the 9th at 713 Music Hall. The radio versions only hint at what that voice does outdoors. The window was short. The pictures are in the gallery.
A therapy-tour title can swallow a singer. Swims’s voice is bigger than the branding. Outdoors in August, that matters. The lawn will talk over a thin set. It did not talk over this one.
Ducrot’s opening set is the kind of warm-up that either disappears or becomes the night people mention in the parking lot. People got quiet. Mention it.
Three Texas dates in a row is a routing choice, not a victory lap. Austin was the first window. The voice is why the other two still made sense.
