Hello, Kalamazoo!

Stephen Lynch is a singer-songwriter who uses sweet chord progressions and pretty harmonies to deliver deeply offensive or deeply stupid jokes. He is a musician who happens to write punchlines instead of love letters, and his performance style relies on the contrast between his clean tenor voice and the crude subjects of his lyrics. This concert shows an emphasis on acoustic instrumentation and more mature, Americana-flavored melodies without actually growing up.

Filmed at the Kalamazoo State Theatre in Michigan, where Lynch had been living for several years, this was his first full-length comedy special since 2004. He is joined on stage by a multi-instrumentalist backing band, including Rod Cone, Charlie King, Courtney Jaye, and Mike Fuerst, turning the stand-up set into a proper folk concert. The performance serves as a capstone to his tour for the 2012 album Lion.

The setlist balances older favorites with newer, folk-influenced material. Lynch sings about the misery of a newly adopted vegan diet in “No Meat” and lists the many physical hazards he refuses to brave for a lover in the title track “Lion.” There is also a track mocking poorly conceived body art in “Tattoo.” The backing vocalists and acoustic arrangements give the show a warmer, more communal atmosphere than his earlier solo guitar sets, even as they harmonize on punchlines about S&M and bad decisions.