Grammy-winning folk rock duo Indigo Girls closed out the Martha’s Vineyard Concert Series on Saturday for a crowd of about 2,000 at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.
Amy Ray and Emily Sailers, lifelong friends who have been performing as the Indigo Girls since 1985, played a set spanning their entire 40-year musical catalog, including signature hits Galileo, Closer to Fine and Hammer and a Nail.
Joining them onstage were singer-songwriter Lucy Wainwright Roche, violinist Lyris Hung and guitarist Jeff Fielder.
Ms. Ray and Ms. Sailers, heralded by many as queer icons, have spent their careers advocating for the rights of women, LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants and Indigenous communities. They performed Saturday’s set in front of a backdrop lampooning Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. A chart stylized like a departure board in an airport counted the number of countries in the world impacted by the Trump administration’s travel bans.
“Everybody ready to vote?” Ms. Sailers asked the audience, prompting loud cheers.
Before playing Sorrow and Joy, a song about Sailers’ deceased sister Carrie, the band took a moment to honor Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, two show-business legends who died just days before the show.
“[Sorrow and Joy] is basically about the good and the bad and everything in between, and what people mean to us, even people we don’t know, like Dolly and Tim Curry,” Ms. Sailers said. “It’s a reminder of our preciousness. Here we are, living and breathing.”
The concert series is hosted each year by MVY Radio and Innovation Arts and Entertainment. Ziggy Marley, Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers and Elvis Costello rounded out this summer’s lineups.
Adam Epstein, CEO of Innovation Arts and Entertainment, took the stage briefly to express his gratitude to the crowd.
“We’ve had the privilege of bringing you hundreds of shows, but only a few have looked like this,” he said.
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