In 2024, Cindy Lee took off into whatever the hipster-indie equivalent of the mainstream is.
Diamond Jubilee received widespread acclaim from reviewers and audiences alike, and ended up on multiple publications’ “Best Albums of 2024” lists – including the top of Pitchfork’s. It was also shortlisted for the Polaris Prize up north.
Anthony Fantano even busted out the yellow flannel for this project.
A tour was planned. Freak Heat Waves signed on as the supporting act.
This tour was billed as a farewell tour.
“THIS WILL BE CINDY’S LAST AMERICAN TOUR. A KLASSIK POWER VANITY TRIP SITUATION. SHE WILL BE RUNNING IT HOT AND KEEPING IT L-I-T-E” Lee’s GeoCities page read.
On May 4th, Cindy Lee cancelled a show in Chicago, and subsequently the remaining tour dates were cancelled. At the height of Diamond Jubilee’s popularity.
It was unclear if they would ever return to the stage. Which is why their new, surprise “Psych Warfare” Tour in 2025 was an absolute privilege. One that I almost missed.
Cindy Lee on stage, beneath a void of darkness. (Tsuyoshi Kimura/SpeakerHead)
Cindy Lee is the solo project of Pat Flegel. This project is defined by old school female vocal pop music of a bygone era (think from like the Carpenters, Patsy Cline, or even the Ronettes), barebones percussion and bass, and driven by a guitar that often sounds like it is played on your tinniest pickup setting. This probably sounds like it could go terribly wrong. But Flegel, a masterful guitarist and musician in general, pulls it off.
A lot of the earlier Cindy Lee projects sounded very harsh in texture at times. Which still creeps into Diamond Jubilee, but less so.
Flegel’s record label, Superior Viaduct, is based in San Francisco.
The “Psych Warfare” tour didn’t even have the fanfare of the cancelled 2024 tour. Just seven tour dates across four cities, listed plainly on Cindy Lee’s geocities website.
But everything from previous interviews to fan speculation seems to point toward the same thing. This is it.
I really only heard of Cindy Lee through Diamond Jubilee and journeyed through their back catalog afterwards. So, I can only imagine the disappointment for fans hoping to catch this final tour. Especially the day-one fans, trying to see an artist they’ve appreciated for years finally reach a larger audience.
I was also in the middle of moving when this tour was announced, so I didn’t catch the initial tour announcement and subsequent ticket rush.
Chicago and Brooklyn were sold out by the time I went searching for tickets. Only Montreal and Toronto remained, and realistically, Montreal was my only option.
And after initially deciding that it would not be worth it to make wedge last minute foreign travel arrangements on a budget of $500 into my busy November schedule, in an impulsive moment, I decided to head up north to catch this show anyway. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it was surely worth a 24-hour roundtrip train ride through upstate New York.
I was soon met with the consequences of this impulsive decision, but I made it to the concert.
For example, my stupid California-ass thought I would be okay walking an hour from the train station in this kind of snow. It was also much darker when I was walking. This was taken during the day after my trek. (Tsuyoshi Kimura/SpeakerHead)
Cindy Lee played the Rialto Theater in Montreal’s Mile End Neighborhood.
When I showed up to the theater, I was way too early, a whole hour and change early. The time listed on the ticket was the door time, not the showtime, and I’m not sure if this was just a quirk for this venue or Canadian shows in general.
After walking a few laps around the neighborhood in the snow, the venue staff finally started lining up concert goers outside, and I went inside.
The Rialto in Montreal was a small and intimate theater. For this show, its gilded stone interior was dimly lit with a combination of cool purples and warm ambers when I first took my seat. This was my view from the balcony:
Set Up at the Rialto Theater for the Freak Heat Waves. Sparse and spacious, with minimal equipment and pedals. Cindy Lee had even less. (Tsuyoshi Kimura/SpeakerHead)
The opener for this tour was the Freak Heat Waves— a hypnotic electronic music duo with live guitar set to lights and images that feel somewhere in between a 1984 style reeducation camp and the utopic vision of the future from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Far closer to the latter, but still just a little unsettling.
I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see an appearance from Cindy Lee during their set for a performance of “In a Moment Divine” off the Freak Heat Waves’ album Mondo Tempo, but that was definitely for the better. It would have felt weird to see them show up in this set.
Because when Cindy Lee came on, everything seemed right. Flegel’s character, wearing a sparkling gold, form-fitting dress and a white fur shrug was shrouded by a light haze and sparse lighting as she stepped out before an applauding audience. The ambience of the historic Rialto’s high, stained-glass ceilings and Parisian architecture just fit with her.
She discarded her shrug within minutes of taking the stage.
There was no band. Just some pedals and a red SG special, maintaining the feeling that you’re listening to a handheld radio instead of an indie rock concert. The vocals were beautiful.
No banter or patter with the audience. Simply just a thank you, and maybe a brief intro to the next song you were about to be serenaded with.
It was like being bottled up in a memory. A shimmering singer, shrouded in a foggy spotlight, emitting a hazy transmission of music from a bygone era.
Oh yeah, and this singer can shred on the guitar too.
The set closed with “If You Hear Me Crying”, “Darling of the Diskoteque” and finally, “I Don’t Want to Fall in Love Again”:
“Help me, I don’t want to fall in love again
Show me, show me who I really am
Help me, I don’t want to fall in love again
Took me to your summer sand
I don’t want to fall in love again
“Trust me,” says a love that’s so divine
I only want to make you mine
I don’t want to fall in love again”
Three simple stanzas that convey love, but also helplessness.
“Help Me, I don’t want to fall in love again”
Because falling in love isn’t so easy, despite what Buddy Holly said. And falling in love again means that you had to lose a love, grieve and heal. May it be your last time, but you’ll need a lot of help to do so. Everytime.
This song is not simply asking you to love me, but to keep loving me, so I don’t have to do this again.
It’s beautiful because it’s unresolved. It’s hopeful helplessness. And Cindy Lee exits the stage after a quick, “Thank you.”
The crowd cheered for more, and Cindy Lee began her encore with “Just For Loving You I Pay the Price” a piece that beautifully contemplates what the cost of love can be. It’s got lines that explore the fear and consequences of love going wrong. Lines like:
“If you’re walking out of my life
I can’t follow you and make it right”
And closing out the encore and entire show with “Burning Candle”, a cover of the song “candle” by Chad VanGaalen. A song which while not overtly sad, acts as an acceptance of the end:
“Burning candle
As your light reached its end
I’ll be watching
As your smoke leaves in the wind
I’ll be watching
As your smoke leaves in the wind
Burning Candle
Can you live in my heart?
As i’m waiting
For this world to fall apart
As i’m waiting
For this world to fall apart”
Waiting and watching for the flame to slowly fade into itself. Resigned to only hoping you can hold onto the moments something existed as it slowly disappears.
Cindy Lee finishes the song, says, “Thank you.”
Then exits the stage.
When I walked out of the theater, I was hit with the real world: the biting cold air and snow of Montreal.
You can’t turn back in, no re-entry, Cindy Lee’s hour is over tonight. Just be thankful you got a chance to see it.
Diamond Jubilee isn’t on streaming services, but you can listen to the full album on YouTube or purchase from Bandcamp or Superior Viaduct
