Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

“Why have a double bill if you don’t sing together?” No one was left asking the last time the Indigo Girls were in town. In 2021, the duo delivered one of the best shows of the summer, on tour with Ani DiFranco. At the end of the closing set, the icons paired up to cover the late John Prine’s “Angel fromMontgomery” before launching into their own songs: DiFranco’s version of “Which Side Are You On?,” Amy Ray’s solo track “Tear It Down,” and finally the Girls’ anthemic “Closer to Fine.” A “PINCH-ME” YEAR All of which probably explains how the Indigo Girls have remained culturally relevant in an ever-changing cultur- al landscape. While they never quite reached the superstar status of other 1990s bands (a fate that has something to do with a toxic mix of sexism and ho- mophobia), not many other bands from that era have the Girls’ staying power. Indeed, 2023 was something of a phe- nomenon for them—a year when music mixed with movies, creating a sur- prising pop-culture moment in which everything was coming up Indigo. Two of the projects were long planned: an acclaimed documentary about their career, Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All , and a jukebox-musical film, Glitter and Doom , with an all-In- digo Girls soundtrack. The third leg in this delightful trifecta is, of course, Barbie , which used “Closer to Fine” as a yearning leitmotif for Margot Robbie’s eponymous protagonist. Director Alexandria Bombach’s documentary smartly tells the story of Ray and Saliers within the context of the culture they both fought against and slyly influenced. It’s Only Life After All includes fascinating tales from their early days, including how the late John Blizzard, the owner of Atlanta’s Little Five Points Pub, helped incubate their career in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, they grappled with sexism on all fronts, from the sound techs who dismissed their audio knowledge to the rock crit- ics who, as Ray notes, could somehow understand complexity when it came from Rage Against the Machine but not from the Indigo Girls. Meanwhile, the art-house gay romance Glitter and Doom received mixed reviews, but critics managed to agree that director (and former Chi- cagoan) Tom Gustafson nailed at least “ The fact that people are still willing to jump up and sing along, it’s a positive feedback loop . ” one element: He made excellent use of the Indigo Girls catalog, including some intriguing mashups, like blending the upbeat “Closer to Fine” with the moody ballad “Everything In Its Own Time.” Ray speaks of the experience with enthusiasm. “The script they sent us was really good, with really specific examples of how they’d weave the songs together and change them into something new,” she says. “That’s really what made me the most excited about it. The characters are colorful and queer; it felt like a good project to participate in.” Of course, both of those films seem like footnotes when compared to the cultural juggernaut of director Greta Gerwig’s feminist comedy, which won rave reviews and conquered the box office last summer. Amid a soundtrack RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 5 – AUGUST 18, 2024 8 PREVIOUSSPREAD:JEREMYCOWART THISPAGE:DANPIOTROWSKI/RAVINIA