By Jason Gutierrez

Tufts of neon hair and patches of tattooed art piled into Somerville’s Rockwell Theater. Packed risers overflowed onto the venue floor. Voices touched every corner of the small black box theater, lulled at the drop of house lighting, then leapt all at once towards the host of the evening.

“Hi, neighbor.”

Ezra Furman emerged, Narragansett in hand, dressed in cobalt blue. With bodies happily seated on the floor and warmth emanating every corner, she sprinted into the first song as if she could not have willed herself to begin the show one second later. 

Her voice crackled softly, inviting you to caress each syllable then instantaneously jolting to life at the sight of a curious hand. The singer-songwriter’s confidence waxed with the song’s introductory chord and waned as the applause settled.

“Don’t be nervous,” Tufts University graduate cautiously advises the audience, moreso hoping to find courage in hearing the words herself. Although the venture marked her ninth stint at the venue and a return to the neighborhood that hosted her early 20’s, the stage’s lone occupant dons a nervous demeanor.

Although the glaze of the Davis Square venue’s single stage light may never energize the singer-songwriter, she quickly finds home in the audience. Painstakingly personal lyrics and segues are balanced by the musician’s deadpan, off-hand humor; at one point, even bursting into a kitschy tune poking at her Netflix contract and presses Lana Del Rey for a writing credit.

This unique blend of brute musicianship and an understated, potentially unknown, charisma illuminate the dim room. In her ninth outing at the venue, Furman stands firm outside her comfort zone and offers an embellished 90-minute set complete with hard hitting truths sung to her own tune.

Buy tickets to Ezra Furman’s tenth show  at the Rockwell Theater on August 10 at 7:00 p.m.