Live: Zooey Deschanel's Best Role Yet?

She & Him
Webster Hall, New York City
Photos: Dese'Rae L. Stage

As we craned our neck to catch a glimpse of actress-singer Zooey Deschanel inside a packed Webster Hall on Tuesday night, we couldn't help but think, "How many people would be here if these songs weren't being sung by the big sister from Almost Famous?" But while the disarming hyphenate's celebrity is an important and obvious draw, her new album with singer-songwriter M. Ward is a lackadaisical pleasure even without the doe-eyed visuals. As if Deschanel didn't look precious enough in her Southern belle vintage dress, the fact that she couldn't speak in between songs due to illness only added to the show's palpable "aww!" factor.

The quasi-mime act had an odd side effect — as she sang while tentatively shaking her tambourine, beaming randomly and standing stark still during the gig, Deschanel came off like a foreign naif coming to the big city for the first time. This, of course, made She & Him's homespun, country-tinged tunes even more endearing. Her singing voice isn't a technical marvel, but she made the most of it, adding some subtle actorly inflections to help differentiate the sad songs from the bittersweet ones. But Zooey didn't play into her star status on Tuesday with grand gestures; when she broke out a couple short hops to emphasize a particularly hearty groove at one point, the crowd went bonkers. For Deschanel, more is less on stage, too. (Watch the entire show in semi-decent quality on YouTube.)