Live: Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward a/k/a She & Him

She & Him
Webster Hall
April 22
photos by Gabi Porter

It's not Her and Him or She and He, it's She & Him—meanwhile, You and Me are confused. She is actress Zooey Deschanel, big sister to the Cameron Crowe figure in Almost Famous, department-store love interest to Will Farrell in Elf, thick-banged haircut model to all of womanly Williamsburg. Him is M. (nee Matt) Ward, a finger-pickin' Fats Waller Friend of Conor Oberst who's gone from hiding uncomfortably behind a manfro and baseball hat to showing up beaming onstage with a Parker Posey's descendent. You and Me would think She would be the reason that when they played South by Southwest on Friday night (the beer-bottle-as-slide-guitar incident) was 80-badges deep. But down there, curious passerbys kept asking, "Is this where M. Ward's playing?"

Likely not the case in New York, where they played their first local show ever last night at Webster Hall. They'd previously been scheduled for two nights at the Hiro Ballroom, but the first night got canceled for sickness—apparently Zooey lost her speaking voice. Last night, she was still unable to talk, but communicated with the audience with big cue card messages and reportedly sang with alacrity. As photographer Gabi Porter gushes, "despite not speaking to us [she] charmed the whole crowd anyway."