Photo by Abby Stanicek
On a Friday night at Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom, Rachel Bobbitt confidently takes the stage to “Dreams” by The Cranberries to open for Jesse Jo Stark. In a long, green silk skirt and black ballet flats, she smiles wide as the crowd performs karaoke to The Cranberries’ hit, similar to the cover of the song she recently released. The abrupt end of the song cues the start of Bobbitt’s set, leading the audience to begin cheering as the band appears to position themselves for the first note.
Bobbitt grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada under the guidance of a musically inclined mother and a music-loving dad. Her mom was her first folk influence, singing folk songs and playing piano as Bobbitt watched. Bobbitt’s first stage appearance was in a first-grade talent show singing “When There Was Me and You” from High School Musical. Though nervous, she enjoyed the sensation of people reacting well to her music and felt influenced to continue her performance career. She eventually moved to Toronto to attend Jazz school, where she met her current band.
Bobbitt and her band are a product of the collaborative and welcoming Toronto music scene. The scene prioritizes supporting one another and lifting each other up for their array of talent. Though R&B is the most prominent genre of the scene, Bobbitt aligns herself with the indie-folk collective of the scene. Toronto is home to multiple notable indie folk artists, such as Broken Social Scene. Immersing themselves within the scene, Rachel and her band record her new EP The Half We Still Have at 80A Studios in Toronto. 80A’s chief engineer Phil Holtz provided Bobbitt and her band with the opportunity to experiment with the EP, relieving them of the financial burden that time can often put on recording sessions. “I think we got to experiment a lot more in his studio space, and just do weird shit like turn the amp knobs all the way up to 10 and get a bunch of feedback,” says Bobbitt. The spacious EP showcases the successes of their experiments, containing a consistent connection between strong emotions and instrumentals.
“Two Bit” intensely opens the EP with immense electric guitar and vocals that accurately portray the pain of young relationships, which the lyrics describe in poetic detail. “Marian” follows as an emotional third-person account of problems within a relationship. At the time of writing the song, Bobbitt was reading multiple third-person short stories and became inspired by them. “I think it also was kind of a way for me to deal with my own relationship issues that I potentially wasn’t super ready to face head-on,” says Bobbitt. The track translates to live performance in a stunning manner, allowing the strong emotions behind the song to impact the audience. The performance of the track encourages artistic freedom, as she wrote the song when she felt restricted by the academic environment surrounding her at jazz school.
“The Call is Inside the House” details a difficult familial relationship that is tainted by betrayal. The lyrics beautifully depict the feeling of adjusting your view on someone you’re supposed to love but can’t anymore because of how they’ve treated you. The strong, consistent guitar and drums feel like the pounding heartbeat one can feel in a difficult situation. Live, the chorus bursts open to fill the entire space of the Crystal Ballroom and the heartbeat fades behind the expansive lead guitar from guitarist Justice Der.
Outside of the EP’s tracklist, Bobbitt also plays “More” and “Again.” Bobbitt’s vocals assume a stunning power for the bridge of “Again,” which conjures loud praise from the audience. “More” ends in a raucous burst from the band, including an intense guitar solo from Der and crashing drums from drummer Stephen Bennett. Bobbitt also graces the audience with a phenomenal cover of Fiona Apple’s “Love More.”
Bobbitt strategically places “Clay Feet” last on both the EP tracklist and her setlist. The track examines the ability to fall short of the power dynamics within a relationship due to intense admiration. On a surface level, the song appears as an impassioned love song. Listening with intent to both the lyrics and instrumentation, you’ll find there’s a disparity in power within the relationship Bobbitt sings of. The chest-pounding drums that the live performance took on emulate the intensity of conflicting feelings Bobbitt sings about. Bobbitt also belts “You can make my world as small as you want” with stunning vocals bursting with sentiment. “We all really like playing “Clay Feet,” just because it has such a satisfying build over the course of the song and I feel like we all have our moments of being able to really let go.”
After her set, a group of fans greets Bobbitt and express they came to the Crystal Ballroom just to see her. After discovering she has dedicated listeners in Boston and being able to explore a small section of the city in Davis Square, Bobbitt is eager to return. Fortunately, Bobbitt will be back in town to support Will Butler at Deep Cuts on October 17, 2023.