Last Friday, the atmosphere at The Lilypad had a palpable camaraderie. Though this concert was promoting the release of Kathy Snax’s debut EP, The Spooks, the small venue was packed early on with encouraging supporters for openers Spenser Gralla and Love Strangers too. The full house alternated between cozy intimacy and jubilant celebration.
Spenser Gralla kicked off the night on his acoustic-electric guitar with songs about global warming and love, sporting a look from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Love Strangers, represented only by Ryan Major and Ashley Holzwasser that night, followed with a stripped down set. They affectionately abbreviated the name of their duo to “LSD” (Love Strangers Duo). Even as a band of two, Love Strangers captures the sound of The Black Keys meeting Johnny Cash and The Velvet Underground. Major sported his usual acoustic guitar and harmonica, but Holzwasser was excited to take over snare drum duty in addition to her tamborine flourishes. When a heckler yelled, “Drums are great!” Holzwasser revealed it was the band’s drummer, Travis Hagan. She retorted, “I’m doing your job.”
The duo’s jaunty tunes “Pillowtalk” and “Yours for a Song” matched their playful banter, engaging with the audience and each other. Midway through the set, Gralla offered his jean shirt to replace the term papers that had been muffling the snare, and the audience shouted, “Release the documents!” From there, LSD covered White Stripes’ “Hotel Yorba” and Nancy Sinatra’s “Summer Wine,” with renewed youthful vigor, but they self-deprecatingly said they were probably carbon dating themselves—to which Hagan replied, “I’d carbon date you!”
The crowd ebbed even closer to the performance area when Kathy Snax and “the Snacks” set up their keyboards and other musical accoutrements. Kathleen Mahoney’s quiet, smiling charisma had a magnetizing effect. While she took up the main keyboard and synth machine, Caufield Schnug of Mini Dresses (who helped Mahoney record and produce the EP) swiveled between backup keyboard, guitar, and drums. Meanwhile, Lucy Nadeau of The Furniture rounded out their sound with the bass and backup vocals, which helped recreate the echoey atmosphere heard on the EP. Kathy Snax’s overall sound is a cross between the haunting melodies of Half Waif or Photocomfort paired with the understated vocal effects of Palehound or Chastity Belt. The Spooks sits comfortably between bedroom pop and synth pop. At first listen, the instrumentals are deceptively simple. But upon further examination, listeners can hear how all of the instrumentals are carefully layered to spotlight each spooky sound before launching into the lyrics.
The band played the EP in its entirety, with the single “Riding Away” already emerging as a crowd favorite. Kathy Snax had only written her first two songs this past January as one-offs, but now ten months and one EP later, she shows no signs of slowing down. She already had a new song to debut at the this record release which fit snugly into the Kathy Snax pathos. On a surface level, all of her songs evoke common themes such as reflecting on past relationships and moving on to brighter futures. But when you consider the ethereal instrumentals and what else might give a listener “the spooks,” the lyrics take on a new meaning of trying to connect with someone beyond the grave. By the end of the tight set, the audience was begging for one more song. Mahoney bashfully asked for the house music to be turned back on, but we’ll certainly be hearing more from her soon.
See below for photos from the show (in order: Kathy Snax, Love Strangers, Spenser Gralla)