by Ray Rusinak | Apr 13, 2023
Laura Stevenson at Brooklyn Made (photo by Ray Rusinak)
As hard as it is to believe, Laura Stevenson’s achingly beautiful and personal album, Wheel, is ten years old this year and to celebrate the anniversary of its release, she hit the road on what has become the norm for her and her band, a handful of hit and run weekend mini tours. Last weekend was Boston and New York. This coming weekend is Philly and DC, with a West Coast swing through LA, San Fransisco, Portland and Seattle coming in the last weekend of April, and lastly, a small rust belt jaunt in May where they’ll hit Chicago, Grand Rapids and Pittsburgh.
Even though I was fortunate enough to have caught Laura and her band just last month when she was part of The Screaming Female Garden Party Festival, I am not one to pass on one of her shows, especially a special one to commemorate such an incredible album as Wheel. The show at Brooklyn Made started off with a solo set from Katie Malco, a British singer songwriter whom Stevenson toured the UK with last Fall. Armed with only her upside down Fender Jazzmaster, her wonderful voice, a sharp wit and a handful of terrific tunes, Malco treated the already crowded room to a great opening set.
Following Malco was none other than Kayleigh Goldsworthy whose career I’ve been following since I first saw her some dozen years ago when she popped up on Chuck Ragan’s Revival Tour. Since then I’ve seen her more times than I can count, be it just her and her guitar at a sleazy old man’s dive bar on the Lower East Side or as a support act for Frank Turner or Craig Finn or Dave Hause (who she’s also served as a member of his band, The Mermaid). She’s also played in Frank Iero’s band as well as helping out many of her Philly friends like Petal or Anika Pyle whenever they need vocal, keyboard or fiddle support. But this show at Brooklyn Made was the first time I’d had the opportunity to see her front her own band and the experience did not disappoint in the least. With a band consisting of former members of her first high school band, she ripped through a half hour set of songs mostly from her 2022 LP, Learning To Be Happy.
Kayleigh Goldsworthy at Brooklyn Made
Stevenson and her band took the stage at Brooklyn Made at roughly 10:45 to the absolute delight of the adoring and completely packed room of fans. Not surprisingly, the set commenced with the opening track from Wheel, “Renée,” a song about Stevenson’s love for her step mom. With Goldsworthy providing support on violin along with Shawn Alpay on cello, the song sounded as sweet and as touching as it was meant to.
Stevenson has stated numerous times since the original recording and release of Wheel, the album itself is kind of all over the place stylistically, something which was done intentionally. And although she has expressed issues in the past with the actual sequencing of the album, she pretty much stuck with that same sequencing for much of the show with one change later on in the set. Following the mellow and poignant “Renee” came the bouncy rock and roll number “Triangle,” which despite its upbeat tempo is a rather dark song loosely based on the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire which took place in a sweatshop in lower Manhattan in 1911 and which Stevenson became fixated on while recording the album during a bout of insomnia.
Next up was another rocker, “Runner,” which is the first song from the album which deals directly with Stevenson’s bouts of depression which she has been very vocal and open about throughout her career. Later on in the show she would dedicate “Journey To The Center Of The Earth” to her dad who happened to be there that night. In this introductory dedication she went on to say that she wrote the song while she was holed up in a small apartment in Long Beach, Long Island during a dark period where she would only leave the apartment to go to a nearby Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. One time she left her phone at said Baskin-Robbins and the person who found it called “Dad” to let them know that they had their son or daughter’s phone at the Baskin Robbins in Long Beach.
Stevenson and her band, which includes the aforementioned Goldsworthy and Alpay (who in addition to strings also provided keyboards and guitar) along with Stevenson’s husband Mike Campbell on bass and Sammi Niss on drums ripped through each of Wheel’s songs with the ups and downs, the slow ones and the fast ones performed with the same keen precision as on the album playing the songs with a sense of familiarity and genuine feel for and love of the music.
As I mentioned earlier, there was only one change to the album sequencing, and that was to accommodate Stevenson playing acoustic guitar on “The Hole” and “The Move” back to back without having to switch back and forth with her electric. And I have to say that her fingerpicking on “The Hole” was absolutely fantastic. Not something that we usually see from her, her style and chops were quite wonderful (not to mention Goldsworthy’s terrific fiddle fills).
Laura Stevenson at Brooklyn Made
It was around this point in the evening that she glanced down at the time and gave out a loud yelp, “Oh my god, its 11:30! I haven’t been up this late in I don’t know how long!” To which Campbell gave a triumphant head nod of agreement. She caught that head nod and responded with a quick “I guess we’re not gonna make it to tomorrow’s Easter egg hunt on time” which got quite the laugh from the crowd.
Continuing on with the rest of the album, it was very obvious that the music on Wheel meant quite a lot to Stevenson, as she mentioned many times throughout the evening little vignettes of what she was going through when this or that song was written or recorded. When the band finished up with the final notes of album closer and title track, “Wheel,” I don’t think that anyone in the room would have been disappointed with things if indeed that was the end of the performance, but this was not the case at all as we were treated to another half dozen non Wheel songs, one of which received some of the biggest ovations of the night; “Living Room, NY” from 2019’s The Big Freeze was greeted with a thunderous reaction. That was followed by another Big Freeze song, “Big Deep” to finish off the heartfelt night. And just like that, shortly after midnight on Easter morning Laura Stevenson sauntered off stage and the packed crowd inched their way towards the exits, each and every one of them content and happy with the performance they’d just had the opportunity to witness.
Scroll down for setlist, fan shot videos, pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
Setlist: Renée, Triangle, Runner, Every Tense, Bells & Whistles, Sink Swim, The Hole, The Move, Eleonora, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Telluride, L-DOPA, The Wheel, Moving Cars, State, Caretaker, Tom Sawyer/You Know Where You Can Find Me, Living Room NY, Big Deep
KATIE MALCO
KALEIGH GOLDSWORTHY
LAURA STEVENSON
by Kate Bell | Feb 21, 2023
Screaming Females at White Eagle Hall (photo by Ray Rusinak)
Screaming Females began throwing their annual Garden Party in 2016 at WFMU’s Monty Hall. The two-night affair features some of the best rock/punk/post-punk/indie music that New Jersey (and nearby) has to offer, with the Screamales headlining both nights. The event’s popularity required them to move it down the road to the bigger Jersey City venue, White Eagle Hall, a few years back. (And of course a couple years were lost to the pandemic.) But, this year’s event continued the raucous tradition admirably with Truth Cult, Nina Nastasia, and Armand Hammer on Friday night, followed by Gel, Catbite and Laura Stevenson on Saturday. I was among the enthusiastic revelers the second night this past weekend, and although I traveled from Brooklyn to catch the fun, I definitely got caught up in the Jersey pride vibes.
The NJ hardcore act Gel started out the evening with frenetic intensity, as singer Sami Kaiser growled and bounced all over the stage, the crowd up front moshing away. Gel’s debut album, Only Constant, is coming out on Convulse Records on March 31, and the band will be touring in support of it for the rest of the spring. They certainly started things out right by shaking White Eagle Hall before hitting the road. You can catch them in New York for a pair of shows soon, 4/21 at TV Eye and 4/22 at Saint Vitus.
Philadelphia’s Catbite took the stage next, bringing their super high-energy ska, and the audience shifted from slam-dancing to skanking like crazy. Mid-set, vocalist Brittany Luna demonstrated the band’s signature dance move, which involved making like a pissed off cat scratching toward the ceiling, and suddenly the hall was full of raised “claws.” Catbite too has a busy year of touring ahead and immediately after this show left for an Australian tour. They will then return to the US for some dates (including SXSW), bounce over to Europe, and then come back to the States again where they will head all over the US in the months to come, I’m tired just having typed that! (And yes, they’ll be back in Brooklyn this summer.)
Up third came songstress Laura Stevenson (not originally from New Jersey, but signed to Don Giovanni, so close enough). She quipped that she and new guitarist/bandmate Lily Mastrodimos were going to bring it down a bit, and that they did, with perfect harmonies in a more subdued but beautiful opening. The rest of the band (drummer Samantha Niss and bassist Mike Campbell) quickly joined them on stage after the first verse and chorus, and the rest of the set brought the full range and power of Stevenson’s gorgeous indie folk rock. The audience seemed to appreciate the chance to catch their breath and sway, and Stevenson hypnotized the crowd, demonstrating her prowess as a songwriter and performer.
Laura Stevenson at White Eagle Hall
Last but certainly not least, Screaming Females instantly seized the audience’s attention with “Brass Bell,” the first single from their first album in five years, Desire Pathway. The album was released by Don Giovanni the day of the first show, giving this year’s Garden Party a special celebratory energy.
In addition to showcasing songs from the new release, the Screamales rocked through many older favorites, including “I’ll Make You Sorry,” “Glass House,” and “Black Moon” all from their 2018 double LP All at Once. The adoring crowd went bonkers from the first note, and the crowd-surfing was plentiful, and fittingly, mostly non men. Marissa Paternoster was riveting, as always, shredding through her guitar solos like a woman possessed. Bassist “King Mike” Abbate and drummer Jarrett Dougherty churned out a storm of driving rhythms throughout the set as Paternoster wailed magically above it all like the punk-rock siren she is. The band seemed especially pleased with the audience’s intensity, and Paternoster rewarded the audience by matching their energy with her screams during “Boyfriend” at the end of their set and by letting the fans up front pass around her guitar. (I was elated to strum one of the strings as it drifted by! See below for a video.)
Screaming Females leave this week for an extensive tour of the US, Europe and the UK, but these Jersey heroes know that the Garden State is where their heart is, as this year’s Garden Party more than demonstrated, giving them a perfect send-off. And even though I snuck in from across two rivers, I’m going to make sure that the Garden Party is my annual tradition now too. (If anyone asks, I’ll say I’m from New Brunswick.)
Scroll down for fan shot videos setlist, pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
Laura Stevenson setlist: Living Room NY, Triangle, Don’t Think About Me, State, Torch Song, A Shine To It, Continental Divide, Wretch, Sky Blue Bad News, Jellyfish
Screaming Females setlist: Brass Bell, Black Moon, Beyond The Void, I’ll Make You Sorry, Wishing Well, It All Means Nothing, So Low, Let Me Into Your Heart, Desert Train, Doom 84, Deeply, Boyfriend Encore: Glass House, Fall Asleep
CATBITE
GEL
LAURA STEVENSON
SCREAMING FEMALES
by Ray Rusinak | Dec 21, 2022
Jeff Rosenstock and Laura Stevenson at Bowery Ballroom (photo by Ray Rusinak)
It was November 2019 when Jeff (Rosenstock) and Laura (Stevenson) unexpectedly released an EP of Neil Young covers called Still Young on Polyvinyl Records. At the time, Rosenstock stated that although he’d always considered Young to be an artist that he “should” like, he’d never really spent much time with his catalog. That is until his friend and sometimes collaborator Laura Stevenson encouraged him to do so. The resulting four song EP turned out to prove that Rosenstock’s sometimes scraggly voice was quite well suited to Young’s tunes, and of course Stevenson on the sweeter lead vocals, as well as harmonies, made this an ideal project. Anyway, we got a small glimpse as to what they could do with this material live when the duo did their duets of “Through My Sails” and “Harvest Moon” at Rosenstock’s December 2019 residency at Trans-Pecos.
Subsequently, Rosenstock moved to LA, Stevenson started a family and the world came to a stand still for nearly two years. Then all of a sudden, out of the blue and into the black (bonus points if you see what I did there), the two dropped a second EP of Young covers to the complete surprise of their fans. Younger Still arrived on streaming services in November of this year and with it, news of an impending limited run tour was announced. Hitting select cities on the West Coast first, then the Midwest and finally the North East, Rosenstock and Stevenson planned to do a duets tour combining the Young material along with individual solo nuggets from each of their catalogs.
The shows in LA, San Francisco and Joshua Tree went off perfectly only to have Stevenson subsequently come down with Covid and the Midwest portion of the tour having to be postponed. (Those dates have since been rescheduled for February.) Fortunately though, last weekend’s North East segment of the tour went off without a hitch, playing Boston, NY, Philly and Woodstock on consecutive nights. On this leg they were joined by opening act Gladie.
Speaking of Gladie, their opening set was a perfect prelude for Rosenstock and Stevenson. They released their second LP Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out last month and if you haven’t heard it yet, what are you waiting for? It’s fantastic. Augusta Koch and Matt Schimelfenig have hit it out of the park with this on; It’ll most certainly be in my 2022 top 10 for the year. Joined on stage on bass for this show was Koch’s friend and former bandmate in Cayetana, Allegra Anka. After opening up their set with “When You Leave The Sun” from 2020’s debut LP Safe Sins, Koch and the rest of Gladie ripped through a healthy dose of material off of the new one culminating with a rocking hard version of “Born Yesterday.” I’ve had the pleasure to catch Gladie a handful of times this year and their progression as a unit is mind blowing. By all means you all should be paying attention to this band.
Gladie
After a brief break between sets (which saw Rosenstock and Stevenson doing their own setup on stage), the two came out to the walk up sounds of South Park’s Eric Cartman’s rousing rendition of “O Holy Night.” Following some tuning and a little back and forth banter, the two started things up with what I find to be the most interesting of their Neil Young covers. (Full disclosure…I am a full on Neil geek. I consider him amongst the Pantheon of songwriters, so I am by no means objective when it comes to his body of work). “Razor Love” is a relatively obscure lilting love tome from Young’s 2000 release Silver and Gold. With the opening drum machine beats and Rosenstock’s strained upper register on the opening verse followed by Stevenson’s gorgeous harmonies on the chorus, it was very clear from the get go that we were in for quite a treat.
Without missing a beat, the pair went right into “Comes A Time,” the same segue which they use on the EP. Picking the vibe of the room up at least a notch, by the time the first chorus of “oh this old world keeps spinning ‘round” kicks in, the entire venue was singing along. Now, for anyone who’s ever been to a Rosenstock show, the crowd singing along to every word should come as no surprise. But this was a Neil Young song being serenaded back, not Rosenstock’s own lyrics. Not only that, but this song was clearly written and originally released years before most of this crowd was even a glimmer in their parent’s eyes. So that was pretty cool. By the way, Stevenson absolutely NAILED the original vocal harmonies which were initially sung by Nicolette Larson on Neil’s Comes A Time album. (I warned you about my Neil geekiness.)
Jeff Rosenstock
Next up we would get Rosenstock’s “9/10,” his “classic” from 2018’s POST–, with its love song lament of riding the subway stoned “thinking of you.” Of course Stevenson sang on the original album version so no surprises there as to her harmonies. She would then pull one out of the deep cuts bag of tricks with “A Shine To It” off of her 2010 album, thoughtfully called A Record. The duo would follow this recipe of doing two Neil tunes followed by a Jeff song and a Laura song, rinse and repeat. Ultimately we would get to hear all eight of the songs from the two Neil Young EPs.
I would also be totally remiss if I didn’t bring up the stage banter that would persist throughout the evening. Stage banter which I can honestly say was almost as entertaining and important to the overall show as the actual music itself. This duo has known each other for a very long time after all, going back to their teenage years in Long Island. They know and appreciate each other as only life long friends can. The back and forth between them throughout the evening was oftentimes hilarious. It was slapstick comedy right out of the Burns and Allen mold to the point I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if they closed the evening off with Jeff calling across the stage to Laura, ‘Say good night Laura.” For those of you who don’t know who or what I’m talking about, Google that shit.
Laura Stevenson
The main set would conclude with a couple of vintage Young tunes from the mid 70’s, “Through My Sails” from Zuma and the epic “Ambulance Blues” from On The Beach. Upon leaving the stage the crowd immediately began chanting like it normally would at a sporting event. Except in this case instead of “LET’S GO SO AND SO!” it was “HEALTHY BABY!” a reference to a comment that Stevenson had made earlier in the show that after all of them (herself, husband and baby) having Covid, they were all healthy now. Nonetheless, this chant brought the duo out again pretty quickly, both with embarrassed smiles plastered to their faces.
And the adoring crowd were treated to a two song encore which I’m not sure anyone would have guessed. First up it was a blast from the past with Bomb The Music Industry’s “Wednesday Night Drinkball” followed by “Rockin’ In The Free World” which just might be one of the most perfect encore closers ever written. It was also the only Neil Young tune performed which was not part of either of the EPs. All in all what a wonderful evening of true friendship, fantastic camaraderie, funny rambling banter and most of all, beautiful music.
Scroll down for setlist, fan shot vids, pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
Setlist: Razor Love*, Comes A Time*, 9/10+, A Shine To It^, After the Gold Rush*, Hey Babe*, Living Room NY^, The Beauty of Breathing+, Harvest Moon*, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere*, Emily In Half^, All Ages Shows%, Through My Sails*, Ambulance Blues* Encore: Wednesday Night Drinkball%, Rocking’ In the Free World*
*Neil Young cover
+Jeff Rosenstock original
^Laura Stevenson original
% Bomb The Music Industry! original
From Philly 12/17/22
GLADIE
JEFF ROSENSTOCK & LAURA STEVENSON
by Ray Rusinak | Oct 20, 2021
Laura Stevenson at Music Hall of Williamsburg (photo by Ray Rusinak)
The last time I saw Laura Stevenson, she was very pregnant and the world had not yet been turned upside down. Back in December of 2019, I got to see her and her band at Jersey City’s Monty Hall. A week later, I was fortunate enough to be at Jeff Rosenstock’s Monday night residency at Trans-Pecos and Stevenson came out to do a couple of songs from her and Rosenstock’s Neil Young covers EP, Still Young. Well we all know what has transpired since then. So let’s fast forward to August 2021 and the release of her eponymous album, Laura Stevenson, which I quite honestly feel is currently my favorite album of the year.
Fast forward yet again to October 2021 and Stevenson and her band kicked off a mini tour of the Northeast, playing shows in Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and DC (which was as an opener for Lucy Dacus). As an added bonus the opener for the headlining shows was Anika Pyle, who you might know from her days with Chumped, or maybe her band Katy Ellen or maybe her other side project Sheena, Anika, and Augusta. Regardless, this was clearly going to be one of those double bills made for the ages, one where either band would be worth the price of admission all by themselves.
Music Hall of Williamsburg had two shows on Saturday night so it turned out that Stevenson’s show was early. Fine by me as I had an early work morning on Sunday anyway. Taking the stage at 7 PM sharp, Anika Pyle was joined by fellow Philadelphians, Kayleigh Goldsworthy on background harmonies and fiddle (yeah, the same Kayleigh Goldsworthy I’d seen with Frank Turner recently). Also joining in was Kiley Lotz AKA Petal on vocals and keys with Zack Robbins of Dark Mountain rounding out the band on drums and synths. Pyle and her friends kicked the night off with a poignant version of “Wild River,” from her album of the same name which she released earlier in the year. The rest of the set was primarily songs from Wild River, save for a new one called “The Way You Looked At Me,” and a cover of Kasey Musgraves’ “Space Cowboy.”
About three quarters of the way through her set, Pyle paused to explain that this evening marked the two year anniversary of the passing of her father. She then explained a little back story as to her dad’s life, warts as well as triumphs, and followed with the spoken word tribute to him off of Wild River, “Mexican Restaurant, Where I Last Saw My Father.” Hands down, this was the most emotional, gut wrenching moment of the night. At its conclusion, a visibly shaken Pyle looked at each of her bandmates, or rather each of her friends, and each and every one returned THAT look where you know its going to be OK, we’ve got your back.
One might have wondered how you follow a set like that which was overflowing with raw emotion, but truth be told, Laura Stevenson and her band came out plain and simply kicked ass. Opening up with the first single off of Laura Stevenson, the most un-Laura-like “State.” Followed by “Master Of Art ” from Sit Resist, the classic Laura Stevenson and The Cans LP from 2011 which received a 10 year anniversary repackaging last year from Don Giovani Records. From here the band dove into a rollicking version of “Torch Song,” from Stevenson’s 2015 masterpiece Cocksure, with everyone in the room singing along to the “Test me” chorus. Followed by two from the new one, “Sky Blue, Bad News,” and “Wrench”, it was clear that Stevenson and the band were having a blast up on stage. She jokingly introduced “Halloween Pts 1 & 2” as a seasonal song before telling the crowd that her and bassist Mike Campbell’s little girl was going to be Chucky for Halloween this year.
At this point, the band left the stage to allow Stevenson to sing a couple of songs solo. It was then that she played the first song of the night from 2019’s Big Freeze, “Value Inn.” While on stage by herself she then invited old friend, regular collaborator, and current LA resident Jeff Rosenstock out to help her sing along to Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” (another “seasonal” song) from the duo’s aforementioned EP Still Young. If you were to have told me ahead of time that Jeff would come out to join in on a song and it wasn’t the high point of the set, I’d have said that you were crazy. But I mean no disrespect to Laura & Jeff’s version of “Harvest Moon,” it was in fact fantastic, but the rest of her set was just THAT good. Finishing out the balance of the set with “Living Room, NY, “Continental Divide,” (my favorite track on my favorite album by the way), “Jellyfish,” and “8:08.”
The evening’s surprises weren’t quite over just yet however, as guitarist Peter Naddeo came back onstage after the encore break, trumpet in hand for a gorgeous version of “The Wheel,” and then a show stopping, hip shaking, hands clapping, word shouting finale, “Dermatillomania,” from The Big Freeze album. What a night…I couldn’t have asked for more. And boy am I stoked that I get to do it again this weekend in Philly.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
ANIKA PYLE
LAURA STEVENSON
